Why am I not motivated when I study a topic that I am interested in?

[The Don]

Hello.

After 18 months of self-actualization which includes meditation on a daily basis, reading, writing, mindfulness and so forth, I still have a deep inner resistance when it comes to studying and trying to memorize facts.

What I find strange is the fact that I can meditate pretty well and I can stay in the present moment for a long time without resistance. I have to admit that it was hard to reach this point where I can meditate everywhere, even at my work which is a pretty randy place.

What bothers me is the feeling that I'll never be able to achieve a pleasant state (meaning a state of flow) when I'm studying the things that seem interesting to me.

I want to be able to enjoy studying without resistance because it's very important for me to be a life-long learner. How can I become a good communicator if I'm not able to process and assimilate information very well?

How many of you do have this inner resistance when studying?

How many of you lack motivation when it comes to learning new stuff?

I'm almost at a point of desperation and I mean that.

Any suggestions to achieve a state of flow when I need to learn new information?

[The Don]

On the other hand, I find many topics interesting and I'm very happy to discuss them with my friends. I'm getting excited when I stumble upon something new like Psychedelics, nutrition, spirituality and so forth but when I become conscious of the fact that it's necessary to study a subject more and for a longer period of time, the feeling of resistance kicks in and the process of studying becomes frustrating. It's so annoying.

Do I have an emotional problem that it's hard for me to identify? I'm asking because I suspect that I have an emotional problem that I need to solve but identifying it seems hard. Or maybe I need to reprogram my subconscious mind but I'm not sure of it since I don't know to identify my problem. This is a challenge for me and I'm willing to do anything to overcome it.

[The Don]

Nonetheless, I've been watching some videos about mindfulness and the suggestions were that mindfulness can solve any problem. I don't believe it's that easy. That's why it's important for anyone to know how to separate bad and good information.

[legendary]

Have you tried nootropics? 

[Hello from Russia]

How do you take fun and chillout ?  Do you play video games ?

[The Don]

6 minutes ago, legendary said:

Have you tried nootropics? 

Only Piracetam but I don't know if it's safe in the long run...

Piracetam works but I don't want the side effects of it.

[RichardY]

Opportunity cost.

[The Don]

2 hours ago, Hello from Russia said:

How do you take fun and chillout ?  Do you play video games ?

Not too often. I like watching @Leo Gura's videos on YouTube instead of playing video games. I watch a lot of them.

[Danioover9000]

   Try to align your values with what you study. This could reduce the resistance to studying. If you've watched lots of Leo's videos you might have come across goal setting. Try applying those 5 points to what you're studying: Specific and clear, big and compelling, record in journal daily, review daily and align with what you value.

   Next thing to try is positive affirmations and visualizations, Law of Attraction. Personally I motivated myself to study biology, mathematics and to do some exercises after I've done a back to back sessions of positive affirmations and visualizations. In particular I visualize at both the micro(action itself e.g. running) and the macro(big payoff e.g. dream body, after years of work) levels.

   Next thing to try would be slow deep breathing. Resistance is not just a feeling, it is a tension in your body and mind(the latter is advanced, just take my word for it). Deep breathing relaxes your body, which reduces the resistance. Useful right before and during your study time.

   Next thing to try would be brute force. I recommend as a last resort, but basically you study despite the resistance. If that stops working, try the Sedona method. Leo has a video on this.

   Next thing to try would be to contemplate either the resistance, what you're studying and the motivation behind these topics. Again, Leo has videos on contemplating and contemplating using a journal.

   Next thing to try would be to let go of the feeling directly. If you've meditated for months to years and done Letting go meditation you basically let go of the resistance. I've sometimes just apply this to any negative emotion I feel and they sometimes magically melt away. Leo has a video about letting go and has an old meditation video giving a guided visualization on feeling the letting go.

