PLENK2010: There is nothing that is outside of my PLE

Having had one of my early morning ah-ha moments it came to me that there is nothing that is not part of my personal learning environment.  Whatever is my current topic of interest I will often find something relevant to my learning about it in such obscure places as romance novels, something in a tv show, a seemly unrelated comment by a friend or the ideas I am considering go into that void called my subconscious where something happens to that learning and a day or so later or 3am in the morning it will all come together - perhaps the neurons have had time to run a few programs and reconnect in different ways.

Learning starts when there is something on your mind.  I've called it in my diagram a topic or interest but it can be anything, positive or negative that requires new thinking, problem solving, new skills or just a new approach.

The most obvious place to find learning is those things that directly relate to the topic but we do not exist in isolation from everything else going on around us.

For me, I learn something quickest once I can bring it into the mainstream of my life and start making wider connections.

peer supported and networked learning

My interest in e-learning has been on the back burner since the start of the year. I think that's actually been for the best as its given me time not only to finish a Diploma in Library and Information Services that I've been doing but also I can now look at e-learning afresh.  I've been getting back into reading my favourite e-learning rss feeds as well as news about the latest technologies from Google and others. I've reinspired myself by re-reading some of the works of Ivan Illich which seem as relevant today as ever.  This time what I got out of his stuff was his emphasis on mentored and peer learning. For me this means finding people, either on-line or in person, who can help you learn what you are interested in.  Sure you can learn in isolation, to an extent, using the resources of your own brain, experiences and surroundings but when you want to take an interest to a whole new level, to go beyond old ways of doing things you need fresh stimulus and the input, encouragement, different perspectives of peers can be a way to progress your learning interest to a whole new level.

At the same time that I have been re-inspiring myself I've also been looking at the new light-weight compact digital cameras that can record HD Video in a format I can easily upload to Youtube. I have dabbled with some extremely basic videos about worm farming but I want to do more with this medium.

Flaxseed, Quinoa and Maca Vegan porridge

Its that bone-chilling time you get at the end of winter and I haven't been feeling like raw apple and amaranth sprouts for breakfast so experimented until I came up with the following porridge:

Grind about two tablespoons of flax seeds in a coffee grinder, add a heaped spoon of Maca, about two heaped tablespoons of quinoa or amaranth flakes. Mix together then poor on boiling water and stir some more until it thickens.  Put some no sugar jam on top or some frozen berries.  If you still need sweetener add agave syrup to taste.

Sprouts for breakfast

Going vegan a few months ago meant that I needed to make sure I was getting a wide variety of fresh and nutritious food into my diet.  My initial interest was in growing Amaranth and Quinoa given their high levels of protein and minerals. Both tend to be bitter in their unsprouted state due to Sapoins.  Having had mixed experiences years ago with muslin cloth and rubber band covered jars I decided instead on getter some jars with the specially designed lids.  These have been great: easy to clean the lids between use and easy to rinse the sprouts - there is no nasty bacteria build up on cloth or rubber bands. Impressed with my first sprouts I ventured into trying mung beans and the much talked about broccoli sprouts.  The broccoli sprouts are nice to add to a summer salad as an added seasoning but you mightn't want to eat too many on their own as the taste is quite strong and the price is very high for even a small packet of the seeds for sprouting. I'm growing some broccoli plants now and will save the seed from them. The mung beans though sprout nearly as quickly as the amaranth and quinoa. I'm not a  fancy cook so I use my sprouts in fairly simple ways:

Breakfast sprouts:
Rinse some mixed amaranth and quinoa sprouts in cold water (to remove any residual bitter taste that builds up quite quickly)
Take a heaped spoon of the sprouts and add to a breakfast bowl with chopped up apple.  Top with no-sugar blue berry or cherry jam (or berries in season) and flaked almonds.

Stir fry mung beans
prepare a small frypan with olive oil and a little madras curry powder and or some cumin seeds and brown just enough to mix the spices into the oil
chop up and add one onion or if you prefer a milder flavour use two shallots
put a 1/3 of a sprout jar of sprouted mung beans into a fry pan
chop up a 1/4 of a sweet capsicum and add
stir fry until the onion is just cooked.
makes a very quick one person serving and is great if you've just come home and you're hungry.

I tried sprouting flax seeds which was a total failure - they just formed a gooey gluey mess.

A more recent success though has been sunflower seed sprouts which are lovely and crunchy and great to sprinkle on a salad or a tofu sandwich.  Whole sunflower seeds are actually quite hard to find in my part of the world.  I ended up getting mine from an agricultural supplies vendor very cheaply if you buy by the kilo bag.

Lastly, I know from Chinese medicine that I'm supposed to eat plenty of those little red adzuki beans but have avoided them in the past because I can't digest them to well.  Sprouted I find them quite digestible, especially if I cook them with a little bit of shredded nori. For a simple winter dish cook sprouted adzuki with some brown rice and then add to a stir fry of pumpkin, nori and shallots or onions.  This makes quite a tasty filling feed.

My experiment with a vegan diet.

