Looking at slow processing speeds. How did we get here. How can words help?

Today I am going to look at processing speeds. It is a question I ask because it is understood that there is a big problem wth processing of information speeds in our children. 

In music rehearsals, if a piece is played at a certain tempo for too long a period of time, it is very difficult to get that ‘ set tempo’ to change. It is also not recommended to play something by rote, again and again in automation, because it is difficult to change what becomes an embedded tempo/movement etc.. Thus, how one does what one does, determines the outcome. If one has practiced something by rote too much ( because repetition in itself is not a bad) what happens is one gets locked into a form. It is like a lack of real play, as real play involves presence. If one is present, one has a greater ability to change.

I was reminded this week of how our belief systems can become visible in our behaviors. We respond to counter measures towards our beliefs with the same flight and flight reactions we learned in times of physical life and death survival. Meaning, we treat the beliefs we hold in the same manner we treat a tiger raging towards us to eat us. 

When I relate these two actions to behavior, I realize that when we learn something in such a way,  it becomes embedded as what we have practiced creating a separation. It becomes a kind of stagnant knowledge that we believe as us, because we focused on it and are resonant with it in a fixed way. The action of focusing on absorbing a set body of information also becomes our behavior. If this fixed and focused upon information is questioned, and we lack perspective because it is difficult to change out of what has become fixed within, do we find ourselves reacting with defensiveness and/or wanting to escape, to go and hide? One may have to slow down, suspend belief, and review some past behaviors to see this. It takes some spatial ability, of which using what is natural within us, and what has not been developed as effectively as it could be, is our presence. That presence took in the form that may not have been ‘ bad’ but when taken in in such a way, caused some stagnation. Tricky, but visible.

This is really the problem with memory learning in a box AND, in a room where the same age group is filled with children moving at different speeds in processing. Also, the dimension of an incorrect intake of information that has become stagnant. Also, that many parents in the home are a product of that of which I speak. This is too much for a teacher to sort out. I would say that this design overall - of public schools - is a formula that creates the problem of which I speak.

Let’s look at something we have learned as a set body of information that has been repeated again and again. I remember learning about the WW2 Holocaust at every level. I was told this story again and again. As an adult, I realize that there were so many holocausts on this planet I wonder why I did not learn about them too. I mean there are species of animals and plants that no longer exist, there was, from what I have read, the 11 million Irish who starved in Ireland which is a holocaust of greater proportions. There was the King Phillip war in America, where more men died in relation to the population that in either world war. These numbers are HUGE. Why was I told ONLY one story? And why was this limited perspective repeated again and again and again? Had I learned about the animals and the plants and the Irish - among others- and the King Phillip’s war, would I have exposure to more patterns in regards to the movements and actions of men, and had more perspective to then begin to question the overall form and understand this world and the choices we make with greater clarity? 

In terms of the amygdala fight or flight response, I realize that I feel like I move counter to something, when I speak up about this, like I am moving against an entity that I am supposed to repeat. It is like moving out of what has been embedded within me and collectively as group think that has become an entity that resonates. In a social context speaking up with more information can run counter to being the same voice as this limited story embedded within, it can cause friction if one does not speak the same because we hold the information we practiced and the design is to focus on the information we practiced because this is what we physically did! When new information comes along, we have to deconstruct and reconstruct, yet as we can see, we can get stuck in a set body of information and stagnant within that. This becomes visible when we react to information that is counter to our accepted and allowed practices as this. One behavior is to repeat the ‘ resonant ‘ information at the exclusion of anything else - because that is what we behaved as!. This action in itself, is a vocal distraction which is the means of how one loses one’s spatial skill. I would say losing critical and creative thinking skills is done through a focus on a limited narrative that has been placed center stage again and again and again. That narrative can be a truth, yet the focus on that ONLY, not only occupies one’s presence, it also stifles presence from seeing the whole picture and within seeing the whole, realize patterns as how we come to begin problem solving. It is really very simple. It is only the resonant imprint that overwhelms and blocks what is actually more natural. 

What I describe is the building of limited associative thinking. This means that as one is locked into a set body of information, that is the knowledge one references. Such a state is a lack of real processing, as it is more the consequence of memorizing without practical application. It by design, takes away critical and creative thinking skills. Because one is in a set resonant body of information, all of one’s words are related to that, thereby, causing all that information to come up when the words around it are spoken. Ever find yourself realizing you have not heard a thing someone has said? Where were you? Was some chain of stories, as actions and movements triggered and resonantly brought up that you placed your presence in a memory instead of continuing to listen to what a person with whom you spoke was saying? Even this is not a bad, to cross reference one’s experiences, yet, when it is done without being aware of both what was said and one’s reference material, it is an indication of a slow processing speed. You are a product of public schools.

In order to perform in a group, one must know one’s place in what one does, and extend one’s presence to the greater form around one to remain stable in movement as the performance.One’s presence is busy actively ‘ reading’ more than thinking.  One’s processing speeds have to be fluent. Also, one is relating to a real moving and living thing. One can see a few measures ahead, even realize the whole of the piece to balance one’s movements, as a quick abstraction in a moment, yet one remains present and grounded in the reality. Imagine musicians getting lost in a memory and not hearing what is actually happening. Actually, this does happen, musicians can move into automated behaviors when the same pieces are played again and again. And they can begin to lose their ability, having difficulty when a new piece must be learned. 

