Reality or Fiction?

I have always been surprised to see the kids answering to the TV, as if they had been asked. There is a period of time in which we don’t fully recognize reality of fiction. That’s why it’s so easy to mock children with sweet little lies. As the conscious mind matures, reality is more accurately recognized, but only because or Conscious mind has evolved, not because the Dormant Giant has changed. We can use this feature of not discerning reality from fiction to our benefit while learning a language. This is the basic clue of Thinking Languages!

On our previous e-lesson, the Dormant Giant, we read a bit about the subconscious part of our minds, that shady area in which we can only access while dreaming or being mesmerized. However; there are several occasions in which the Giant manifests totally out of our control, far too many occasions than we think.

Slips of the tongue, for example, represent a clear situation in which the Dormant Giant shows he’s on something else rather than following our conscious will. When referring to phobias it is even more clearly shown, like a spider on a television show that cannot harm you at all, but it can trigger all your body physical responses to an extreme situation.

According to the Dormant Giant, the world consists of two opposite feelings: Good and Bad. Pleasure, happiness or security are feelings seen as good ones by the Dormant Giant, therefore feelings that will not trigger the fear responses. However; pain, fear, insecurity or boredom are feelings that do trigger our physical body responses to fear. That is why stress is so harmful, because the Dormant Giant cannot distinguish between a stressful job or a tiger up to attack you.

Fear is the key

When we’re scared, the Dormant Giant takes control. Your body muscles, your breath, your blood pressure prepare for the scape or attack. This is an automatic response that travels directly from the more prehistoric parts of your brain to your body, without passing through your conscious mind. The Dormant Giant is so powerful he can do that, and much more.

A child wearing a mask can scare us to death if appeared from behind a wall shouting at Halloween. A moment later, our Conscious mind will determine it was not a real threaten, but the Dormant Giant prepared your body in just a fraction to whatever harm you were up to receive, much faster than your conscious mind would have determined to take a decision, just because he knows that by the time the Consciousness takes a decision we could be dead.

And one of the things that happen when we’re scared is that our cognitive channel, the part of our brain used for learning, blocks. You can easily memorize a phone number at a normal situation, but you cannot do it if the tiger is roaring at your ear, can you? And that is why many people do not learn a language.

Sending the message to our Dormant Giant that the class is boring, the language is difficult, we are too stupid, this is not interesting and so on is what a whole lot my students think while we’re in the class, but this won’t help you nor them at all! On the other hand, it will trigger your fear responses and the Dormant Giant will close your cognitive channel, just in case there’s an emergency. It is pure biology my friends, and many of you have been behaving like that for years in classes.

The Dormant Giant at your service

But there’s something great about the Giant’s functions and capabilities. When something is needed, it can allow your entire system to focus on that instead. That is what happens to babies. Their consciousness has not been matured yet, however, the reptile in our heads is, and it takes control of everything.

The Dormant Giant wants you to survive and procreate, and he knows the language is the most important thing to achieve in order to do that. No matter how old you are, if you isolate your Giant in a situation in which the language you want to learn is the only option, and you feel happy while you study not bringing any negative feelings, the Dormant Giant will move his ass to your goal, as he thinks your life could be in danger.

Ignore any bad feelings and avoid excuses, as they will not only slow you down, but make you get your entire brain blocked. Ignore what you don’t understand, ignore how difficult it is, and enjoy every minute of the miracle that is happening inside your brain. You are learning a language again.

Have you put your Giant at your service yet?