 Over the many years of teaching, we have noticed four stages of learning that students go through when faced with new information. These stages are based solely on our observation and time spent in yoga rooms around the world. They are also based on how we have personally reacted when faced with a new approach.
In this blog series, we will outline what we have noticed both in our students and in our own experience learning new, and sometimes challenging, information. Here is the fourth blog in this series. We have reached the final stage of learning. We have shown up to a learning situation, taken in a new piece of knowledge, realized that the new knowledge conflicts with what we have believed. To cope, we have tried to fit the new knowledge into our mind without giving up our previously held beliefs. But we are stuck. We can't fit the old and new together. There is still conflict. They just don't go together. So now what? Stage four is: The Crack. Stage four is when we crack open and become ready (or not) to learn and grow. The Crack gives us three options for a path forward. Option one is rejection. We can decide that it's simply too much to learn something new and we're more comfortable with our previous belief, even if that belief is not true. We may just decide to double down on what we have thought and stay there. It's comfortable and safe. This is a valid choice because it's simple, but sadly, it often leaves us with mistaken beliefs that we think are knowledge. We might be comfortable, but we're probably wrong in what we think we know. Option two is anger. We can accept what we are learning, but become upset that we're learning something new. We may think things like, "Why didn't I know this before...??" or "I've spent a decade doing it wrong.... ugh!" or "Why did no one tell me this?....". This can be really frustrating and can often leave us in a state where we're just fed up with the whole process. We become be angry at where we have found ourselves. This makes sense, because learning isn't easy. It takes opening our minds which is challenging to the structures our mind has created. But we have another option once The Crack starts. Option three is enthusiasm. We can learn something new and become inspired once again! We can take this opportunity to realize how much there is to learn and how exciting that is! If we can learn one thing new and see the practice in a new light, imagine how many other things we can learn that will lead our practice to evolve even more? When we learn something new we should try to be enthusiastic, not just for the new knowledge, but for learning at large. The practice never ends. The learning never ends. For that we can be grateful and enthusiastic in our search for what else is out there.
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 Over the many years of teaching, we have noticed four stages of learning that students go through when faced with new information. These stages are based solely on our observation and time spent in yoga rooms around the world. They are also based on how we have personally reacted when faced with a new approach.
In this blog series, we will outline what we have noticed both in our students and in our own experience learning new, and sometimes challenging, information. Here is the third blog in this series. The third stage of learning is bargaining. We have successfully heard something new, and we have begun to see how it conflicts with a belief we have been holding. We have managed to parse the details and have located the very place where there is conflict in our minds between what we previously thought and what we are learning now. Now what? Now is the bargaining phase. This is where we think things like, "Maybe this is just a different approach..." or "Maybe both of these facts are true...." or "Maybe the teacher I learned from really meant this but just explained it differently....". This is where the questions become how to integrate what we are learning into what we already learned. This is a normal response, however this is not the best approach. Sometimes we learn something new that needs to replace what we learned previously. It is not a matter of integrating the two pieces of understanding together, it is a matter of replacing what we know with the better piece of knowledge. It is true that there are infinite beliefs. But belief is not the same as knowledge: knowledge requires truth and does not require belief. Here we need to figure out what is our belief and what is true knowledge. This is another challenging stage of learning because we once again push up against what we think we know and even, who we think we are. Humans tend to hold their beliefs so close that we mistake our beliefs for the self. In this stage of learning, we can often feel that our very identity is under conflict. This gives us three options.... Next time in stage four of learning: The Crack. |
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Scott & Ida are Yoga Acharyas (Masters of Yoga). They are scholars as well as practitioners of yogic postures, breath control and meditation. They are the head teachers of Ghosh Yoga.
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