Learning Adventure

Adventure 103 ~ How To Be Like Dom Pérignon

/ intrepidjane

champagneToday is a special adventure : it’s my birthday and I’m having a wee treat!

After tasting champagne for the very first time, Dom Pérignon is supposed to have exclaimed “Come quickly, I am tasting stars!” Whilst I have drunk champagne before, I am pretty certain that I have never been present enough to the experience to appreciate this exotic liquid’s stellar qualities. I learned from my chocolate-tasting, wine-tasting, whisky-tasting and coffee-tasting adventures that I really hadn’t tasted these substances properly before : I was tasting from a ghost of a memory rather than really smelling and really tasting what was actually in my hands.

So today, my adventure is going to be tasting champagne properly for the very first time! I did a bit of internet research about the champagne I am going to taste and found a fabulous site called The Champagne Toff. On this site, it offers notes about what a particular champagne looks like, smells like and tastes like. I’m going to be tasting the Lanson Black Label Non-Vintage champagne (supposedly a racy number with a lingering taste 🙂 ) to see if my experience matches the Champagne Toff’s notes. Will I be tasting stars?

You can watch how I get on here ~

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 99 ~ How To Be A Geek [Part Deux]

/ intrepidjane

Today’s adventure heralds the end of  the “Tech Series”. This morning, I woke up with a feeling of some “unfinished adventuring” and decided to scratch the itch by attempting to use the YouTube Video Editor to add some text and banners to today’s video .

I think that this may be the first adventure involving swearing (relax – it’s all behind the scenes as I wrestle with the vagaries of the editing tools). I still had fun though 🙂 .

You can watch the results here ~

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 98 ~ How To Be A Geek

/ intrepidjane

For today’s adventure, I decided to overcome my fear of the words “Advanced Settings”. I used to think that if I pressed any button marked in this way that it could only lead to technological disaster (and, possibly, the end of the world 😛 ) .

Find out what happens when I summon the courage to press the “Advanced Settings” button on my YouTube channel in the video below. You can see the effects of my geekery here  ~ I’m actually quite pleased with myself!

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 97 ~ Making A Video Trailer On YouTube

/ intrepidjane

It seems like I’m having an urge for a bit of technical adventuring at the moment 🙂 . Today I tried my hand at making a trailer on YouTube using the Video Creation Tool!

I have to admit that it was rather frustrating (I kept getting “Oops ~ something’s gone wrong” messages which meant that I had to start all over again) and it wasn’t obvious how to use the features. I did, however, get there in the end.

It’s rather rough and ready – the next step is to learn how to “tidy up” the pictures.

You can see how I got on here :

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventures 95 & 96 ~ Making An Inspirational Video

/ intrepidjane

Over the last 2 days, I’ve been adventuring into the world of movie-making! I’ve been working out how to use Windows Movie-Maker so that I could try my hand at making an inspirational video.

My video is called “How To Find Your Direction In Life.” You can see how successful I was on day 1 (Adventure 95) here. I have to say, it took longer to make this than it did to learn the entire contents of the periodic table 😛 ! If you watch it on a phone, it looks fine : on the “big screen” it looks a little ropey. So today, I decided to have another play and I had a go at experimenting with a few more of the features of Window Movie-Maker.

You can watch the re-mix here 🙂 ~

I am just going outside and may be some time .

JT

 

 

Adventure 89 ~ The Invisible Counsellors Technique

/ intrepidjane

Today I’m starting a new series of adventures! Having stumbled across the Invisible Counsellors technique this morning, for the next couple of nights I’m going to be seeking some business advice, and some insights, from my own “big name” counsellors 🙂 .

In today’s video, I explain how this problem-solving technique works and introduce you to my panel of counsellors ~

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 88 ~ Image Streaming

/ intrepidjane

Today I’m having a go at a technique called image streaming . If practised regularly, it’s supposed to increase your IQ and improve your creativity. After I’d let the experience settle, I had some insights : I’ve put these below the video.

