This sounds about right, GnarlyOcelot, from what I understand (I am not yet an expert as I have only been PhotoReading for two months.)
The trick to relaxing in this way, Roger, is a simple one, but I certainly had my troubles for a while too. You have to let go to perfectionism and worry. You must designate As you say, a state of anxiety only decreases your ability to perform, so you must simply stay with the process, not worrying about whether you're doing it right or not. You can always reread the appropriate section in the PhotoReading book to correct yourself after the fact. But really, you have taught yourself yourself to remember the process and the important details beforehand. That way you'll KNOW you're doing it right and thus you have no logical reason to be fearful about PhotoReading.
Until you've really become a master at maintaining a meditative state of mind, it is totally unrealistic to expect that your mind will immediately become completely calm and clear for the PhotoReading process. In the beginning, you will undoubtedly encounter intruding thoughts even if you apply the tangerine technique. But this doesen't matter as much as you might think. Simply notice that your mind has drifted off and guide it back to the task at hand. Jack Kornfield, on his meditation tapes, compares this procedure for calming the mind to training a puppy; when you tell it to sit at first, he runs away, but in order for him to learn, you must pick him up and place him back where he started in order to try training him again.
A deeper relaxation with fewer interruptions comes with time, having repeated the same thing over and over again to the point where you become very comfortable with it. I have come much closer to this with PhotoReading, for sure. I enjoy the relaxed feeling of rhythmically going through a book, not worrying about anything including when I accidentally skip a bunch of pages!
Now I need to work on relaxing and letting my ACTIVATION flow in the same way as my PhotoFocus because as of yet, I've found the process quite scary and uncomfortable -- probably mainly because I have mostly used it on school materials which tends to associate a bit of added stress!
Have fun!
And if you really are unable to relax even when truly following the 3,2,1, along with the tangerine technique, just keep doing it as best you can for now, and the deeper relaxation will come when you've practiced it more.
-Cameron
quote:
Originally posted by GnarlyOcelot:
So Cameron (or anyone), would the state im going for be more of a relaxed robotic concentration.. systematically turning the pages while trying to keep my mind as clear as possible? The chanting is just there to keep my conscious mind occupied.. something to do while i do this robotic turning?
