Get In Touch With Emotions
Discover how you really feel about things. It’s easier said than done. Instead of maintaining the status quo and keeping the peace.
Instead of following the herd and making the predictable and reliable decisions that you are expected to make, ask yourself.
What you truly desire. Imagine what you could accomplish, if failing wasn’t an option.If there was no fear of being judged and no adverse consequences.
If there was no fear of being judged and no adverse consequences reliable decisions.
Learning to acknowledge and express our emotions freely may seem like weakness in a culture that requires us to be tough, but in actual fact it takes a strength far more valuable and honorable than living in denial.
- Use the “Spaced Repetition” technique
- Try the “Pinch Yourself” hack
- Schedule learning sessions before bedtime
- Study the content, not the language
This technique was introduced by Maneesh Sethi, a frequent traveler who mastered four foreign languages as an adult. His approach was based on the fact that negative stimuli massively boost self-improvement.
Soft is the new hard
When you think that a situation requires you to be tough, to stiffen your upper lip and puff out your chest in the face of something difficult or even traumatic, consider if you have another option. Maybe for a change it’s time to wallow in the tragedy of your experience and really feel what it is to be human. Striving for mental toughness may close you off to a world of emotional development and progress that you may otherwise live through if you let yourself open up for a change.
How you can use this for language learning?
- Get a set of flashcards for memorizing vocabulary or grammar.
- Master the hard pinch (it should be quite hard) to activate your body’s threat response.
- Review a category of flash cards (such as adjectives or group of words). Don’t pinch yourself at this stage.
- Review the same category, now adding the pinch for each vocabulary word. Spend some time studying the card before moving to the next one.
Softening your perspective towards yourself and others; allowing yourself to experience tenderness and nurturing instead may seem counterproductive, but in the long run, may reap more abundant rewards.
Tough is just bravado. Softening up is a new normal you should try.
You may feel sadness more intensely, or anger. Disappointment, fear, grief. The flip side is you may discover joy like you’ve never allowed yourself to feel before. You may laugh harder, feel more inspired, encounter wonder and awe at things you previously took for granted.