The Illuminative Method: How to be Great at Learning in a Whole New Light
The Illuminative Method is dedicated to anyone who feels they didn’t fit in at school, on the job, at home, or among friends and neighbors. Discovering “how to fit” though requires tools, patience, humor, perseverance and most of all an independent mind. Unlearn the boring system you’ve learned from and detach The Big Filter: when you rely on others, the system, to tell you what to learn and what to do. The illuminative method helps you to get rid of this filter thinking and to begin believing in yourself.
Illumination is a world powered by you, what lights you up, what animates you, what reanimates you. The parameters are what inspires you.
I developed this 7-step method to help a student, who was on the verge of dropping out, survive and even thrive all the way through grad school. With roots from my childhood, this method has now been developed through several stages of research into a system that can help anyone make learning fun, at any stage of life. It can help an employee get excited about a lackluster job, a person who has been labeled as LD (learning disability) reject the label and excel, an adult learner jump back into the education system with joy or a retiree to discover a new career.
This system is fun! It routes you away from the filtered, Zombie-thinking you may have experienced in the past and guides you toward new adventures. This system is evolving. Irreverent. Animated. You might recognize yourself in these situations. You might not. This system is not vanilla. It pokes fun at the age-old, boring learning system and makes life exciting. But it’s not just fun, it’s backed by hard science.
The Seven Steps:
SIMMER (Steps 1-3)
1. Notice
Sensing illumination
What is illumination? Sensations of deep connection, joy, enlightenment, wholeness, understanding, synchronicity, flow, calm, love, anything you feel could potentially hold the planet together and causes you to feel very thankful.
Tracking when you feel illumination collects information about you, the real you. A chance for you to discover what you actually think and feel versus what you are told to think and feel. Instead of feeling like brain drain – (class, seminar, work), you begin to experience brain re-animation, adding color and energy to your life.
Illumination includes things/moments/experiences that make you want to:
– find a quiet place to reflect and be grateful
– pray or meditate
OR
– tweet
– text all your friends
– take a picture
– post on social media
– call your best friend
– call/text anyone who will listen
– share, engage with the world
– jump up and down
– rejoice
– live forever
2. Document
Document the time of day, place, and sensation you felt when experiencing illumination by using any kind of tool for recording such as taking photos, writing in a journal, sketching, taking video/sound recording, and noting location on maps
3. Share
Gather together a small group of trusted people (3-5). Meet at a friend’s home, at the breakroom at work, in a church, an online group – anywhere comfortable. Start with baby steps and share one or two moments of illumination with the group. This is an chance to simmer in your own experiences but by boldly sharing it in the presence of others.
ACTIVATE (Steps 4-5)
4. Identify
Identify the natural skills and strengths revealed when you feel illumination. Interview your friends, find out what makes your friend light up when they talk. Be curious. Investigate. What are the natural skills & strengths that you admire in someone? What would you want this person to teach you? Is there something that you want your friend to teach you?
5. Teach
Develop small courses based on the identified skills and strengths to teach to one another in a casual skillshare in the kitchen, at work, or anywhere else that makes sense. You and your friends are learning how to teach you what you love to do.
ANIMATE (Step 6-7)
6. Link
Brainstorm new creative ventures, learning opportunities, and new products which grow from identifying the skills and what makes you feel illuminated.
learning opportunities
family events
programs
products
businesses
parties
7. Launch your idea and then start again at step one.