Information Overload ... Help

[Yas]

Hi EmmeYa!

I also felt anxious like you sometimes and I will just second the recommendations given to you here.

Relax and go with the flow and as you go the connections will be made... this is so true!

I 'scheduled' a time to read early in the morning before starting the day so I can think about the things that I've read during the day, and also in the evening just before going to bed.

Would you say that (apart from the things I am personally interested in) there are topics that are on top of the list?
Sometimes I wish that there would be short introductions or summaries, but I guess these days new material is being added daily ...
For example the Asteroid subject, I have no idea where to start ...

I don't know if this will help... Maybe it will get you still more anxious when you see how long it is :/, but, some time ago I found this "List of sticky threads" (http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=11987.msg85884#msg85884) that shows all the sticky threads from all sections into one LONG list. Please note that this is not actualized to present time, so there are some things missing there, yet, it might be a useful tool to find some interesting threads that are or were important to the forum.

I hope it helps!

cheers!

 

[SMM]

I always click the "view the most recent posts" thing and see what's "hot". I check that out. Don't want to be out of the loop on what everyone else is talking about! Then I go to those topics that interest me particularly.

This was my thought as well, and this is also how I keep current with the discussions here most of the time.

Also, if there is something really important you've missed, it will undoubtedly be referenced in another post, as a link you can click. That happens quite frequently here. If there is a breakthrough, so to speak, the discussion of this will extend into many other discussions. So, follow your instincts, and read and click away!

Thank you everyone for the advice!

 

[luc]

Good thread, I struggle with this as well.

What I find useful sometimes is to mentally "put aside" a topic and tell myself "it's okay, maybe now it's not the time yet to get into this", and focus on another topic discussed here.

So for example in the beginning when I came here, I felt that there always was the "diet and health" section looming, and I knew this to be very important, but I also knew that there was NO WAY for me at the time to get into that, so I focused on other things that were more immediate and interesting to me. Then, one day, I thought "okay, let's go for the diet and health section", and I felt I had enough energy to start applying the knowledge there, and I had the background from the other topics that I needed to really get motivated in terms of diet changes.

So, while I think it is good and normal to constantly feel a certain amount of pressure once you embarked on this journey, this pressure should never get in the way of your learning, osit.

 

[xandra]

luc, thank you for your reply. I have been dealing with feeling way behind on all subjects. To the point where sometimes I just do nothing. Diet is hard for me, I am the only one in the house embarking on changing my eating habits. The cost is a big one, so I try to do the best that I can with what I've got. I have received the "Life is Religion" book and, although I am very excited and feel a renewed commitment, I also feel overwhelmed at the amount of information to process. I have decided to use it as a new starting point in my studies and participation in the forum. It feels like I now have a study guide to keep track of my Classwork!!

 

[HowToBe]

I'd also like to chime in with thanks for this thread and the suggestions given. I have also had the feeling of being overwhelmed and my attempts to force myself to read things because "I should" have tended to result in failure or even caused me to avoid the forum for a while.

In my case it seems to be taking a long time to really learn that genuine growth is not fostered by "forcing" or following the "shoulds" that my mind comes up with.

 

[Buddy]

I would recommend to anyone to just start with whatever interests you the most and not worry about falling behind, getting overwhelmed or whatnot. There are still subject areas on here I haven't got to yet, but its coming.

I applied the following advice which I took to heart:

Sit down in front of the information as a child with no expectations. Ask questions of the subject and listen for the answers in the form of connected facts that answer the questions and help you put the pieces together that you already have in front of you, first. Ask questions of others when needed. Focus on building the roots of the knowledge of the subject. Stay as close to the roots of the subject as long as you can. This will soon take care of itself, because during root expansion, all the foundation for the whole knowledge tree is growing. As it happens, sooner or later, knowledge acquisition becomes exponential as you become interested in subjects that form a "trunk" and then branch off here and there into tightly related areas which can then be mentally traced back to these roots.

I think this is a good way of describing how to make the knowledge your own, instead of reflecting someone else's ideas which kind of makes you feel like it's all just 'attached' to you instead of part of you. I tried the "attached knowledge" thing and there is no satisfaction in that for me anymore.

 

[HowToBe]

Thanks for the thoughts, Buddy, I'll be thinking about that.

Some thoughts I forgot to mention earlier, which some may find helpful:

I remember Ark writing something along the lines that it is clearly not possible for one person to learn all there is to learn from every other person on the planet, so we are forced to choose where we put our attention and spend our energy. (Does someone know the quote I'm thinking of?)

The same is true of this forum, although we have the advantage of being a network, so the more universally important information sort of floats to the surface. Even so, it's quite a lot, and not only that, it is continually growing.

So here's a thought experiment:
Think of all the people who are members of this forum. ((Check the "Users Online" on the forum index page.)) Now go to the link, "Show unread posts since last visit." in the upper left corner of this webpage. If you click that, you will no doubt see many posts made by other users. ((Right now mine shows between 80-100 posts since my last visit.))

Now, imagine I told you it's your job to read and understand every one of those posts, and then continue to read every new post as it appears on the forum. Not fair at all, right? If you've read The Narcissistic Family you'll recognize this as similar to the thought exercise they used with patients; "It's YOUR job to get Clinton elected to president." It's easy to wishfully think we have more power than we actually do. But in reality we waste energy in this and the worry it produces. Perhaps it's another result of our wounding in a narcissistic world.

Maybe the fact that we aren't able to take in all of that information, especially all at once, tells us something about our reality and the nature of our lessons here? Maybe it's where we direct our attention and effort now, and why, that matters. In short, there are many people contributing to the important threads in this forum, so expecting to ever "read it all" is unrealistic. It is a flow of information, it's not static, so we must learn to "swim" and find our place in this river.

To me, at least, this realization has been a relieving one, although I'm still in the process of absorbing it. As the C's said, "It's not about what you do, but who you are and also what you see."

I've taken to asking myself the question, "What do I really want/need to learn right now? What will bring me closer to my Aim?" I try to get myself back in touch with what I care about, maybe use the PoTS and some pipe breath to center myself, and then I can more clearly see what truly interests me. But I have to be vigilant to spot when I start "forcing", and this is learning in progress.

FWIW.

 

[Sunflower]

I agree in that the information here is just overwhelming. I'm just still reading the Wave series! I appreciate the advice in above posts, it helps alot as a 'newbie'.