This state of slow processing ability, indicates a loss of spatial ability, and greater reactive behaviors in relationships. It is a loss of presence in reality. The consequence is increasing physical heaviness and more emotional reaction. One’s inner resonance composed of information, is no longer in-synch with being present in the living context around us. 

One is going to have to rebuild, This can be done with words. One must reintegrate one’s words, one at a time, and practice relating to the living reality around us. Thereby increasing what is a natural ability to recognize patterns in behavior, to see when one has moved into an associative thinking that is reference to what one has created/personified within one’s self as a practiced and repeated set body of limited information. Remember, that young children do not have such developed, they remain more present, and by extension, learn things more rapidly. It is all a visible math, moving around us. We are basically, walking in a valley of good and bad, more than and less than that is a shadow world projected by a miss-use of the imagination. The degree of a loss of spatial ability indicates the degree to which we are not using our presence correctly. Do we notice as we age, that we become more and more afraid and uncertain? Do we tend to resist some things at this point of separation, and only want what resonates with us, which is the same as being in a comfort zone? 

Our presence is our gift. As adults, because so many of us are a product of a mis-use of the imagination, we are not enough to ensure correct word usage in our present and absorbent children. We can use technology to correct this. We can build a sound mind that is in synch with one’s surrounding. Imagine feeling present and grounded, would one not build confidence and self esteem. Realize, you are the perfect instrument of life. 

Is there a choice to not do this? If you are interested in a tool that can accelerate this, send me a note. If your child is having reading problems and you sense they can do better, send me a note!

Thank you for reading! 

                      What is the consequence of a mis-use of the imagination?  Are you in synch with life? We are the words we effectively know.

ADD and the importance of repetition and physical memory.

I have studied a lot of music. One of the things I did was speed rhythms. This was a way to prepare an absolute focus, because one had to break down every movement, and then speed it up. One worked this until a whole scale was played. The process focused one on the task totally. This in turn developed a focus that enabled a process of developing an absolute focus, to the extent that that focus as a behavior became embedded. When I used this, and it was very calm, I could learn something much faster. This meant that how one focused determined how much time it took to learn something.

Repetition done with absolute focus has no emotion to it, no feelings about it. It develops a clear understanding of the form without added values. Dancers know that repetition places the move into the physical body, where it can be easy to direct, easy to recall and then the dance move can be done with ease and directed, played with. it was the same with the repetition and focus mechanism in music for me. Because of this, I realized that there was a state of being where learning was not all that difficult. And, I had a master teacher tell me about this. He said, “ if you focus correctly, the time spent learning is shortened.”

Let’s look at words. Words develop conceptual ability. For instance, until I had the words that described chemistry I could not answer the questions. If I had to get these words through layers of memory as impulsed values of good and or bad, as a past of negative reprimand or positive reinforcement , which is what behaviors of peer pressure and social competition is that is the life in the classroom,  it would take me a really long time to absorb the new vocabulary.Thus, by the third grade, my ability to take in new information while focusing on and  juggling all the values that had accumulated within, would slow down my ability to learn. As this, I have lost my natural divergent thinking ability that can only exist within absolute focus, here. And, within this, imagine a teacher having to teach a lesson and resolve all this in the classroom that is itself a peer group? They can’t. To move through emotional values present and teach the lesson in the space allotted and provide the repetition needed that will vary by degree, is an impossibility within the present systemic form. 

Within this, can we begin to understand how our children’s promise and potential is slowly lost, taking years to recover. And, does this cost money? And, by the time the children are adults, years of development, within a natural ability to learn at greater levels, is lost and or, has been suppressed.

Does this behavior describe our children, our autistic children and our ADD children and our ADHD children? Does it describe us, the adults?

Is there a way to refocus the child from their natural learning/ divergent thinking ability, to get in a broad vocabulary without emotional values, and with clear meanings to words? Can the structures as the words be placed directly into the physical memory, where the words as placeholders are recalled with ease, enabling the child to answer questions and thus see patterns, because the fabric as the building blocks are stable and used with ease? Thus, when a compound structure is given, that child is not juggling uncertainty on top of new forms.

Would this build a self confident child, a child that builds self trust and skill, leading to a successful adult? Would this create an adult that is focused here, instead of that distracted ADD, ADHD child. Is there solution in the starting point of the dis-ease, instead of trying to answer to reactions as the consequences?: I mean, look at the word as the dis-eased state of being: attention deficit dis-order, or attention deficit hyper-activity( distraction) dis-order?

Our school systems have structure that is beneficial. But, if the starting point of the child and how we learn and take in information is not understood by parents, our children lose what is a natural ability to learn. Our public schools are designed to teach a specific sequence of lessons, with each given a certain amount of time. Thus it is the responsibility of the parents to ensure that the child’s natural learning ability is of a sound structure.