Would you like to stop the negative messages that sometimes pop in your mind?
And what about the possibility to overcome a bad habit as you improve your Italian? Would you like it?
I hope so, because you will be able to find out some very interesting things just by reading this page till the end;-)
It may have occurred also to you to learn Italian and reach a point when, despite your efforts in reading, practicing and listening to the language, it looks like you “have reached a dead spot”. To say that, experts use the expression:” to hit plateau”…
And perhaps despite the fact that you have lately kept on doing something for your Italian, you may start telling yourself: “I’m really not improving at all”, or “Today I don’t feel like doing anything with Italian, I am not improving at all anyway…”
If this has happened to you, know that the negative sentences that may pop in your mind are normal and Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz has named them “deceptive brain messages”….
Let me give you some background about this doctor and how his research may help you improve your Italian today…
Dr. Schwartz has created a protocol without medicines that can be helpful to people suffering from OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)… It’s those people compulsively repeating an action… perhaps they want to wash their hands every two minutes, or – nowadays – compulsively check their email or Facebook account…
I don’t know if you have watched the movie titled “The Aviator”: in that movie Leonardo Di Caprio plays a character with that “discomfort”… Dr. Schwartz was Di Caprio’s coach during the movie shootings. In my web browsing I was attracted by this video where dr. Schwartz talks about it in English (unfortunately without Italian subtitles):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycnIO4o9vbE
If you aren’t able to watch or understand it well, I would like to point out an interesting piece of information: the mind can change the brain so that Leonardo di Caprio has immersed himself so much in the role that three months after shooting the movie he still behaved like an OCD sufferer. It took him several months to recover. This implies that the mind can have a powerful effect on the brain and tha any good actor enters so much in the role to change his brain!
This information also has some very positive implication, as Dr. Schwartz fully demonstrates.
As I am not a medical doctor, I’ll leave you with the task, if you wish so, to deepen your knowledge on the subject, perhaps by reading the book “You’re not your Brain“, by Dr. Schwartz, that of course (ironic:-) hasn’t been translated into Italian yet.
If you are a trainer and you are keen on knowing how to teach better and at a deep level, then you could also read this other book, titled “Keeping the brain in Mind“, by Melissa Tiers and Shawn Carson that I’ve just finished reading and that, among many other things, summarizes Dr. Schwartz’s protocol.
In any case, what I’d like to point out to you is that bad thoughts that may pop in your mind when you can’t see you are getting near the goal, the “deceptive brain messages” are ““any false . . . thought or unhelpful impulse . . . that takes you away from your true goals . . . i.e., your true self.” (quoting the book Keeping the brain in mind).
Now, despite the fact that you may (or not) get these false thoughts, you have to know that probably if there would be a way to verify if – by doing the right things – your brain is progressing – and there is a way to do that! – you may realize that in reality your brain is doing it even if it apparently looks like nothing happens (and forgive my twisted sentence;-)!
In fact, people who followed Dr. Schwartz protocol didn’t realize they were improving, but their brain scans showed they were doing it and, by keeping on applying the protocol, at the end of the 12-week period their brain structure had changed and so had their “problem”….
But this is a blog to Speak Italian Magically, so here you have any deceptive messages you could get in your path toward Italian mastery:
I’m not good enough. Non sono bravo abbastanza.There’s something wrong with me. C’è qualcosa di storto in me.
I don’t deserve to be happy and speak Italian very well. Non mi merito di essere felice e parlare l’italiano molto bene.My wishes or goals are unrealistic or unattainable. I miei desideri od obiettivi sono irrealistici e inottenibili…
I always do the same mistakes! Faccio sempre gli stessi errori!
What can you do to interrupt the pattern and focus on something more productive, getting nearer and nearer your goal of speaking Italian better and better?
What follows are the 4 steps of Dr. Schwartz’s Protocol adapted to the specific case of learning the Italian language:
1) Relabel (Rietichetta).
When you have these negative thoughts, simply stop and mentally acknowledge that you are having them… You can tell yourself: “I am having those negative thoughts again…”
2) Reframe (Reincornicia)
At this point you can continue the sentence by telling yourself “… but it’s not me… it’s just my brain!” By telling something like that you are just dissociating from those sentences. It’s not you who’s not good at learning and speaking Italian very well, but it’s your brain that is sending you false messages:-)
3) Refocus (Redirigi la tua attenzione)
After the first two phases, the piece of advice is to do something useful and productive. What can you do that may get you nearer your goal of speaking Italian very well? Perhaps you could listen to an audio from Speak Italian Magically or Awaken your Italian, or anything else in Italian, why not? I’d suggest you listen to the episode titled “When you are at your best!” Or you can watch a TV show in Italian (your favorite one)… or even carefully listen to an Italian song! The choice is infinite, as long as you do something that makes you feel good while absorbing and improving your Italian! (Because if you associate pleasure with Italian learning then you’ll learn it much faster!)
4) Revalue (Rivaluta)
If you have followed this protocol for a while, then you could revalue what you have done so far… And you could verify something like: ” That false message wasn’t doing anything for me, but look at all the beautiful things I have learned and how good I am becoming with Italian day after day!;-)”
(Originally published on 30/06/2014)