   Next thing to try is being mindful about the resistance. If you've done mindfulness meditation you'll know how to feel into the resistance. That can sometimes by itself fad the resistance away. This also can really help you get in the zone of focus. Again Leo has a video on mindfulness.

   Next thing to try is to train daily on your topic. keep taking action, reading, taking notes, asking yourself a list of a hundred or more questions about your topics, wether you're feeling resistance or not, can help you overcome this feeling overtime. Also it helps even more to slowly baby step towards your actual tasks. Leo also has a video on focus and energy blocks.

   Speaking about energy, the next thing to try is taking proper sleep, nutrition and rest. Also, don't say for example study in 2 hours straight, try segmenting you study time to include 5-15min break between 30min studying.

   I hope this helps you deal with your resistance to learning. Good luck and self-actualize!

 

   

[Leo Gura]

4 hours ago, The Don said:

Hello.

After 18 months of self-actualization which includes meditation on a daily basis, reading, writing, mindfulness and so forth, I still have a deep inner resistance when it comes to studying and trying to memorize facts.

What I find strange is the fact that I can meditate pretty well and I can stay in the present moment for a long time without resistance. I have to admit that it was hard to reach this point where I can meditate everywhere, even at my work which is a pretty randy place.

What bothers me is the feeling that I'll never be able to achieve a pleasant state (meaning a state of flow) when I'm studying the things that seem interesting to me.

I want to be able to enjoy studying without resistance because it's very important for me to be a life-long learner. How can I become a good communicator if I'm not able to process and assimilate information very well?

How many of you do have this inner resistance when studying?

How many of you lack motivation when it comes to learning new stuff?

I'm almost at a point of desperation and I mean that.

Any suggestions to achieve a state of flow when I need to learn new information?

You are getting in your own way. Your own ideals of being a good learner is precisely the thing which is tripping you up here. You are not allowing yourself to fully immerse in the flow of learning because you're too busy trying to live up to the image in your mind of being a good learner. This imagine creates all sorts of artificial requirements like memorization and other formalities which you then resist.

Try learning in a less structured or rigid way. If you really enjoy learning, just do it. Learn in a joyful way without worrying about how that has to look. Perhaps memorization is not necessary at all. Perhaps finishing every book from cover to cover is not necessary either. Perhaps there are totally new ways to learn which you are not even allowing yourself to explore because you've got some rigid image in your mind of what learning has to look like. For example, maybe real learning might look like taking a vacation to another country and going to a bar for drinks with some new people you met, rather than sitting at home memorizing a book. Perhaps real learning is taking psychedelics in the middle of the jungle.

As you go deeper into self-actualization work you have to find ways of doing it which feel organic and natural to you. It can't be like following some check list of mechanical rules.

Telling yourself that "I must watch more self-help videos" will create resistance since its such a forced way of doing things.

You must learn to listen more to your feelings rather than to your shoulds & rules. Your feeling tell you what you need to do when. But this requires getting attuned to hearing their subtle cues. For example in your case now your feelings are telling you that your method of learn is too artificial and forced, which is why you're frustrated.

Imagine if I forced you to have sex every day and if you didn't have sex at the times I wanted you to, in the exact ways I wanted you to, I would give you a strong electric shock. This would quickly take all the joy out of sex. After a few months of this you'd start to hate the idea of sex.

[CreamCat]

31 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Imagine if I forced you to have sex every day and if you didn't have sex at the times I wanted you to, in the exact ways I wanted you to, I would give you a strong electric shock. This would quickly take all the joy out of sex. After a few months of this you'd start to hate the idea of sex.

LOL. This is a clever metaphor. I will also try to learn in a less structured way.

Edited September 27, 2019 by CreamCat

[The Don]

On 9/27/2019 at 2:31 AM, Leo Gura said:

You are getting in your own way. Your own ideals of being a good learner is precisely the thing which is tripping you up here. You are not allowing yourself to fully immerse in the flow of learning because you're too busy trying to live up to the image in your mind of being a good learner. This imagine creates all sorts of artificial requirements like memorization and other formalities which you then resist.

