The 2016-adventure

Your wake-up call for the rest of 2016

I invite you to join me for the second part of the year. We are on an adventure where we stop operating on autopilot and start living a life of curiosity and joy.

The new fun activities are:

• WEEK ONE

Whether I drink tea or coffee I want to make it a ritual: I want to be aware of the smell, the taste, the temperature and even where it comes from and what it took for me to be able to enjoy it. Savouring the moment and realising when my mind has wandered.

• WEEK TWO

How will it feel to reduce the speed of my movements, for brief periods in the day?

• WEEK THREE

I want to play with visualisation from time to time. I am going to imagine the sun’s warm and bright rays shining down into my body. I want to feel it filling my body from the toes upwards as if it was a container. As the “liquid sunlight fills me up” I sense all tension melting away in my body.

• WEEK FOUR

When I brush my teeth, I want to make it an exercise in mindfulness. Rather than simply thinking about stuff, direct my attention to the physical sensations, the smells and the taste.

Contact Lucia Brand
0827824747

The role of Focus in Studying

Modern psychologists refer to this state of absolute absorption or concentration in what we are doing, as being "in flow."

Focus.

 As a child, I remember teachers at my school shouting at us to “Pay attention!”, but yelling at someone doesn’t train anyone to focus.

Paying attention, luckily, is a skill that can be learned.

                                                                                                       Photo Credit: Unsplash


What are the instructions for focusing?

• The ability not to be distracted and
• Deliberate attention on one thing at one time

What are the ingredients of focus for making it sustainable?

• ·    Spaciousness and lightness (a softness, instead of an intense focus)
• ·    Interest and curiosity (Asking for example, ‘How does my body/body part feel? Light? Heavy? Tight? Opening up yourself – pausing playfully - and not hurrying this answer.)

Why do you get to know your strengths in the Study Course?

There are modalities in your brain that work better for you to pay attention. Some people have to hear to focus well while others have to see the information or feel it more intuitively with their bodies. Each one has to know their dominant modality to orientate themselves. In the Complete Study Course, you discover what this is. It is like tuning your instrument before tuning it together with other instruments of an orchestra (i.e. at school).

Tuning your instrument is an analogy of getting in touch with yourself and it balances the doing with being. You use what you are naturally drawn to – visualisation, listening or feeling – to get in touch with yourself and to study more effectively.

Meditation is a practice of training your mind to focus and be more present and remind yourselves when you are distracted. It is removed from the business of life and activities. 

And then, on the other hand, there is the application of mindfulness. The latter is using the new sense of calm and ease and applies it to activities like studying. You will find focused flow creeping into all activities of your life. Have a look at Yuja Wang playing the piano “in flow”.

During the sessions in this course we apply memory techniques that suit your strengths.

2-week Courses available during the holiday. 

To book contact:

Lucia Brand
082 782 4747
luciabrand@cybersmart.co.za