I homeschooled my kids until my oldest son started grade 6, and that year all 3 of my kids went into the public school system.
Homeschooling brings awareness to learning styles so it’s always been a topic of conversation in our home.
My oldest is incredibly kinaesthetic. He is a mover and shaker and he learns really well that way.
My second child is extremely visual, to the point of having an almost photographic memory.
My guess is that our third child is auditory because she always always needs to have noise around her, but she doesn’t have as dominant of a learning style as my older 2.
I could never really figure out what type of learner I was… I just knew I process things a lot better if I write about them (and that’s why we are all here today).
I was taking a horse anatomy course in the spring.. and as the lady was teaching us I would ask a question that went something like, I’m imagining this or that to look like this… is that right?
Her assistant (someone I didn’t know) said to me, “you’re a really visual learner aren’t you?”
Huh. I guess I am.
My memory isn’t photographic like my sons, but when someone is talking or telling a story I am imagining what the are talking about and that’s how I make sense of it.
My magical energy lady/therapist did a really neat thing with me when I was going through a rough time a few years back.
I told her I couldn’t get an image out of my head, it was like a bad car accident, I just kept seeing it over and over and it was tormenting me.
She had me imagine that picture, and then shrink it down like we can on an iPhone, and swipe it away out of my mind.
I had to do this a few times when it would pop back in, but eventually the image lost its power over me.
A couple of weeks ago I had another image stuck in my head which reminded me of this fun little excercise.
So I swiped it.
I’m beginning to notice I hold a lot of images in my mind.
Sometimes they are beautiful and after doing something I’ve really enjoyed I will play back all of the snapshots of my favourite movements before going to sleep.
But sometimes they are upsetting to me, and they keep popping up and upsetting me.
I’m consistently surprised by how much our very own mind can torment us if we let it.
It replays conversations, insults, sounds, and images of things that upset us.
Usually these are areas we need to process, but sometimes we can’t process them because they just keep looping over and over.
One of the most empowering things I’ve learned is to separate myself from my thoughts, and when our thoughts turn into obsession over something, it’s a sign we need to pay attention to.
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality” – Seneca