Try learning in a less structured or rigid way. If you really enjoy learning, just do it. Learn in a joyful way without worrying about how that has to look. Perhaps memorization is not necessary at all. Perhaps finishing every book from cover to cover is not necessary either. Perhaps there are totally new ways to learn which you are not even allowing yourself to explore because you've got some rigid image in your mind of what learning has to look like. For example, maybe real learning might look like taking a vacation to another country and going to a bar for drinks with some new people you met, rather than sitting at home memorizing a book. Perhaps real learning is taking psychedelics in the middle of the jungle.

As you go deeper into self-actualization work you have to find ways of doing it which feel organic and natural to you. It can't be like following some check list of mechanical rules.

Telling yourself that "I must watch more self-help videos" will create resistance since its such a forced way of doing things.

You must learn to listen more to your feelings rather than to your shoulds & rules. Your feeling tell you what you need to do when. But this requires getting attuned to hearing their subtle cues. For example in your case now your feelings are telling you that your method of learn is too artificial and forced, which is why you're frustrated.

Imagine if I forced you to have sex every day and if you didn't have sex at the times I wanted you to, in the exact ways I wanted you to, I would give you a strong electric shock. This would quickly take all the joy out of sex. After a few months of this you'd start to hate the idea of sex.

7

Thank you @Leo Gura. I'm so glad that you've responded to my uncertainty.

I will get rid of all my "shoulds" when it comes to learning.

I can identify the fact that I push myself all the time to memorize facts as I'm telling myself that it's very important to memorize all that I read. When I fail to do that, which happens, I become discouraged. Of course, this is bad.

I can also identify the fact that I'm a very fast learner in the sense that I don't stop and contemplate a paragraph or a phrase. It's all going very fast. So yeah, this is bad as well.

I always tell myself that I need to read the whole book in a certain amount of time which is, of course, bad.

All of these mechanical rules must be identified and I'm pretty sure I have more awful rules but I'm at a point where I'm doing my best to identify them.

Thank you for opening my mind to all those facts.

Maybe an episode on YouTube related to learning in a less structured way would be useful to people.

Edited September 28, 2019 by The Don
Correcting the last sentence.

[Aeris]

You probably isn't in passion with what you are truly reading about. ( no "deep" meaning for yourself )

But for me, concentration and focus happen more while bakked off on weed, but I m an extreme rare case, most people sleep when they puff, me I work harder and longer without break ( I could do it without weed, but that again, is just "MY" tool that work for me, and there is pro/cons to be doing it, like not becoming a stoner, too much of it, and that's like everything.. )

( but mostly mental work on computer )

try to find a meaningful vision and things will not seams as work but as something you want to do, just like opening a video game, but instead a wikipedia page ( this can truly happen with commitment )

for book, I m a rare reader, but it can happen that I read 5 hours a day ( and sometimes none for months ) it all depends "my will" and what I m looking for.

Edited September 28, 2019 by Aeris

[Smurfinstein]

Others had some great thought-- one I don't think I saw mentioned- is it possible there's some "impostor syndrome" going on in there. Is it possible you don't believe you are being authentic in the investigation? Would be worth exploring. (But, yeah, I see a lot of other things going on in here-- studying the way you think you SHOULD be studying, putting time restrictions on it, making it an all-together uncomfortable and self-flagellating experience, that would probably release you to actually enjoy the experience. 

