##### 🔑 We need both Theory and Practice Not everything can be taught – some things just have to be known directly. The difference between intellectual learnings and embodied knowings is experience, and [[Practices 🕯️]] are a way to get it. Often when we read theory or a how-to, or even memorize it, we feel as if we understand what it’s pointing to, but “how-to” is a bit of a misnomer. We’re not actually learning to do what it says we are, we’re learning a practice — we’re learning how to learn something. We’re being given a series of steps that *when practiced* unlock learning. “How to ride a bike” might be better named ”How to learn to ride a bike.” If we're researching and not seeing changes, we've likely not translated our research into [[Practices 🕯️]] or we just aren’t doing them. Or maybe [[🔑 The right thing, at the wrong time, is the wrong thing|🔑 we’re not learning what we really need right now]]. Learning can actually be a [[Protector Strategies 🛡️|Protector Strategy 🛡️]], part of our [[💡 Comfort Zone|Comfort Zone]], a shield against the vulnerability of action and uncertainty, against taking a leap (or step) of faith. And that’s okay, it happens. But it’s also important to notice. We might consider [[🛠️ Goals and Intentions|🛠️ setting a conscious goal]] and learning only what feels necessary to give our [[Intuition]] some traction on our way to it — what we might call it “targeted learning” or “educational essentialism,” which I just made up. We don't have to learn everything, we can go narrow and deep – the destination is a room with many doors. %% - How will you actually use it today? - 2 hours of application to every 1 hour of learning. - Share before you get it perfect. - Feedback is a tool for growth. - Finish and move on, let go of the creation. %% There's a lot of theory in the Guide. And while the theory can create safety and make our practice more skillful, it's important to spend a substantial amount of time not learning, but practicing, *connecting* and attuning — that’s where the good stuff is. ###### The Virtuous Cycle of Theory and Practice Theory and models are a kind of map, and the map is never the territory. Sometimes we happily stumble into truths, which feels a bit like finding money in our pocket. Other times ideas must be put into practice for anything to change, but we need to learn (or discover) those ideas in order for them to be practiced with safety and skill, which is where theory comes in. Practice helps us understand, integrate, and embody truths. It helps us experience resource states that lead to effortless change. The changes we see provoke new insights, and those insights can be integrated into our practice, which enables more effortless change, spontaneous [[💡 Unburdening|unburdening]], insights, and ultimately our [[⭐️ Self-Becoming|⭐️ self-becoming]]. One strengthens the other, and neither is enough on its own. Learning heals little, though healing is often instructive. %%The Guide will only help so much on its own; it’s a map with gaps that can only be filled by experience. But it can create safety, it can help us set the conditions that allow healing and [[⭐️ Self-Becoming|⭐️ self-becoming]] to happen on their own. %% > [!example] Example > Learning to help our [[💡 Parts|Parts]] to [[🕯️ Unblending|unblend]] and exploring our depths in safety is exponentially more important than reading books and researching theory. Given enough time and exploration, much of the theory becomes self-evident and we become ”experts by experience,” — though we may use different language and different metaphors (different maps of the same territory) than the books do. > > However, while it can absolutely help, we can never become *fully* [[💡 Self-Intimacy|Self-Intimate]] or [[💡 Relational Intimacy|intimate with others]] exclusively by learning theory. Content is not inherently contactful; the whole point of this content is to help us make contact. That said, we need to be able to navigate our inner and outer worlds with safety. There is a middle way between using others’ maps as a kind of holy text and stumbling through life completely unaided. > > Theory can provide us with tools and skills and give us an idea of what to expect when we dive into [[Practices 🕯️|Practice 🕯️]], but that theory is itself the fruit of experience and we aren’t cave-divers until we actually dive. We also can’t prepare for every possibility – we are all too unique for that. Some things can only be learned, understood, and embodied through experience, and if we don’t recognize this it can be easy to get on a self-Improvement hamster wheel of searching for the right book, the right article, the right YouTube video that’s going to change our lives instead of looking inward — [[🔑 we learn and discover the most by going inward]]. At some point we have to take some small step into the unknown. [[🔑 Go at your pace|🔑 Go at your parts’ pace]], and go carefully, but go. It will give us the first-hand experience of [[💡 Self-Intimacy|Self-Intimacy]]. > > Following a map can be helpful, and with time the path becomes increasingly intuitive, like training wheels being taken off a bike, and we learn nuances that no map could ever communicate. Likewise, [[🔑 As Parts start to trust the process, healing speeds up]]. Eventually we can stop relying on outer teachers. ###### See Also - [[🔑 The more Parts Work theory we learn, the stronger our Presence-Like Protectors become]] - [[💡 Wu Wei]] - [[✍️ On Maps and Models...]] [^1]: