Live and Learn

"Live as if you'll die tomorrow.

Learn as if you were to live forever." 

                        - Gandhi

How many of us have seen or heard this quote before?  It’s so easy to read a quote and nod our heads and say to ourselves, “yes, I agree with that!  That’s how I want to be!”

And then we continue our lives in the existing patterns and behaviors.  Fear is one reason we don’t take the first step toward living with courage and taking risks.  Overcoming fear is easier if we are surrounded by loving supporters who encourage us and/or distract us from the fear while we are in the act of breaking a pattern (acting, behaving, being, speaking, etc. differently).

Learning does not become a part of us until we imbed the new knowledge at the cellular level, which means a combination of multi-sensory experiences and repetition (creating a pattern).  That’s just part of the physics of how our bodies operate.  Knowing how the system works gives us the opportunity to change the system!   Knowing this about learning, we can seek out experiences that provide the opportunity for integrating new knowledge.

The circle participants voiced very strongly this past Sunday that when we bring in guest presenters “we want an interactive experience, not a lecture!”  It wasn’t because we had told them “you know you’ll learn better if we have an interactive experience vs. a one way communication stream of information coming at you.”  It was simply because we all know this.

Here’s a well done video making a similar point about learning, in observation of our current education system.   Although this blog post is not intended to head off toward “let’s change this country’s education system!” we still wanted to share this as further exposure to the topic of learning.

So, here it is again:

"Live as if you'll die tomorrow.

Learn as if you were to live forever." 

Our dear friends Joel and Michelle Levey offered these words following this quote in their thought for the day email today:

“Experiment with taking this quote to heart this week.

Remember, life is precious, and... we are all dancing on the edge.

Imagine the possibility of learning as literally never ending.

Look for opportunities to enrich your life and the lives of others in these ways.”

Give yourself the gift of the opportunity to risk in a safe environment and learn new ways of being.  Come to our circle and be supported in this process called life.