Interesting resonance with the sex metaphor above-- I recently got out of a relationship (marriage) with someone I absolutely did not want to have sex with. Actually explored whether I might just be a-sexual. Finally came around to "f* that noise!" and decided I was going to take my sexuality back-- I read that 10 am was the circadian-tuned best time to have sex if struggling with low libido, so I set my alarm for every day at 10 and, hell or high water, I'm going to have an orgasm, dammit, and this will fix it all! After weeks of the practice, heading up stairs for a date with my jackhammer at 10 on the nose, I had an experience where I left my body and looked down on myself... literally PUMMELING it out of me. I had known for a while that the experience wasn't at all fun, didn't really even feel all that good when the mission was accomplished (if it ever was before my legs, feet and arm would cramp up with the effort.) I had a real realization that I want this because it's supposed to be in pleasure and flow and cultivate creative energy and all sorts of GOOD stuff. It's not supposed to be effort. So, I stopped the 10 AM thing. Said "I'll just be open to whenever the spirit moves me." Slowly, the times I've feel moved have been increasing, and overall it's moving me closer to where I want to be. Less striving, more in flow... Net vastly better results despite a magnitude lesser "work." 

[Skanzi]

I'm the worst at this. My weak point is "memorizing". I like to learn in a spontaneous, natural fashion (not trying to learn), but sometimes I feel like it can be very useful to try to study or memorize certain material. For example: I really like to sing, but I really suck at memorizing lyrics or the structure of a song, which causes me to make a lot of mistakes when I do try to perform a song in its entirety. At the moment I'm performing, I'm trying to remember the correct lyrics/structure, which causes me to get out of the flow and into my head, which actually has the opposite effect making me sing the song even worse, which frustrates me even more... And at the same time, I know that I love singing when I'm not worried about whether I'm singing correctly or not.

But I encounter resistance (sometimes massive amounts) when I try to actually learn and remember and intentfully memorize and practice a song. It's a sort of depletion of energy, an exhaustion which simply does not allow me to practice it. The funny thing though is that if I actually have practiced it, if I am actually am trying to perform the song in its entirety with the idea in my mind that I should sing it correctly, the same resistance and frustration resurfaces.

And many times when I don't find in myself the capacity to go and practice it, it is very easy to feel guilty and start judging yourself because of it. Luckily, I have the wisdom to see the fact that this incapacity is not because of a personal lack or deficiency, as if I would not be 'strong' enough, but because there's a part in me that either has not been fully resolved or I am going against my own unalterable authenticity (or both). I reckon it's the first one, though. I don't think I am doomed to not be able to learn it ever, but that there's a certain layer of resistance there for whatever reason it may be there, and that unless this layer of resistance has been dissolved permanently, any willful attempt to practice will be very difficult indeed, and possibly useless or even counterproductive; at least in the larger scheme of things.

Right now I alternate a little bit between trying to let go to have to do it correctly, and sometimes I do find certain windows in which it feels appropriate enough to actually try to practice/memorize a song, although not often. I understand that it is more important to let go of this frustration than it is than to develop the ability to sing a song correctly. Flow should be the priority over flawlessness, even if it would sound really terrible and awkward (although not likely to be). The main priority is that I am able to enjoy myself and to get in this flow state. Being able to sing a song correctly and without fault should always remain a secondary priority, otherwise I will really mess myself up and get very frustrated.

For all I care, I will become the singer who never does his songs right, but who has more fun than any other singer out there . That'd be much better than becoming a flawless singer, or even a famous singer! That is not to say that I wouldn't like to be able to memorize the lyrics/structure of the song correctly if I'm able to, but it should remain secondary and not primary. For me, the primary thing is detachment and... fun! 

Edited September 29, 2019 by Skanzi

[Elisabeth]

Very interesting topic. 

I'm experiencing - perhaps - a similar kind of resistance, not towards learning, but when it comes to physical exercise. I've heard and understood a thousand times how it's important to move my body. I've been told some people can do so joyfully, but when it comes to me exerting effort to move, I hit a wall (like, I HATE it). I experience the joy of movement occasionally, when the activity isn't too demanding no pressure was present (like in free dance or swimming), but never enough to get me moving with any kind of regularity. 

I'd like to shift this, because I know otherwise my body will just fall apart. I'll follow the thread. 

 

Edited September 29, 2019 by Elisabeth