Conceptual Change Techniques D.A. Williams FreshTouch Communication
French philosopher and inventor of the first mechanical calculator, Blaise Pascal. 'You are today, where the thoughts of yesterday have brought you, and you will be tomorrow where the thoughts of today take you' How true is that? Your beliefs, based upon your values are theories not facts, but they are theory that you treat as though they were facts, and because of this, they tend to appear true. Your beliefs about yourself stem from emotions. If you feel disappointment or resentful, these emotions can affect what you believe about yourself and therefore, how you perform. For example: Feeling overwhelmed can lead to disappointment or resentment and can lead to a feeling of: "I can't do that'', which becomes compounded to: "I could never do that. I'm just not good at it, ever." And so, an internal 'fact', belief, has been created. On the other hand, if you have previously had a favorable outcome for an activity, then each time you need to do the same or something similar, you will feel that you can do it, and you will do it, because that is now a part of your belief system. Feelings encode and store how you have experienced something in the past, whether that experience was pleasant or unpleasant. This will determine whether you will feel favorably or unfavorably when you meet up with the same experience or a similar one. Some feelings are best forgotten, and you can do this through your subconscious mind; it does require some conscious work on your part though once it's at that subconscious level. The trick is to deal with it constructively at the moment it occurs on a conscious level so that it never actually negatively enters your neurology. Beliefs are responsible for the boundary conditions of our thinking, that is, If you think you can, you can If you think you can't, you can't
I just can't do it, that's who I am I've always been good at this Can you hear yourself saying these types of things? You brainwash yourself with your emotions which create your thoughts, which create your beliefs For better or for worse, till death do you part. Dramatic, I know, but I'm trying to hammer a point. Every time, you catch yourself saying that you can't do something, really listen to yourself, and ask yourself: "What would happen if I could?" and don't come back with the response, "but I can't". There is nothing stopping you from doing anything except yourself. Your beliefs can either box you in or allow you to live your biggest and best and most wonderful life. When 'limitation thinking' is a replaced by 'limitless thinking' you will fulfill your highest potential and BE the real you. Decide today to make your beliefs about yourself and about others, the beliefs of excellence. Don't just pay lip-service to this belief of excellence, really feel it and mean it, believe it to your innermost core. Your beliefs can be heard in what you say to yourself and to others. Your beliefs are like the rules that run your life; they are your blueprint. Do you want your Blueprint to be old, out-of-date, medieval, restrictive, or do you want to update your rulebook your Blueprint that has as its title. "If I want to do it, I can!"
Key # 1. Presuppositions to live by The map is not the territory. This is a fancy way of saying that our beliefs and ideas about how people, life, and the world work aren't necessarily accurate. They are just a guide, or map, of how things work. When you go to a restaurant, don't eat the menu. Questions: 1. When was the last time you realized something you believed, was incorrect? How did you handle it, and change your thinking? 2. Can you remember a time when you expected something to occur, and something very different happened instead? How did you adjust to this difference between expectations and actuality? 3. Have you ever found yourself disagreeing, or even arguing, with someone about some theoretical issue you had little or no direct experience about? Were you able to "catch" yourself and admit that your ideas were just that, only ideas? Did you interrupt the argument and agree that the two (or more) of you simply had different viewpoints, each of which could enrich you? 4. Do you find changing your beliefs and expectations easy? How have you managed these changes when you've done them well? If it is possible in the world, it is possible for anyone. It is only a question of how.
If you believe, you are very limited in your abilities you will act as if those limitations are real. They're not. Act as if you can do anything others can do, and it will motivate you to find out HOW they do what they do. Then, you can too. Ultimately, that is what Conceptual Change Techniques or CCT, for being successful in your endeavors, is all about. Questions: 1. When was the last time you really impressed yourself? 2. How would you go about learning something, now, that you have always wanted to, but avoided or made excuses about? 3. Is there someone in your life who needs to be reminded that we are all capable of just about anything worth achieving? Is there anything stopping you from reminding that person NOW? 4. If you actually behaved as if you could achieve anything you wanted to, how would you be different? When?
