The Secret That No One Taught You To Improve Your Learning Abilities

French with Michel Thomas. As per my morning routine, I put in one earbud, selected a playlist, dressed my two little dogs with their harnesses and out we went for our morning walk. On this particular day, it was sunny, fairly warm, with a light wind on my face. I pressed play, and the first thing I heard was French with Michel Thomas, the name was pronounced me-chell. I was intrigued. Not by the name, but by what followed next.

Up until this morning, I was learning French in an online class and while I thought I was pretty terrible at it, my classmate and tutor insisted that I was picking it up fast. We had just completed our 2-month learning experience and now I was left on my own to continue learning French.

Why French you ask? I have a baby girl on the way that’s due in 4 months from writing this, and while we live in Canada, British Columbia, it is fitting to be bi-lingual. When I moved here, I carried with me 2 other languages before I learned English. Russian and Hebrew. While I forgot Hebrew quickly from not speaking to anyone, Russian became my second language.

My wife studied French emersion growing up and that’s where I thought if we were going to teach our baby girl a second language let’s start there.

When Michel came on the recording I was fascinated by what he said. He said you can learn the French language without taking any notes, without remembering anything, but, and here is where it gets interesting, you need to be totally relaxed.

How did this differ from what I grew up learning? The four walls and the concrete floor resembled more of a penitentary than a school. The dumpy desks with the uncomfortable chairs, along with a sappy teacher didn’t fit in to being relaxed. Although I didn’t do too bad in school I also see how this particular practice would turn schools completely upside down.

Imagine walking into a classroom where there were lazy boys instead of these hard plastic chairs. Light soft music playing in the background, the type you hear in elevators. Okay, maybe that will get annoying. Beautiful fragrances emitted out into the environment. No, I will not go further into butterflies and unicorns, I think you get the point.

Instead of teachers getting upset and moody because they don’t want to be there as much as you don’t want to be there, they talked to you in a soft light tone.

Now yes, Michel has his method of teaching French, but this goes far beyond French. Next time you are sitting down to learn something, check-in with yourself. Are you stressed out, are you hurried, do you need to be doing something else or be somewhere else?

Your mind will operate in such a fashion that whatever it is you work on in a busied state of mind, will produce that kind of quality, hurried and dull. The worst part, your senses will be so dull as to what you are attempting to learn newly.

After hearing those words, you need to be relaxed while learning, I began to apply it everywhere in my practice. In the emails, I write, in my journaling, in my client's work. Being relaxed is a state of mind, and there are several ways you can achieve that.

Have a listen to this youtube video and you’ll understand how to change from fight or flight to your most optimal state. Dave Sanderson from The Miracle on the Hudson was the last passenger to leave the plane. He goes over the three things you can do to shift your state of mind. Change your focus, physiology and your internal dialogue.

This practice is simple, and it will dramatically increase your performance, your level of understanding and your learning abilities.

As a bonus to me learning French, my wife started learning Russian and she is getting quite good at it, maybe it’s her atmosphere in which she learns. On the couch or in bed, going along with Duolingo (this is not a paid promotion).

What a trade-off!

I gotta give credit where credit is due. Of course why stop at 2 right. So here we are picking up our 3rd language.

In conclusion, stay relaxed anytime you are out to learn something, and your retention will multiply.