By Dr. Raymond Comeau
“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” – E. L. Doctorow
It’s not how much we read that truly matters, it’s how much we retain and assimilate from what we’ve read that is truly important. That is especially true when it comes to self-improvement material. General knowledge is quite easily assimilated but when it comes to anything that relates to psychology or philosophy, that’s another matter.
The reason that assimilating self-improvement material is more difficult is the fact that it requires a change in the thinking patterns. The mind craves consistency so when it is confronted to theories that goes against the concepts that were previously held there is sharp resistance.
To complicate things even more, the resistance against new ways of thinking is done at the level of the unconscious. We are not even aware of the tricks that the mind plays in order to preserve the consistency that it desires.
The best way of circumventing that resistance to change from the brain is to explore deeper the material that we wish to assimilate. The ideal way to do that is by writing, in our own words, what we believe that we have just read and then, compare the two versions.
Many times, we are amazed at the results of that exercise. The mind had found a way to completely change the meaning of what we had just read in order to maintain the integrity of our previously held beliefs.
Another roadblock to assimilating self-improvement material is the fact that we tend to think in terms of whole concept or whole picture instead of giving attention to the different parts that form the whole theory. In other word, we grasp the big picture but tend to ignore all the important details that made up that big picture.
That is another roadblock that can be overcome by writing about the subject that we are trying to assimilate. We may think that we understand a theory, but it is when we write about that theory that we truly see how much we know and how much is still a vague notion.
Most of us have had an experience where we tried to explain a theory to someone else, only to find out that maybe we did not know as much about it as we believed that we did. It would not have been a problem if we had written a few paragraphs about the subject before trying to explain it.
Writing clarifies our views, points out the areas that need more research and turn vague notions into clear and concise words. It gives us a deeper understanding of the subject and makes it easier to associate related concepts.
It also allows us to examine in a minute way and analyze critically every component of the concept and weigh the validity of the entire structure. In other words, it permits us to visually examine an idea, concept, notion or theory, see how the different parts harmonize with the whole and evaluate the validity of the entire construct.
For anyone serious about the studies of self-improvement material, daily writing on the subject is absolutely essential. That is where abstract information takes form and notions are turned into concrete and tangible knowledge. Writing is the best possible medium to assimilate, in a tangible way, what was previously a rather vague nation and turn the abstract into physical pathways in the neurons of our brain.
Dr. Raymond Comeau aka Shamou is the Author of ShamouBlog and Owner Administrator of Personal Development for Personal Success Forums
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Writing – Turning the Abstract Into Concrete – A Tool For Self-improvement
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