Speed Reading Insights
Speed Reading workshops from the Center for Lifelong Learning give people the skills to read at thousands of works per minute with outstanding comprehension. Acquiring these skills take some practice and the attainment of these skills brings up lots of interesting issues . . .
Friday, July 10, 2020
Monday, September 22, 2014
Don't Give Up!
Hello Speed Readers,
By now, some of you are in the flow
of the Speed Reading process and digesting books, articles, reports, and
websites easily. Others of you are still wrestling with your conditioned
expectations and working on getting used to how different it feels to learn
this new way. Be patient, it will happen for you if you let it.
Still others of you will have hit a
roadblock and may not have practiced for quite some time. For you, these well
intentioned emails may represent guilt and even shame that you aren't where
others are. It is important to realize that there is nothing wrong with you or
the process. One cannot underestimate the power of decades of conditioning that
makes you want to do things the way you always have. In fact, the process may
actually be working but your brain is really good at trying to convince you
that it doesn't!
Some of you may just not have had
the time to practice or there have just been too many distractions to get
going. Now some of that resistance is real while the rest is that conditioned
part of your brain again, which is really good at coming up with excuses. But
whatever the reason you may have stalled, here are some ideas to get you back
on track.
1.
Don't be afraid or discouraged
I
talked about this in a previous post. The late Gabriel Roth who was an amazing author,
dancer, and musician, said, "I find that virtually everyone is locked in
fear; people are afraid of everything - losing their job, losing their lover,
losing their life; they're afraid of success, afraid of being too happy, afraid
of the truth, afraid of feeling, afraid of moving, of changing." Unreleased
fear stiffens the jaw, contracts the forehead and locks the knees. And it
stifles learning, keeps us from enjoying our work, and sabotages relationships.
Roth
says, "Fear writes its signature all over the body, but we are all so used
to it we've become desensitized to the loud-and-clear message of our body
language. And this pervasive fear simply compounds itself; it paralyzes our
life energy, seizes up our feelings. We're so afraid of what we are going to
lose, so painfully attached to what we have, that we numb ourselves into a living
death to shield us from the pain of real living. By clinging to life as we have
it, we deny ourselves a vibrant present and future."
Fear
keeps us from learning new things, even those things that could change our
lives.
When
the immobilizing energy of unexpressed fear is released, fear can be
transformed into what Roth calls its "natural dynamic partner,"
excitement. When we give appropriate attention and expression to our fears as
they arise, then the pent up energy and the paralysis can be released. Roth
says, "Fear properly channeled yields wide-awake engagement."
Experiment
with this. Look at your own fear response. Is it in proper proportion to the
circumstances? Are you adequately and appropriately expressing your fears? Are
you afraid of those things that could actually help you?
When
learning something new and you feel that familiar resistance or hesitance,
always ask yourself: "Really now! What harm could it do to try?!"
2.
Start up again.
If it has been some
time since you practiced, go to the Audio Tips section of the website and
listen to the very first audio - "Getting
Back on Track." This gives you a quick review.
3.
Review
your PowerPoint
charts from the class.
4.
Now - Grab a book
or article and JUST DO IT!
There is no mystery
or trick to this. The only obstacles you feel, the only resistances you
encounter, is solely based on the conditioned fear response you have built up
to change and transformation. It's not your fault! Most of us experience the
same thing, since so many of us have had uninspiring schooling that, at an
early age, helped make us resistant to learning new things. And you have used
an inefficient system for reading for so many years that it is hard for your
conditioned mind to let it go. But you absolutely can do this. You have the
power within you to create any life you want.
5.
Keep practicing all
the steps of the process with everything you read.
Remember, you can call or write me anytime for advice and if it has
been less than 5 years since you have taken the class, you can take it again
for FREE!
Apply these principles to anything in your life you want to
accomplish. There need be no limits on your dreams. Go for it!
Jackie
Jackie
Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
President, Center for Lifelong Learning
PO Box 77316 | Seattle, WA 98177 | USA
Cell: (206) 755-9272
FAX: (206) 494-7689
jackie@readfast.org
http://www.readfast.org
President, Center for Lifelong Learning
PO Box 77316 | Seattle, WA 98177 | USA
Cell: (206) 755-9272
FAX: (206) 494-7689
jackie@readfast.org
http://www.readfast.org
Saturday, September 20, 2014
There is really nothing to be afraid of
Hello Speed Reader or Soon-to-be Speed Reader,
A student in the speed reading
workshop this past weekend said after our notetaking discussion that she felt
like her head would explode if she took notes in this very different new way! I
told her that it was quite unlikely that her head would explode under any
circumstances and that she really didn't have anything to fear. She didn't seem
convinced. I noticed that during the reading and notetaking exercise that
followed, she drew her note taking line down the middle of her page, not
diagonally across the page as instructed.
The power of the conditioning in our lives
is so strong that many folks have very irrational fears about learning
something new. What harm would it have done to do it our way for a few minutes,
just to try out a process that presidents and world leaders and millions of
other people have tried? Conditioning breeds fear. Fear of trying something
different, fear of doing something unfamiliar. Even though her old notetaking
and reading methods weren't very good, I suspect that doing something familiar
felt safer.
