When does learning happen?

[MilenaS]

Currently, I am wondering: what is learning and when does it happen? It becomes clearer and clearer to me that mere repetition of some activity isn't enough. If I try to learn a new, deeper kind of breathing and I want it to become my new automatic way of breathing, it is not enouch that I do breathing exercises to teach my body a new way. If I am doing so without a proper intention, I intuit that the exercise will be of little usefulness. But I am not sure. Maybe conscious effort is not required, or it is another belief about how learning happens? Now I can start to believe that when I consciously remind myself that the exercise will do its job while I'm doing it, that exercise will work.

How big is the role of believing in the effectiveness of some method of reaching a goal in the actual effectiveness of that method? 

[Value]

For some years now I have been practicing hours a day at specific crafts which at times has had me frustrated and confused as to what is the most effective way to practice. I now reached a two step strategy that works well for me in anything I try to master.

1. Practice - Do something to get better at it.

2. Reflect - Think and take short notes on the most central parts of what I just did (AND later sort these thoughts into OneNote.)

Repeat.

This process - doing followed by reflecting - works for both short sessions of practice or for whole workdays or long term projects. The reflection process autocorrects the practice, gives you direction over time and opens the mind to new ideas.

Also I like the perspectives in Leo's videos on learning. 'Learning = Observation', 'Learning = Behavior Change', 'Learning = Making Distinctions' and 'Learning = Experience'.