Revel as you meander, newbies !

Last Update: September 08, 2010

Today I  read Barbara's  inspiring blog post at  bkb2012.  Thanks Barbara!

The meandering stage, she calls it. 

I say revel in the meandering, newbies!  In my own experience,  it was an essential stage in recovering from the overwhelmed I-am-new-at-WA stage that I plowed thru with such blind faith. After working thru most of this challenging first stage  I became able  to meander, and that's when I realized I was changing.  

Here's how it went .   There I was, still plowing along with basic material in WA, still feeling glassy-eyed, still reading stuff several times over and hoping it would stick---------------and then one day WOW, something I was reading reminded me of something I had studied a few days before !  I was making links :-)  actual links in my mind :-)

I went back and forth ....I would feel overwhelmed again and had to remind myself that this is part of the learning curve.  I had just seen a glimmer of daylight so I knew more light was coming.  It was really important for me to hold firm in those moments. I had to believe (blind faith time again) that this was not just a glimmer that would disappear. With persistence, more light would come. A whole bunch of people had done this successfully before me, and I am joining in with them. I will not give up.  I will succeed. And I will  succeed really well. 

Barbara's post reminded me of something  I did right from the start.  I bookmarked a bunch of tutorials etc. as I read them, with the funny feeling that I didn't really understand them well enough yet to actually use them...but that I would later on...

...so I went back  when the vocabulary was making sense and my mind was beginning to build  links.  What a gold mine!  Bookmarking as a newbie and returning later is a great practice.

 I wandered around, happy as a child playing with a new toy on the beach.

HERE'S THE KEY TO WHAT WAS HAPPENING. True, I got a whole new bunch of info linked together in  my head and I could begin to use it.  Excellent in itself. Far more importantly though...

MY MIND WAS ACTUALLY CHANGING.  I was developing new capacities within myself and they had become mine. Actually mine!

IT IS WITH THAT AWARENESS THAT I LET MYSELF MEANDER.  I look at my  mind as it changes, from multiple perspectives.  One is, I have  been a physician my whole adult life,  a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst for adults and for kids. I love participating in the process of growth/change.  I think  the neurons take awhile to form new links. I think "sleeping on"  a problem often moves you toward a solution, especially if you form the intent before you go to sleep. And I think that the relaxed-while-awake state of meandering is valuable to us human beings..and yup.......sure enough...

THE MEANDERING ACTUALLY HELPED ME.  That glassy-eyed overwhelmed feeling went away. I relaxed. I got excited. I realized I can do this IM stuff.

SO NOW I CAN FOCUS SO MUCH BETTER.   These days  when I open my computer, there's that delight of anticipation.   I come at it with a clearer mind. I am the same woman I was, but I'm not........What will discover today ???What will I put to use??? What will I create that is  new???

NOW I CAN DEVELOP MY FOCUSING CAPACITIES .  Like other capacities, gotta work at them in ways that help. There's some basic practices I follow, that bring me cool results .  There's others I know I can do better at, and doing them  will be worth it,   and a bunch more to discover as I go along...

THAT'S ANOTHER BLOG POST for another day soon. Maybe more than one.  This can be useful fun. 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 



 



 



 



 

 

 

 

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jatdebeaune Premium
So beautifully described, Diane. I identify with everything you said. I am feeling and have felt exactly the same things. Isn't it exciting when everything starts clicking, and you realize that you yourself have changed? You actually feel boulders in your brain being moved around. To me, it's like waking up on another planet. IM has taught me to be more analytical. I am mostly an intuitive and as a designer, used to operating from another part of my brain. When you can combine the skilled analytical process and the intuitive, how fun is that going to be? I didn't know that you are a psychiatrist. I know you are a doctor. You can view everything from that very interesting perspective. Are you still practicing?
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