Gabrielle Roth, author of the
book "Maps to Ecstasy," says,
"Fear is a vitally useful
emotion. It places you on alert, catalyzes your senses, and heightens your
awareness in the face of danger. Fear is your friend, the radar for your voyage
through life. It is a basic instinct of human survival - physical,
psychological, spiritual. We need to have an acute sense of what threatens our
well-being."
Unfortunately, the way our lives unfold, we
often don't fully acknowledge our fears and then we then become afraid of even
those things that could help us. Roth says, "I find that virtually
everyone is locked in fear; people are afraid of everything - losing their job,
losing their lover, losing their life; they're afraid of success, afraid of
being too happy, afraid of the truth, afraid of feeling, afraid of moving, of
changing."
How many of us have experienced the
tightening of the throat, neck, and lower back that accompanies an unreleased
fear? Unreleased fear stiffens the jaw, contracts the forehead and locks the
knees. And it stifles learning, keeps us from enjoying our work, and sabotages
relationships.
Roth says, "Fear writes its signature
all over the body, but we are all so used to it we've become desensitized to
the loud-and-clear message of our body language. And this pervasive fear simply
compounds itself; it paralyzes our life energy, seizes up our feelings. We're
so afraid of what we are going to lose, so painfully attached to what we have,
that we numb ourselves into a living death to shield us from the pain of real
living. By clinging to life as we have it, we deny ourselves a vibrant present
and future."
When the immobilizing energy of unexpressed
fear is released, fear can be transformed into what Roth calls its
"natural dynamic partner," excitement. When we give appropriate
attention and expression to our fears as they arise, then the pent up energy
and the paralysis can be released. Roth says, "Fear properly channeled
yields wide-awake
engagement."
What if everyone was wide-awake and
engaged? If this happened, the face of the world - and our lives - would change
overnight.
If we were wide-awake and engaged, we would
have no fear of new things. We would learn everything and not fear that our
views and beliefs were being threatened.
If we were wide-awake and engaged, we would
enjoy our jobs, whatever they were, and see the bigger picture of who we serve
in those roles. A welder can be proud of his/her work. Without it, big things
fall down! A proud welder knows the weld is like a signature. An auto mechanic
keeps the world moving and can do things for people that a nuclear physicist
can't!
If we were wide-awake and engaged, we would
welcome those things that challenge our beliefs and the assumptions that we
have made about how the world works. We would welcome criticism and always be
looking for a new way to accomplish our goals and live harmoniously in the
world.
If we were wide-awake and engaged, we
wouldn't worry so much about always trying to do things that were in our
comfort zone. We would stretch, grow, and learn with ease, not shying away from
temporary frustration. In fact, we would welcome feelings of frustration, since
that would mean we are learning something new!
If we were wide-awake and engaged and
walked through the world with well-managed fear, we would love more freely,
give more readily, and embrace the iconic principle of "do no harm."
Experiment with this. Look at your own fear
response. Is it in proper proportion to the circumstances? Are you adequately
and appropriately expressing your fears? Are you afraid of those things that
could actually help you?
When learning something new and you feel
that familiar resistance or hesitance, always ask yourself: "Really now!
What harm could it do to try?!"
Let
us help you make it happen.
Jackie
President, Center for Lifelong Learning
PO Box 77316 | Seattle, WA 98177 | USA
Cell: (206) 755-9272
Sunday, July 20, 2014
I
sometimes get email from folks who have been practicing their speed
reading techniques, yet they still don't feel it is happening for them.
After talking to them, quite often I find that they are actually doing
just fine, but their new reading experience is so different from what
they are used to that they think they aren't getting it. But they are!
I recently got an email from a student one month after he took the class. Here is what he wrote:
Dr. Jackie,
I just want to say thank you! I came to your seminar last month skeptical but hopeful. I have been practicing regularly for 30 days with mostly textbooks and non-fiction reading and while I have by no means mastered the process, I have seen a dramatic increase in the speed and efficiency at which I read and take in information. I am so excited! I look forward to getting long reading assignments from my professors. I have noticed that I have become even more motivated than I already was to learn more, faster and better.
I just want to say thank you! I came to your seminar last month skeptical but hopeful. I have been practicing regularly for 30 days with mostly textbooks and non-fiction reading and while I have by no means mastered the process, I have seen a dramatic increase in the speed and efficiency at which I read and take in information. I am so excited! I look forward to getting long reading assignments from my professors. I have noticed that I have become even more motivated than I already was to learn more, faster and better.
At
first it was very difficult to make myself use the techniques and it
was becoming extremely frustrating. But I stuck to my guns and last week
I had a breakthrough. I used the technique to read my psychology
textbook and when I finished I was certain I had not retained anything.
But I went on to do my assignments and I was shocked, absolutely amazed,
when I only needed to refer back to my notes for minor information.
I
just wanted share my experience in hopes that this will help encourage
your clients to continue working diligently and they will see results.
Thank You,
JB
Thank You,
JB
The
message is to keep practicing and be open to the idea that
comprehension is happening with your new system, but it FEELS different.
Don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Jackie
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