The Conscious Competence Ladder Making learning a happier experience Also called the "Conscious Competence Matrix" and the "Learning Matrix" When we find that we don t know something important, we re often motivated to learn more. However if we re blissfully unaware of our ignorance, there s little we can do about it. One of the first steps on the journey to acquiring new skills is therefore to be aware of what you don t know. This discovery can be uncomfortable, as can be the experience of not being very good at what you re trying to do. The Conscious Competence Ladder is a popular and intuitive approach (attributed to many different possible originators) that helps us manages our own emotions during a sometimes dispiriting learning process. More than this, it helps us to be more in touch with the emotions of the people we are teaching, so we can better coach them through the learning process. Explaining the Model: According to this approach, consciousness is the first step towards gaining knowledge. To learn new skills and to gain knowledge you need to be conscious of what you do and do not know. Next, competence is your ability to do things. You may be highly competent in one area, but have no skill in another. Your competence level will depend on the task or job at hand. The idea is that as you build expertise in a new area, you move from "unconscious incompetence" to "conscious incompetence" and then to "conscious competence", finally reaching "unconscious competence." These are explained below, and this "ladder" of learning is shown in figure 1.
Level 1 - Unconscious Incompetence (You Don't Know that You Don't Know) At this level, you are blissfully ignorant: You have a complete lack of knowledge and skills in the subject in question. On top of this, you are unaware of this lack of skill, and your confidence may therefore far exceed your abilities. Level 2 - Conscious Incompetence (You Know that You Don't Know) At this level you find that there are skills you need to learn, and you may be shocked to discover that there are others who are much more competent than you. As you realize that your ability is limited, your confidence drops. You go through an uncomfortable period as you learn these new skills when others are much more competent and successful than you are. Level 3 - Conscious Competence (You Know that You Know) At this level you acquire the new skills and knowledge. You put your learning into practice and you gain confidence in carrying out the tasks or jobs involved. You are aware of your new skills and work on refining them. You are still concentrating on the performance of these activities, but as you get ever-more practice and experience, these become increasingly automatic. Level 4 - Unconscious Competence (You Don't Know that You Know - It Just Seems Easy!)
At this level, your new skills become habits, and you perform the task without conscious effort and with automatic ease. This is the peak of your confidence and ability. Tip: Some people prefer to think of this as a matrix (hence "Conscious Competence Matrix" or "Learning Matrix") with Incompetence/Competence on the horizontal axis, and Unconscious/Conscious on the vertical axis Some people prefer to think of this as a matrix (hence "Conscious Competence Matrix" or "Learning Matrix") with Incompetence/Competence on the horizontal axis, and Unconscious/Conscious on the vertical axis Using the Tool: The Conscious Competence Ladder helps us in two ways: It gives us reassurance when we need it, and it helps us coach others through a sometimes difficult learning process. During the Conscious Incompetence phase, we have the reassurance that while things are difficult and frustrating right now, things will get much better in the future. And when we're at the stage of Unconscious Competence, the model reminds us to value the skills we have so painstakingly acquired. As an approach to coaching others, it reminds us that people may be moving through these steps as they learn the new skills we're trying to teach them: Unconscious Incompetence: At the beginning of the process, they may be unaware of their own lack of competence, and may need to be made gently aware of how much they need to learn. Conscious Incompetence: During this stage, you'll need to provide plenty of encouragement, tolerate mistakes appropriately, and do what you can to help people improve. Conscious Competence: At this stage, you need to keep people focused on effective performance of the task, and give plenty of opportunities for them to get practice. Unconscious Competence: Although this is the ideal state, you'll need to make sure that people avoid complacency, and stay abreast of their fields. You may also need to remind people how difficult it was to reach this state, so that they are tolerant with people at the Conscious Incompetence stage! Spread the Word:
A Theory of the Mind *Note This only represents one of many theories of the mind. For the purposes this part of the material, we will focus on the model as is. For further study we will refer only to the conscious and subconscious aspects of the mind. There are four areas of the mind, which impact our lives on a daily basis. The following information is essential to know. 1. THE CONSCIOUS MIND - Retains and remembers the events and feelings of approximately the past. 2. CRITICAL AREA OF MIND Part is conscious; part is subconscious. Contains memories of approximately the past. 3. MODERN MEMORY AREA Part of the subconscious mind. Holds memories from. 4. PRIMITIVE AREA OF MIND Part of the subconscious mind. Includes all the including.
