Entrenched Learning

I saw it this way. by Janice Brown

Hmmmm...How to explain something that has nothing to do with books and everything to do with experience and behavioural obligation?

We need to take a wide walk with this one, but just follow along for a while. Over time, we are going to talk about this in a lot of different ways, but today, we're just going to browse a simple example for context.

Entrenched learning is a victimless crime. It’s an authoritarian approach to living your life in response to an excruciating set of circumstances. It's a way you frame your experience in a simultaneous expression of both hope and disbelief; a perplexing and contrary energetic. A kind of cosmic inertia held in place by hope in heart and disbelief in mind.

It’s always:

• about to happen,

• the next big thing,

• the most powerful moment,

• the opportunity of a lifetime,

A N D . . . the world sits in wait of such moments.

It’s always a promise that can’t be realized for the simple reason that people don’t believe it can be so.

I’ll walk you through the trenches on this one.

One day I went to "the market" to buy myself a flower vase and as I sat there looking at vases, the most beautiful vase showed up in my feed. Boy! I hopped onto that post like nobody’s business.

Me: "Is this still available?"

Her: "Yes."

Me: (She scores! Woo hoo!)

The very next moment, with joy in my heart, I found myself in my car rushing to gather said merchandise in my hand.

And the moment I saw it in real life, I knew it was of much greater value than I was paying for it. It was a treasure! (whirrrr, clink, click... the entrenched mind awakens a weary eye to check out what is really going on here.)

Uh-oh, the sudden flicker of inner dilemma, "Can this be so?"

And there it was, the playing field of 'entrenched learning vs. the fresh choice.'

Hmmmm... Which way to move? Straightforward. And, in which way I felt 'I should' move into the off-angle.

Phew! This time, I slipped past the off-angle of entrenchment and walked away with a beautiful vase.

The entrenched piece was the rolodex of quickly surfacing thoughts that sounded a bit like some of the phrases below but could show up in a multitude of other ways depending on who you are.

The underbelly of this simple transaction for me was an inner rationalization that had a heaping serving of thoughts like:

• There's something wrong with it.

• Maybe I'm taking advantage of her.

• Maybe I should leave it for someone else.

• Too good to be true.

• I wonder what the Roadshow will say about THIS?

Work it out

There's something profoundly simple in the walking away from these experiences without regurgitating everything you have ever thought forwards.

Still, in the long run, these are the types of internal messages we use as a process filter without even recognizing it is happening. It just comes across as maybe a tightening of the chest, or a damping down of your enthusiasm, or a projection of the denial of worth that makes you feel like, 'You just don't deserve something like that.'

I know these seem like remarkably small-minded things in this circumstance, but you need to recognize it in the simple things, because when it comes on in the hard things, it gets harder and harder to recognize your way through.

These are micro-adjustments we make in living, and they serve us powerfully, but only if you have an awareness that you are doing it. And that's the hard work of being who you are: the continuous self-analysis. It gets to being a pretty boring ballgame after a while, and at some point, you've got to be able to fling yourself free of it from time to time.

But here's where it matters most: when you're down in a rut. When you are down in a rut, it serves you to know where your purchase points are. And I don't mean, 'Am I buying the vase? I mean, 'How am I positioning myself through this experience?'

The subtlety of the emotional brilliance you have is where you are going to come to know yourself most profoundly. And so anytime you watch your life dial down your enthusiasm, you have to ask, "Why?"

In the off-angle, internal rationalization looks a lot like the questions above. However, head-on and straightforward, you won't second-guess, and that's the power of straightforward.

Anyway, here's the rest of the story...

Why?

Why did I not protest and say:

• Let me give you more.

• Let me give you what this vase is worth.

• What is wrong with this?

• Did you steal it? Are you really just finding a way to shove it out your door?'

Hey! Pay attention here: It's important to know that your rationalization questions will vary because these types of questions are deeply linked to my own framework. Also, depending on your own level of personal awareness, you may have no idea that this is the structure of how your experience unfolds. But when the time comes that you do, it's helpful to know that this is what subconscious mind noise is like.

Back to 'Why?'

Why did I simply take it and walk away? Why did I find myself strolling happily away with my new treasure to hold in my very own hand?

Because I took the experience for what it was, instead of trying to assume or predict what her agenda was.

Also, when I got there, I found some relief in her words. I could very simply put down the inner questions, but I did it with awareness.

She just said she was changing things up. She wanted something in a different colour and was getting rid of a big collection.

Her: 'Did I want anything else there?'

Me: 'No, thank you.' (I didn't.)

It wasn’t rocket science. It was a choice for a new experience, and I helped her fulfill that. Whether I was in the knowing of receipt or not of a great and beautiful treasure that day is up to me. And to me the treasure of the moment was not the vase; it was the timeline of the experience. I expressed a need, made myself available to it, and stepped into the moment when it arrived. It was fun. And that was what I needed more than anything.

And there you have it, one opportunity to step outside the vortex of entrenched learning and into a new way of experiencing life.

You get to choose it; you just have to believe you can.

We have the chance to collect treasures in our lives every day, and most days, we'll turn ourselves away from them and slip into an off-angle without even realizing that this is what we've done.

There's another treasure at the bottom of sorting this out for yourself: it's peace, your own inner calm. And the world needs more of that.

I saw it this way.

~ A Girl

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Feeling Words: Entrenched, Learning, Off-angle, Peace, Straightforward

Let's look at our feeling words for a quick minute.

Entrenched: Habitual without awareness. Residual turmoil. Regurgitated behaviour.

Learning: An experience of understanding to embody.

Off-angle: Your purpose in fear. A redirection of thought, feeling, emotion, and experience into a dampened-down version of your life experience.

'Purpose in fear' seems like a contradictory statement. Look at it this way: there has to be a way to move other than straight forward. Off-angle is a facet that allows alternative movement, a parallel version of experience. Simultaneously, you are aware of your contraction (the origin of the nittering thoughts) and able to expand into the moment (positive choice). It's a little like a hippy, hippy shake. You're going to swing to the side for a moment, come back, and intersect the straightforward and potentially redirect there, but only if you choose to. Otherwise, the momentum of your hippy hippy shake is going to keep you swinging back and forth a bit. Again, all we are talking about is variation in feeling experiences of unease and how these experiences arise in your life.

Here's a key understanding. Light only moves in a straightforward direction; for it to continue to be in play in a certain threshold of space, it must be able to redirect, and it does this through reflection, ricochet, redirection, bouncing, etc., much like the facets in a crystal or the little mirrors in a disco ball. These experiences allow a fullness of experience where learning can be enhanced and explored for the purpose of understanding. You don't really get to explore the straight line experience in the same way. So, fear is not to be feared; it is to be understood as an alternative to your high hope. And that is where we are going to come to some profound and conditional awarenesses in contractual obligation.

Peace: The inner certainty where the soul resides in the framework of experience of your life.

Straightforward: Your purpose in love. The direction light moves.

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A little bit about Me.

My name is Janice Brown, and I am both a doctor of Chinese Medicine and a Reverend who writes and talks about life from a metaphysical perspective. My understandings of the Tao and Emotional Relevance come from these two veins of understanding. To me, the work I do is Spiritual Care.

I’ve been working with the Tao as long as I’ve lived; and so have you. Here’s what that means to me: I’m a problem solver and I use the Tao as a framework for my discussion. In my writing, I share with you how I use it, and you can decide if that’s helpful for you or not.

I write from the Heart in the moment, specifically from my point of view. You may not have seen it this way, but that's the whole point—to turn it around and look at it another way. ~ Janice.