Knowing is owning.

Teaching is sharing.

Teaching is a natural expression of love.

This however is largely misunderstood because of the institutionalization through the so called „education system“.

Many of us have experienced that learning comes with suppressing natural behaviour like asking questions, moving around, trial and error, open discussions, practical application, just to name a few examples.

Instead we were forced to sit down, listen, shut up and when we were asked to speak, the answer had better be right, otherwise we would face shame and rejection.

This has created a generally negative attitude towards learning, since we tend to think: „If we don’t know everything yet, we are not good enough.“

And since feeling inadequate and ashamed is very unpleasant, we tend to close the eyes before many things we would have the opportunity to learn from.

Also, it is not uncommon that we tend to view someone who teaches us in a very negative way, because we still remember those who tortured us in the name of the state’s education system. 

It is time to leave that shit behind and realize once again:

Teaching is a natural act of love, and many of us can not help to explain what we have just recently found out, (or what we ourselves need to learn most 🙂 

It is a free gift and it hurts to feel the rejection that we face, even though it is understandable from the above mentioned viewpoints.

And to those of us who feel that learning is a sign of weakness, let me offer another view:

Learning is the ability to receive love. „I am worthy of the gift that someone else makes me. There is no reason to be ashamed of not knowing everything, even if feelings of shame might arise from our previous conditioning.“

Another very noteworthy thing I learned from teaching:

The less stress is involved for someone making a mistake, the better the learning can be integrated. Anything that causes existential stress like fear, shame, rejection will most likely trigger a little traumatic response, blanking out the time before the mistake happened, as well. So the factors leading to the mistake also remain „in the dark“. And guess what: The mistake will happen again.

On the other hand, when we experience that making a mistake is normal and that we feel still safe, we are very likely to realize the mistake itself, as well as the steps on the way towards it. Thus, true learning can take place.

The difficulty is that „feeling safe“ largely depends on the learning individual’s conditioning. Some rare examples don’t even mind when they get screamed at by a military drill instructor, because this does not threaten them at their base. Most others react much more sensitive and responsibility lies with both sides to know these factors to facilitate a smooth flow of… 

Love.

Be grateful up there!

Christian