Increasing frustration with my worsening pre-menopausal drop in calcium absorption I hit the research - again - looking for options. My first question was "is eating so much dairy the best way to go (which is what I had been doing) or are there better foods out there that do the same?".  I'd already found seaweed calcium and was having ricotta at lunch and yoghurt with breakfast and supper, as well as the occasional hot milk or chai latte but my nails were still deteriorating and I didn't want to go down the path of some of the less organic calcium supplements.  And I can't eat cheese because of my allergy to molds and fungi. I get plenty of sunshine in the garden on my days off so the Vitamin D is good.  My reading around the subject showed me that most fruits and vegetables have calcium in them and that some seeds and grains like amaranth, quinoa and chia all have very high proportions of calcium in them.

Three weeks ago I decided to be brave and try out a vegan approach (I'd already gone back to being vegetarian about 15 months ago), keeping a close eye on my finger nails for any improvement or deterioration, with the fall back position of visiting the doctor for a blood check of my calcium levels if I had any doubts.

So far

• my nails are holding out on their verdict - certainly not breaking but I need more time to see the quality of new nail growth to tell any changes for sure.
• I have a sense of smell! - something that has only ever been a rare event for me in the presence of very strong smells - its a fascinating experience acquiring a new sense.
• My sinuses are clear - which probably is the cause of the above regaining of the sense of smell and I don't know yet whether its a one-off but standing out in the cold waiting for the bus my eyes weren't streaming this morning
• overall I seem to have more energy, better concentration but not sleeping as long as I used too.

Some Ideas on Dealing with Stress

The Australian SBS TV news a week or so ago had a short item about some recent research that had been done into reducing stress. We each tend to have habitual responses to certain stress triggers (almost like mini program along the lines of "IF blah THEN respond this way"). Such stress leads to changes in our mental and physical well being (ironically its usually we that suffers the adrenal overload and subsequent mind-body response, not the target of our anger or frustration). IF we can catch ourselves as soon as we start reacting to something we can ask ourselves three questions:

• is it important
• is my response level appropriate
• can I change anything.

If the answer is "no" to any of these questions then its time to reflect and consider if its really worth getting stressed about.

I should have remembered all this when my credit card wouldn't work at the supermarket at the weekend and I ended up waiting in the ten deep queue at the service desk to get another go at paying.  Was it important? - well a nuisance but not big in the scheme of things - credit cards do these things.  Was my response level appropriate - no, because I got frustrated waiting in the queue and that only got me feeling off for the rest of the day.  Could I change anything? - no because there were only so many staff and thats not their fault, its the corporations and it was probably a bank or scanning error - none of which I could stop from happening again.

So when the subconscious program takes over and you don't catch yourself in time with those three questions what do you do to regain equilibrium? I watched a relaxation/self-hypnosis video on Youtube which contained an interesting thought - trance is a rhythm that you can learn.  That got me thinking that health and happiness must have its own rhythm too.  So then I visualized/mentally remembered how I felt when I felt right with the world and focused on that.  It took a few goes to keep bringing myself to focus on that rather than what had annoyed me but after a few goes it started to take root.  So for me it does seem that wellness/happiness does have its own rhythm and if you can remember how that feels and visualize it your body-mind will respond in reasonably short-time.

Miguel Ruiz's "Mastery of Love"

I'm still working my way through Miguel Ruiz's books.  I've just finished "The Mastery of Love" which has me thinking the following:

We are told lies about love

• Lie One: that you have to receive love from others
• Lie Two: that you have to deserve love
• Lie Three: that you have to earn love
• Lie Four: that love needs a reason (actually this one is probably the main lie)
• Lie Five: love is something thats difficult to do

The truth, for me anyway, is more like this:

• Love is a simple conscious choice I make to do now, to feel it now through my whole being (I feel a lot of muscles relax in my body when I make this choice). Practice can make it a habit that's possible to do even under stress.
• I don't need a reason to love I just choose to do it for no other reason than it feels good and I know its good for me and those around me.
• There's an infinite quantity of love waiting inside me anytime I choose to tap into it I don't need to earn it and I don't need to save it - we're not talking about "supply and demand" or the "economics of scarcity" here.

The same above applies to happiness and forgiveness.  Applying this leaves one free to interact with others without giving off a vibe of "neediness" that might otherwise attract people looking for a co-dependent interaction or ongoing destructive co-dependent relationship.

This may sound narcisstic, egoistic or selfish but in fact acts opposite to that as it places you in a position where you can interact more freely with others, without needing or wanting anything back.

Taking things one stage further you can get yourself in a relaxed state and visualize yourself all the way back to when you were in the womb and say to yourself  something like "I am loved, wanted and safe" and know that it is true because you undertake to love yourself (without conditions), to want what you are and to protect yourself.  Bring that awareness and knowledge forward all the way into the now.

Once you create that firm base you can then move to extending it to unconditional love and enjoyment of those around you.

Consider the average household cat - you don't expect them to be responsive to your needs, its nice if they want to play or be involved in what you are doing but mostly they are just there and you enjoy their company and them just being what they are. If you give your cat lots of affection as a kitten and don't hurt or scare it, feed it good food and give it a few toys you know that you will both end up having a better relationship in the long run. Try to control the same average cat and it will most likely make the cat equivalent of a rude gesture at you.  Treat it badly and it will leave.