Blown away by Healing Rhythms

I just finished my third session with Healing Rhtyms, and am totally blown away!  I achieved some sort of meditative state that I have never, in 35 years (on and off) of meditating, ever achieved before.  I have had an intuitive faith in meditation for 35 years, backed up by reading an enormous amount of supportive literature.  But I had two overpowering questions:

1. Could I say, definitively from my own experience, that meditation worked (whatever that means) for me?
2. And the prior question is: Am I actually meditating?

I now see that it's a "skill" in some sense ... like ridign a bike, or driving, or swimming.  There is a physical/mental/emotional state that you can get in, if you know how, that is "meditation".  But how do you know if you're in it?  When I learned TM, the perenial question amongst new meditators was "did you 'transcend'?"  I never knew!  (But felt very envious of those who maintained that they had.)  Now I have.  It was an uncertain experience, tenuous at best, but I know it was worth it, I know that having been there once, I can get there again.

This was a major learnign experience for me, in many ways, and I'm very keen to share it with others, and to hear of their experiences.

Having Brain Waves

Am very excited with progress with Pzizz and Resperate, and have begun to explore other, deeper technologies.  Yesterday an Inner Pulse machine arrived, and we got the Healing Rhythms system, from the Wild Divine people.  We've had Journey to the Wild Divine for some time, but didn't use it much, because it's a game, and neither of us is greatly into games.  But Healing Rhythms is about learning skills, and skills that could enhance our lives.

It's beautifully produced; I think it will prove to be a major learning resource.

We've also started to use more tapping stuff, in particular Pat Carrington's "Choices" method.  All of which will find it's way onto Rewire in the near future, or on to this blog.

Am currently attacking the fitness eating thing through a new exercise regime, involving KettleBells.  They say it makes your muscles stiff.  Must be working!

More later.

New Changes on the ReWire my Brain website

I've made a number of changes and additions to the ReWire My Brain website, that are relevant to what we are considering here.

And Susan pointed out to me that some of the stuff that I put on my Co-MET website three years ago is relevant, too.

I'd be really grateful if you could have a look, and post some comments.

Assessing Attachment

Since first discovering Attachment Theory three weeks ago, I've become like a small boy with a hammer: everything looks like a nail!  I interpret everything around me in terms of my poorly-grasped understanding of Attachment Theory, from my current learning blocks to plot-lines on EastEnders, from my own childhood experiences, to success and failure in the Network Marketing Industry.

It's time to delve a little deeper.

If a secure base is important, and if insecurities of attachment can have bad effects on us as adults, then we need some handle on "how secure" or "how unsecure" we are.  Which suggests assessment.

Now, traditional assessment is going to be the "men (or women) in white coats with clipboards, peering at us", but, as I said elsewhere in this blog, that's not my style: my style is more co-operative and equal.

However, there's no point in re-inventing wheels, and I'm sure there's LOADS of good stuff in "traditional" AT assessment methods, so I'm going to set myself the task of reading about them, learning about them, and then forming them into a co-operative, "equal" form that we could use.  A form that doesn't need white coats, or clipboards or knowledge of statistics to use, or a university degree to understand.

Stage one is get a list of stuff for me to review.  So, unless you're as fascinated by this "deep stuff" as me, now's the time to turn off!

• Sonkin's introduction to Assessing AT (scroll down to find the assessment bit)
  
• SUNY Stony Brook: Measures for research on maternal sensitivity, secure base use, secure base support, and attachment representations.  Essays and comments on issues and difficulties in attachment assessment.
• Attachment and reflective function: Their role in self-organization, PETER FONAGY AND MARY TARGET (1997), Sub-Department of Clinical Health Psychology, University College London, Development and Psychopathology, 9 (1997), 679–700, Copyright (c) 1997 Cambridge University Press, Printed in the United States of America
• Shaver's Computer-adminstered "Attachment Style" self-assesment scale 
• Your Personality | Free online personality tests and quizes 
• Bartholemew's Research Lab
• Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire
  
• Overview of Adult Attachment and Research 
• Self-Report Measures of Adult Attachment
  
  

That's it for now ... I'm off to self-administer the Shaver Attachment Style quiz.  (Hmm.  Pre-occupied, eh!)

James

What's Helping Me Now

I have started using two things which I already think are helping my learning, and they are Pzizz and Resperate.

Pzizz has put me back in touch with my earlier experience of meditation, but in a new and (for me) more positive way.  Resperate reduces stress and lowers my blood pressure, and will, I think, help in a number of areas of my life.

To save having to write about these things in too many places, I've created a new website: www.rewire-my-brain.com.  Let me know what you think (and what you think needs adding).

Creating a Learning Community

Well, this thing is starting to come together, so I think it's time to talk about "research with" and "learning communities".

Traditionally, the word "research" conjures up pictures of people in white coats with clipboards (the researchers) peering at people doing something, probably through one-way mirrors (the subjects).  And they do it to find out "what is".

That's not my style.

I research to find out "what might be" (we call that Action Research).  And we do it together (we call that Co-Operative Inquiry).  My primary research subject is me; I expect yours will be you.  My primary research question is "how can I move forward in some area of my life, primarily in a way that works for me, maybe in a way that could work for you, too, and possibly in a way that could help a number of people".  In other words, the research is "For Me, For Us, For Them".

But if I'm the only person in my research project, then it gets a bit reflexive, a bit incestuous, so it's good to invite others.

I envisage a community of (more or less) intelligent adults, all of whom bring "wants and offers".

For instance, on my "wants" list, there are two learning blocks that currently bug me in my life.

The first concerns my eating habits (I have lost 100lbs this year, so I've clearly learned something, but food is perennially on my mind, and I know that as soon as I've let my guard down, the weight will all pile back, so there's clearly more to learn).

The other concerns my business.  Here, I'm not short of information, or knowledge, or motivation ... but I'm fascinated that my behaviour hasn't changed as much as I would like.  So, by my own definition, there's more learning, of some sort or other, so go.

On my offers list might be a lot of stuff about learning (in 20 years of studying adult learning, I've picked up quite a bit!)

There are a number of people I want to invite to join the group.  A friend and colleague is as overweight as me; we can support each other and research together in this field.  This friend is a master of business skills and business integrity, and could teach me a lot.  But this person is a total neophyte (and, I believe, somewhat resistant!) when it comes to using modern technology.  After 20 years in the IT industry, including running "Computing for the Terrified", I think I have something to offer here.

Another friend and colleague is similarly overweight, and worried about diabetes (which I have cured in myself).  So this person could also be part of this support group.  They know much more that I do about sailing, so maybe we could work together to develop my "Sailing for the Terrified"course that I want to run in the future.

A third, highly, intelligent person, a skilled coach and mentor, clearly has a block about writing clear English; something you'd never guess until reading something they've written, and they've helped me move forward through their coaching skills.

So, if any of this rings any bells for you, then I'd like to hear from you.  If there is some area of your life where you haven't achieved all that you want, and you feel even the faintest frisson of discomfort were I to ask "so what's stopping you?" then, by my definition, I suggest that there may be some sort of inhibitor to some aspect of your learning.

Quite how our learning community might operate, who would be a member, what we would do, where and when, and through what media, we might meet are open to discussion.

In the first instance, follow the blog, post responses, send me an email, give me a call, let's meet over coffee.

Learning in Florida

Discovered Pzizz (www.pzizz.com).  Very interesting.  Packing to return home now, and flying Sunday, and recovering from jet lag Monday (unless pzizz is even cleverer than I think).

So will report more, probably on Tuesday.