FACILITATING THE LEARNING PROCESS
“FACILITATING THE LEARNING PROCESS.”
By Michael Yapko, Ph.D.
Preparing people to learn a new skill that seems challenging to them.
As you listen to this trance process… why not let yourself be very comfortable… and when your conscious mind drifts off… and it undoubtedly will drift off… isn’t it nice to know that you can be so comfortable…
I sometimes like to begin by talking about how soothing… and comfortable an experience trance is… how good it feels to be able to close your eyes and take in a few deep… relaxing breaths… but some people haven’t had much experience in relaxing … and they really don’t have much awareness for how good it feels to do something as simple… as close your eyes… that’s right… and fortunately… you have had some experience… with letting the outside world drift… from your awareness… as you grow more comfortable… with each breath you exhale… you can remember to forget… that the world outside… is outside… and then the world inside… is so much more important…
and as you notice your thoughts… and feelings… you can remember learning something pleasing… when you were much younger… than you are right now… and then you can easily forget… to notice the sensation… in your leg… until I remind you… to notice it growing… so much more comfortable… and now you know… how easy it is… to have your mind… drift off… that’s right… you’ve had the experience… of relaxing deeply before… and you can recall… being guided by numbers… into a state of comfort… and well being… and the monotonous counting… was so boring… that you wondered… what you were supposed to do… and isn’t it comforting… to know now… that there are no numbers to listen to…and there’s nothing you have to do… and doing nothing… and letting yourself remember… that pleasure of doing nothing… by sitting so comfortably… as you are… by breathing at a rate… that feels so good… can remind you… of other times… in your experience… that you became so preoccupied… with your thoughts… and fantasies… and there have been times… when you were so lost in thought… thinking of everything… and thinking of nothing… as if you were in the middle of nowhere… comfortably separated… from your surroundings… a mind in one place… and a body… in another place… here… but there… now… and then… and if you think about… a time like that… a time… when you were so comfortable… within yourself… maybe on a long drive… or while enjoying a book… that lets you get away… from your everyday self… or some other… deep experience… then you can recall… how comfortable… you can really be… when your body becomes so far away… and feels… like it just takes… too much effort… to even move… and its so much easier… to just sit there… comfortably… isn’t it… that’s right… it is easier… to just drift along… listening… and hearing… about how comfortable… you can be…
and then… it really… doesn’t matter… that today… is a new day… a day you’ve never experienced before… because today… you can rediscover… whichever of your previous learnings… you would like… in order to relax… comfortably… and enjoy the newness… of today… as you experience yourself… differently … because you are different… you know more now… than at any other time in your life… you’ve lived longer… and had more experience… and all that you have learned… has taught you… how to learn… a simple idea… that was so easy… to forget… until now… when you discover… how all the learnings… of your lifetime… can serve you now… in the way that you would like… and you can really enjoy the insecurity you feel… about learning something new… for it’s the same insecurity… you’ve felt so many times before… when you were both uncertain… about whether you had the ability… to master a skill… and so impatient… to conquer it… and as you impatiently look forward to the time… that you can feel comfortable… with what you know… you can patiently understand… that you’ll have to feel uncomfortable… with how much more there is to know… or won’t you?…
and so why not strive… for being perfectly… imperfect ?… and remember now… as if it were then… how uncertain… and impatient… you were about learning… to read… and write … but you’ve come so far… and remember when… you were so anxious to drive a car?.. and now you take driving… for granted … and there was a time… not so long ago… when you were so fearful … about going to school… and you didn’t even know… if you could pass a class… and now you know… that you can… be just uncertain enough… to do a very good job… and just insecure enough… to be very skilled… at what you do… and so why not… enjoy your uncertainty… as the challenge to do well … that it has always been… and then you can appreciate… your impatience… as the motivater to make a commitment to excellence… a commitment that you can use… as a guide to your work… and why not be just impatient enough… to review the many times… you anxiously wanted… to quickly accomplish something important to you… so that you can remind yourself… of how each accomplishment… took place at its own rate… and so enjoy a minute of clock time… to let yourself… drift back… to the memories of learning… important things… things that seemed so difficult at one time… that became so easy later … and when I again begin to speak in a minute… you can just allow… my voice… and my words… to soothe you even more… and a minute of silence… begins now…
and you can just continue to relax comfortably… so comfortably … and now you¹ve had some time… to discover that what seems difficult at one time… can become… something that you take for granted… comfortably for granted… at a later time… and wasn’t it nice to remind yourself… of how each accomplishment … took place… at its own rate ?… and when you remember… that first you learn to crawl… then walk… then run… your unconscious can choose a learning rate… that’s just unreasonable enough… to be very, very satisfying… as satisfying as the level of comfort… you¹re experiencing right now… and even more… and when you take the time… to go inward… where your inner resources… can be rediscovered… and enjoyed… then you can appreciate… how easy it is… to re-experience… feelings … sounds… and images from the past… and you can enjoy experiencing… your future… in the present… and that’s a nice present… and when your body rests comfortably here… while your mind drifts off there… you can discover the sensation… of no sensation… that’s been in your hand… a pleasing numbness… that you didn’t even notice… until now… that has been replaced now… with everyday… usual sensations of comfort… as your hand begins to feel like yours again…
and time has passed so strangely… and how can you really know… whether it’s been five minutes… that have gone by… or sixty five minutes… when time seems like such a foreign concept… because you’re so comfortable… and all the experiences of the past minutes… can serve as a reminder… of how very complex a being you are… and how many different experiences… you are capable of… and you can pretend… that I’m not talking to you … if you’d like… but there’s another part of you… deeply inside… so deeply inside… that knows better… and so you can enjoy the times… that you drift off… into memories… of the past… or images… of the future… and you can feel good… so good… that the world around you… fades from time to time… when it seems like a good time for it to do so…
and as you discover more and more about yourself… you may even notice… more about others… who experience similar events… but you don’t have to think… that you are observing hypnotic phenomena… for if you do… you will begin to see trance states everywhere… and in everyone… and then you will want to understand trance states much, much more… and why take on… any more challenges when you’re so busy already… unless you’re just uncertain enough… and impatient enough… to discover the parts of your that can learn well… and use your learnings… very well…
and as you take the time to wonder… just what I mean by that… you can enjoy the comfort of relaxation… as long as you like… and then in a short while… that can feel like a long while… you can bring yourself out of trance… relaxed refreshed… and wondering how little your conscious mind will have remembered… about what I have said… and isn’t it interesting how a trance state… can be so very pleasurable… and yours to enjoy whenever you wish… and when you’re ready… why not allow you’re eyes to open…
This script is copyright protected; copyright © by Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D., Fallbrook, CA.; www.yapko.com