Watch me try image streaming here :

In my dream adventures, the river is a representation of me. In the image streaming experience today, I witnessed a series of images returning back to the river. In my life right now, I am taking action to return to myself. Something feels significant about landing on a tiny,spinning planet and being huge and (again!) bare. Bareness awakens the feeling of vulnerability in me ; a small planet and a big “me” brings the words “not fitting” to mind and the spinning elicits a sense of dislodgement and movement. As I type these associations, something is emerging that is making my heart pound!

I am just going outside and may be some time 🙂 .

JT

 

Adventure 87 ~ The Over The Wall Technique

/ intrepidjane

over the wallIn yesterday’s video, I made a throw-away comment about sensing a “something’s- not -quite- right” under-current. Today I’ve decided to try out a new technique to ascertain what that under-current actually is!

You can find everything you need to know about the Over The Wall problem-solving technique here . Today’s video shows how powerful and effective this simple process is . As I’m writing this blog post and waiting for the video to upload, I’m gaining further insights from the experience “on the other side” ~ the landing was much softer than I expected and I sense that if I open further to the presenting emotions (and the insights, knowledge, wisdom and information held within these states), I will be well supported by the part of me that knows how to break my fall 🙂 .*

* [Please note : this process works best when you genuinely want to see what’s on the other side of the wall. Depending on the issue you choose, for some people, being supported through this process by someone else may be the best way to go].

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventures 83 – 84 ~ Memory Feat [Days 8 and 9]

/ intrepidjane

Yesterday I managed to recall the first 103 elements of the periodic table . You can watch me in action here 🙂 . Today is the big day, I’m going for the full 118!

Throughout my memory place adventures, I’ve been having strange dreams. Some of them involved me watching the elements being projected onto a kind of mind screen. The most interesting of them involved me wandering through a complex labyrinth and making my way into a central cave. This cave was like a central “dream projection booth”. The cave had many portal-like windows and through the windows I could see a multitude of dreams going on simultaneously. I could step into each dream and observe it as a lucid dreamer before selecting the dream that I’d like to slide into.

This dream left me with a real sense of “mind space” and possibility. It left me with a tangible sense of the vastness of my own mind. Over the week, I’ve grown to marvel at the capability of the human mind and I’ve had a sense of discovering a doorway to an infinite space. The memory palace experience has really changed my mind about my own mind – the idea of “cramming” memories in just doesn’t seem to fit anymore 😛 . There seems to be a vast amount of space to record everything we need ~ and in the actual experience of recalling, that place of memory seems to exist way beyond my own head.

So, here’s me giving it a whirl. I’ve spent around 3 minutes a day for the last 9 days building this palace. In other words, this memory feat has taken under 30 minutes! If you’d like to try this technique for yourself, you can learn more about it here . For me this hasn’t just been about memory, it’s been about presence. The more immersed I am in learning, the easier it is to remember. The more immersed I am, the more alive I feel … the more alive the whole world looks – even the periodic table 🙂 .

I am just going outside and may be some time 🙂 .

JT

Adventure 82 ~ Memory Feat [Day 7]

/ intrepidjane

Today I add a further 15 elements, bringing me up to 90 elements of the periodic table from memory! As I get more skilful at using the memory palace technique, I am now noticing some of the finer distinctions :

1. I am using peripheral vision automatically. You’ll notice that my eyes are defocused : as soon as I bring my eyes back into foveal vision, I lose my connection with the memory palace. If you’re wondering about the significance of peripheral vision, it’s this : this is a natural “flow state”, opening the flow between the conscious and unconscious mind. This state is also referred to as the “alpha state”.

2. I have split awareness : I am “organising” the tour of the palace and taking part in the tour at the same time.

You’ll notice that, at one point, I lose my connection with the memory palace as my focus shifts back to the “here and now”. In my mind’s eye, I am stepping out into my garden : at this point, I become consciously aware that I am actually in my garden. I have to dissociate from my actual garden and associate with my memory palace garden in order to continue. Can you see where this shift happens in today’s video?

I am just going outside and may be some time 🙂 .

JT