You can make wonderful things happen in your life simply by thinking them! Yes, it's true! The power of the mind can actually make things happen physically! Here, you will learn how to do it yourself. What is Creative Visualization? Creative visualization is. People who tell themselves that they are unlucky, unloved, unattractive, etc, actually make those things realities for themselves. On the other hand, people who think they are fortunate, cherished, beautiful, etc. also make these things happen. By of the good things you want to happen as part of a regular routine, you're creating a positive energy. The then takes on form as the actual reality you desired. One important note, though. This process is only to be used to create and happiness for yourself and others. You should not try to control another's life (creating harm) in this manner, or any for that matter. How Does Creative Visualization Work? Here are some examples of creative visualization that might have happened to you through your subconscious. 1. Your phone rings, and when you pick it up, it was a person you'd just been thinking of talking to. 2. You think to yourself "I'm going to read a book," and then you do. 3. You believe you attract the "wrong" kind of man/woman, so that's the kind that comes into your life.
How Do I Do It? The first step is to relax. Sit or lie in a comfortable position, and make a conscious effort to feel each part of your body relaxing. Start at your toes, and work your way up to your head. As you do this, take slow, deep breaths. This should take a few minutes. Another term for this is meditation. If you would like to learn more about it, you can find many self-help books and tapes, which teach you how to do it! You can also contact me to receive custom designed guided meditation mp3s. The second step is to visualize. Many people cannot "see" a mental picture at first, so if this happens, do not let it worry you. After you've relaxed, you can "practice" visualizing by picturing things you see and do in everyday life. Try to imagine enjoyable things. You might picture your favorite room, or dancing with someone special, or eating your favorite meal. Doing these practice runs will help you "see" when it comes time to try the real thing! These are the two basic steps, but now let's break it down a bit. You may want to work on these for a while before trying your first real Visualization. When you are ready to try it, you will need to do these very important things. what it is that you want. Is there something you want to change about yourself? Do you want a better job? Do you want better health? You pick your goal. You will probably want to start with "easier" goals. Ones that you believe can happen in a timely manner. You can then work up to "harder" ones. Next, the idea or object exactly as you wants it to be. Picture yourself in the situation or using the object as if you already possessed it. Make sure you see this very clearly. You might also draw the scene to reinforce the idea, although, this step is not necessary. Once you have the picture in your head, think of it often, not only when you are relaxing or meditating, but throughout the day as well. This is the process of sending that positive energy out into the universe. Remember the old saying "You reap what you sow"? Well, you're " " when you think of what you want. The more positive energy you send out, the more you will get back. Lastly, that the object IS yours or will be yours. Any disbelief is negative energy and will counteract what you're trying to achieve. When you see it come true, acknowledge that you made it happen! Give yourself a pat on the back! You now have the basic information to transform your life! May you use it in peace, power, preservation, and prosperity!
