Do you have confidence in your self as a learner?
Or do you often find yourself thinking "learning is hard. It’s boring. I’m not really smart enough, and I’m not really interested in this subject."
You can actually change the way you feel about learning with visualization techniques.
If your old mental tapes are holding you back, you can use visualization techniques to fill your mind with more positive programming. You can try the visualization technique presented below, but feel free to develop your own techniques for reprogramming your ideas about yourself.
After all, you are in charge of your mind and your brain and the thoughts you are thinking.
Your mind more easily absorbs positive messages when you are in a deeply relaxed state of body and mind. To achieve this state, sit or lie comfortably in a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Notice your breathing. Relax your body and focus your attention on your breath. Start to breathe freely and deeply, in a relaxed manner.
You can also use different meditation techniques to get your mind into a more relaxed state where it will be easier to accept a new, positive message.
When a negative scenario plays itself out in your mind, notice how it appears. Does the scene appear in black and white, or is it in color? Is it near or far? Does it seem to be on a screen, or is it three dimensional? Are there voices? Are they threatening? Humiliating?
How do you appear in the scene--are you large, or small? Do you seem powerful? Or weak?
Once you are familiar with the details of your negative imaginings, become the director of your own inner movie. If you are seeing a negative experience in color, change it to black and white, or make it transparent. If the negative image is close, make it go far away.
If the negative image is three-dimensional, make it two-dimensional. If there are voices you don’t want to hear, make them quiet, or turn them into funny cartoon voices that sound silly. Play circus music in the background to drown out the words of people you don’t want to hear.
If other people in your scenes seem very threatening to you, shrink them in size or make them into cartoon characters. Imagine yourself growing very, very large and solid, much bigger than the people who have been putting you down.
If you have been reliving an unpleasant scene as if you are actually participating in it with the action all around you, change it so it takes place on a screen that you are viewing from a distance.
That way it will have less emotional impact on you. Bleach out the colors, or turn them to black and white. Turn down the sound. Then make the screen smaller and mentally whoosh it away.
Now, replace the visualizations that you don’t want with visualizations that you do want. Imagine scenes of yourself being happy, relaxed and confident. See yourself learning easily, understanding deeply, getting excellent marks on your tests.
Strongly feel within yourself the satisfaction, confidence, and pride you would have. See it, feel it, right now, in the present, as a part of you.
When you have imagined yourself in a scene that fills you with positive confidence, you can view it on a screen, or imagine yourself right in the middle of the scene, taking place all around you. Intensify the colors, and your positive feelings.
Anytime you have a few minutes, recreate these positive imagined scenes. Do this as many times a day as you can, until you always think of yourself as a smart, capable learner!
This article was written by learning expert Royane Real. You can get many more techniques to develop your learning skills in her new report Your Quick Guide to Improving Your Learning Ability .
