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.

Learning in Public

Lori's term "learning in public" is something we encourage to the point you are comfortable with.  There are mean people in the world who will rip you apart for just about anything you do in public.  Our aim is to practice being nice and to really support those risks each of us decide to take, which can either result in tremendous success worth celebration, for which we will all gladly join in for... or they are opportunities to learn in public, if you care to do so.

When something you do doesn't go as expected, it's not a failure.  It's an opportunity to learn.  You can learn in private, which means try really hard to hide it, don't talk about it, only tell your spouse or boyfriend or BFF or your diary...

or...

if you're feeling strong and bold, you can learn in public.  You can open yourself up, share what happened, and take a chance that your learning will multiply tenfold.

"Huh?" you say?

The Center Circle is a place where you can play with the concept of learning in public, if you haven't done so, or if it's been a while.  By sharing what you did and what you experienced, these women will listen, share compassion and their own experiences, and not only will you no longer be learning alone and feeling down, you'll feel companionship, community, and support.  You will be given more ideas and perspectives about what that experience was about; more than you could ever come up with on your own.

Learning in Public allows us all to learn from each other and with each other.  It allows us to experience, demonstrate, model, and encourage being vulnerable, which is one of the main characteristics of the feminine.

To share what you have experienced is to love.  It is to open yourself up to be loved in return.