What is Self Esteem? Self esteem is your opinion of yourself. High self esteem is a good opinion of yourself and low self esteem is a bad opinion of yourself. Your self esteem depends on many questions: Is your job worthwhile? Do others respect what you do? Do you? Do you believe you are successful? How do you see yourself (your self image)? How do you feel about your strengths and weaknesses? What do you think of your social status? How do you relate to others? Can you make your own decisions? A lack of choices leads to low self esteem. What is Low Self Esteem? Low self esteem results from a poor self image. Your self image is based on how you see yourself. Do you think you are a good, reliable, hardworking, honest or friendly person? Low self esteem also depends on other factors like your job. For example, do you value the job you do? Does the job you have help you be happy with who you are? Low self esteem feeds your negative thinking and makes you believe negative comments others make. This can cause you to lose confidence so it is vital to end negative thoughts if you want to build your self esteem. What is High Self Esteem? High self esteem is the opposite of the above! If you have a high level of self esteem you will be confident, happy, highly motivated and have the right attitude to succeed. The Importance of Self Esteem
It is very important because it affects how you think, act and even how you relate to other people. It affects your potential to be successful. Low self esteem means poor confidence and that also causes negative thoughts which means that you are likely to give up easily rather than face challenges. In addition, it has a direct bearing on your happiness and wellbeing. Do you need a confidence boost? Here are a few tips... o Look for a model (someone who has self confidence) and learn from them. What is it they do that makes them confident, how do they act? o Focus on your achievements rather than your failures. If you do find yourself thinking about how you failed then look at what you managed to do right and how you could correct what you did next time. o Learn how to feel good about yourself o Act as if you were self confident! You will feel more confident. o Focus on who you are and what you like about yourself. Why do your friends like you? o Prepare thoroughly for any task so that you can be sure you are ready. o Work on any skills you need to do what you want, you can never be over-trained or over skilled for any challenge in life. o Work on your relaxation skills o Always smile and stand up straight o Set reachable goals for yourself and break difficult tasks into smaller steps o Reward yourself when you succeed no matter how small the achievement o Finally, I advise you not to be too competitive or compare yourself with others. Be yourself and accept that life is not a race against others but your self confidence depends on you and your personal needs
The Wizard of Oz What is a myth? It is an organized collection of stories (i.e., "myths") by which we explain our beliefs and our history. Beneath the story-lines, myths usually confront major issues such as the origin of humanity and its traditions, and the way in which the natural and human worlds function on a profound, universal level. Myths, legends, folktales, and fables. We commonly use the word "myth" interchangeably with the following terms, but some authorities have made distinctions (which, like many definitions, might not be valid in all cases): 1. Legends. Unlike many myths, legends generally do not have religious or supernatural content. Legends emphasize the story more than the significance of the story; we might still gain a philosophical and moral meaning from a legend, but we probably will not feel the archetypal intensity which permeates myths. An example of a legend is the tale of Atlantis. 2. Folklore. While legends and myths might be embraced as true stories, folktales are generally known to be fictitious. They are often told only within a limited geographical area -- one town, one mountain range, or one country. Examples include the stories of Paul Bunyan and Rip Van Winkle from early American history. 3. Fables. Even moreso than folktales, fables are acknowledged to be fictional -- certainly when the characters include talking animals. A fable's emphasis is on a "moral." Examples include Aesop's fables, such as the stories of the tortoise and the hare, and the fox who complained about "sour grapes." Mythology serves many purposes. 1. Myths grant continuity and stability to a culture. They foster a shared set of perspectives, values, history -- and literature, in the stories themselves. Through these communal tales, we are connected to one another, to our ancestors, to the natural world surrounding us, and to society; and, in the myths which have universal (i.e., archetypal) themes, we are connected to other cultures. 2. Myths present guidelines for living. When myths tell about the activities and attitudes of deities, the moral tone implies society's expectations for our own behaviors and standards. In myths, we see archetypal situations and some of the options which can be selected in those situations; we also perceive the rewards and other consequences which resulted from those selections. 3. Myths justify a culture's activities. Through their authoritativeness and the respected characters within them, myths establish a culture's customs, rituals, religious tenets, laws, social structures, power hierarchies, territorial claims, arts and crafts, holidays and other recurring events, and technical tips for hunting, warfare, and other endeavors.
