Day 318: Study environments

18092013

Today I had a day off and I had decided that I will use it to take care of my school assignments and other tasks. I managed to get many things done right after I woke up, but at some point I started getting suck. I had studying to do and the material I was trying to read seemed dull and pointless. After I had tried to get myself to read and failed a few times I realized that something about the fact that my apartment was so silent and still was bothering me.

I took my books and my laptop and walked to the bar I work in. It was full of people and the place was really noisy. I managed to find myself a table and I started to study, and to my surprise I was able to concentrate much better in the noisy bar than in the quiet apartment or any library I've been to. I then studied for about three hours straight.

I then remembered something I had just read in my study material about learning always being a social process. I am not sure why, but for some reason I was able to study much better in a social environment than a secluded one. There are so many factors to a situation like this that I cannot draw any conclusions from it (for example, the fact that I walked about 20 minutes to get to the bar and got some exercise might have something to do with it), but I will remember this experience and utilize it in the future. Because the bar was so noisy I was able to talk out loud to myself about my learning process without anyone else hearing! Try doing that in a library, lol.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to believe and perceive that a study environment has to be “peaceful” (quiet, solitary, comfortable, no distractions).

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to limit myself from trying to study in environments that are not “peaceful” because I have believed and perceived that it's not possible.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to use the “non-peacefulness” of an environment as an excuse to not study.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not want people nearby when I study because I have believed and perceived them to be a “distraction”.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not realize that even if I am not studying with people but among people I am already in a social situation where the information I take in can be immediately reflected upon reality and integrated into my world-view.

I commit myself to continue to explore and investigate the social aspect of studying and learning.

PS. The picture in this post is from a very interesting article that relates to my experience!