4. Myths give meaning to life. We transcend our common life into a world in which deities interact with humans, and we can believe that our daily actions are part of the deities' grand schemes. In our difficulties, the pain is more bearable because we believe that the trials have meaning; we are suffering for a bigger cause rather than being battered randomly. And when we read that a particular deity experienced something which we are now enduring -- perhaps a struggle against "evil forces" -- we can feel that our own struggle might have a similar cosmic or archetypal significance, though on a smaller scale. 5. Myths explain the unexplainable. They reveal our fate after death, and the reasons for crises or miracles, and other puzzles -- and yet they retain and even encourage an aura of mystery. Myths also satisfy our need to understand the natural world; for example, they might state that a drought is caused by an angry deity. This purpose of mythology was especially important before the advent of modern science, which offered the Big Bang theory to replace creation myths, and it gave us the theory of evolution to supplant myths regarding the genesis of humanity. And yet, science creates its own mythology, even as its occasional secular barrenness threatens to strip us of the healthful awe which other types of mythology engender. 6. Myths offer role models. In particular, children pattern themselves after heroes; comic books and Saturday-morning cartoons depict many archetypal characters, such as Superman and Wonder Woman. Adults, too, can find role models, in the stories of deities' strength, persistence, and courage. There are various types of myths. "God" is different from mythological gods and goddesses. In mythology, the dieties are not like the monotheistic deity of western religion. (Hinduism has its quasi-monotheistic deity -- Brahman -- but it also has millions of lesser deities.) Mythological deities were not omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent. Like people, they were viewed as limited, flawed, and driven by emotions and ambitions; their main difference from humans was that they had more knowledge and power. Ancient myths live in our culture. We find references to those myths in many contemporary words and expressions, such as Pandora's box, Oedipus complex, nymph, and olympian. Our modern society has its own myths. Some authors say that our society lacks a vigorous mythology; they believe that this lack can cause a sense of meaninglessness, estrangement, rootlessness, and the cold brittleness of a life devoid of reverence and awe. Other authors assert that we do have a mythology -- in certain concepts (such as "progress") and in our larger-thanlife celebrities (e.g., Mother Teresa as the goddess of compassion, Albert Einstein as the god of the intellect and the imagination, and Bill Gates as the god of commerce). "Screen goddesses Marilyn Monroe and Madonna incarnate the alluring qualities of Aphrodite. Aristotle Onassis expressed the wheeling-and-dealing Zeus qualities that built a shipping empire, while Muhammad Ali called on the aggressive instinct of Ares, the god of war, every time he stepped into the boxing ring.
The media enlarges certain people to mythical proportions, and we each do the same (often by projecting the "Hero" archetype onto other people). Corporations have a mythology, in their "corporate culture." There is a mythology in every group -- our social club, our family, our profession, our subculture, our ethnic group, our religion and denomination, our city, our neighborhood, our friendships, etc. Our mythology changes as our culture changes -- from one generation to the next, from one presidential administration to the next, from one decade to the next. We each have our own mythology. Consciously or unconsciously, we create our own myths. We have our deities -- the things which are important and valued and vibrant to us personally. We are heroes in "mythic journeys" by which we romanticize our various passages through life. Although we generally accept cultural myths to the extent to which we are a part of our culture, the truly satisfying and exciting myths are those which arise from our own passions, our own dreams, and our own visions. Similar myths exist in every culture. The myths have different characters and different plotlines, but we do find some common themes. Some of the recurring themes include a Golden Age, a fall from a heavenly state, resurrections from death, virgin births, worldwide floods, creation stories in which "one becomes two," and a future apocalypse. When Carl Jung examined the commonalities of myths, he developed his theory of archetypes, which are universal forces which influence us to manifest their particular trait. Myths are metaphorical. Some people regard myths as mere fabrications, to be discarded in our enlightened age. Those people are repelled by the myths' preposterous elements (such as centaurs) and contradictions (within an individual myth, or in its revisions from one oral transmission to the next). But mythology's enduring worth is not in its possible historical or scientific accuracy; instead, myths are important because they are metaphors. We learn about life and people and values in a way which cannot be offered by dry historical or philosophical accounts; in mythology, we learn through imagination, as we feel and visualize the colorful adventures of the deities. Although mythology is not a literal rendering of a culture's history, we can still use myths to explore the culture -- its viewpoints, activities, and beliefs. Myths represent forces in the psyche and the world. As Joseph Campbell said, in An Open Life, "The imagery of mythology is symbolic of spiritual powers within us." In this symbolism, we see mythological characters who represent love, youth, death, wealth, virility, fear, evil, and other archetypal facets of life -- and we also see natural events such as rain and wind. The deities are personifications of those facets, those "energies." As we read about the interplay of deities, we are viewing a dream-like fantasy which portrays the interaction of the elements of our own lives. To say that the deities are symbolic is not to say that they might not exist as actual beings; after all, some contemporary people believe in a deity which is an individual "person" (portrayed in art as an old man), so we might grant equal respect and open-mindedness toward those who have believed in the literal reality of ancient deities. Mythology is a valid way to look at the world. Even if we respect the archetypal significance of mythology, we might disregard myths as primitive, clumsy attempts to express those psychological truths. But some authors have argued that mythology is actually a sophisticated
means of labeling and studying psychological dynamics -- a means which is as cultured and insightful as that of modern psychology. Surely some myths were concocted by soma-intoxicated shamans, but perhaps others were devised by thoughtful scholars and mystics who intentionally chose mythology as a vehicle for passing on their revelations. These sages might have realized that myths are: 1. Easy to remember in an illiterate society in which ideas cannot be written nor read. 2. Approachable and somewhat understandable by people of any level of intelligence, including people for whom a philosophical discourse would be incomprehensible. 3. Stimulating to the imagination and feelings, where the effect can be more profound and life-changing than that from intellectual comprehension. Why do we mythologize? We do it to acquire the benefits which have been described throughout these page. But, beyond the pragmatic reasons, we do it to satisfy our natural, healthy craving to live in a world which is still filled with mystery and wonder and archetypal grandeur.
The Power of Purpose - Symbolic Processes Human beings, because we can understand certain things to stand for other things, have developed what we term the symbolic process. Whenever two or more human beings communicate with each other, we can, by agreement, make anything stand for anything. This process permeates human life on all levels. The symbol making function is one of man s primary activities It is the fundamental mental process of the mind, and goes on all the time. To understand the symbolic process is to be able to use it to advantage: not to understand it is to remain forever its victim. Language as symbolism- There is no necessary connection between the symbol and that which is symbolized. - Symbols and things symbolized are independent of each other nevertheless, all of us have a way of feeling as if, there were necessary connections. The word is not the thing- - Society systematically encourages concerning certain topics, the habitual confusion of symbols with things symbolized. We need to be systematically aware of the powers and limitations of symbols, especially words, if we are to guard against being driven into complete confusion over our semantic environment. THE PRINCIPLES The symbol is not the thing symbolized The map is not the territory The word is not the thing These statement may sound elementary but they have tremendous power in helping us to adjust our perspectives. Living in two worlds
There is a sense in which we all live in two worlds. First, we live in the world of happenings that we know first hand. This is an extremely small world, consisting only of the continuum of things we have actually seen, felt, or heard. That is the extensional world. Most of the knowledge that we received from parents, school, friends, conversation etc comes verbally-that is, in words. We call that world the verbal world or intensional world. It is important to understand the difference between these two worlds. When it comes to our maps of reality (our perceptions), there are three ways to get faulty maps into our heads; first, by having them given to us; second, by making them up for ourselves by misreading true maps; third, by constructing them ourselves by misreading territories. Now, the cultural heritage that is transmitted to us-our socially pooled knowledge, both scientific and humane, has been valued principally because we believe that is gives us accurate maps. Purpose Original intent 1- Everthing in life has purpose 2- Purpose can only be discovered in the mind of the maker 3- If you don t know the purpose of a thing, abuse-(abnormal use),is inevitable Perception In philosophy, psychology, and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. What one perceives is a result of interplays between past experiences, including one s culture, and the interpretation of the perceived. Perception as interpretation - An interpretation is an explanation of the meaning of some object of attention. It also refers to making ideas more understandable, including translation. An interpretation may express ones' own understanding of things, for instance, a work of art, a poem, performance, or piece of literature. How we utilize perception The brain, with which one perceives the world, is made up of neurons buzzing at 50 cycles a second, while the world as it exists in reality is made up of electro-magnetic radiation oscillating at 500 trillion cycles a second. This means that the human brain cannot nearly keep up with the realness of reality. To compensate, the brain takes a preconceived idea about the object, then uses those preconceived ideas to see whether or not they are there. The problem with attaining an accurate perception of reality stems from the fact that humans are unable to understand new information, without the inherent bias of their previous knowledge. The extent of a person's
knowledge creates his or her reality as much as the truth, because the human mind can only contemplate that to which it has been exposed. When objects are viewed without understanding, the mind will try to reach for something that it already recognizes, in order to process what it is viewing. That which most closely relates to the unfamiliar from a person's past experiences makes up what he or she sees when he or she looks at things that he or she does not comprehend.