The following story had a big effect on me
Three groups of Piano students have an exam to do on Friday.
Group One practice for one hour every day and then take the exam on Friday.
Group Two do not practice at all but take the exam on Friday.
Group Three – imagine and visualise they are practising and take the exam on Friday.
Obviously Group two do not do well in the results. However, Groups one and three achieve almost identical results. This is a famous study and it shows the power of the mind and thought.
This really made me think about my reaction to Tinnitus and what I was teaching my brain to study.
All I thought about was Tinnitus, I could not wait to go on the forums and see what the latest posts were and read the replies. I was drawn to posts about setbacks and people suffering for years.
If the exam I wanted my brain to take was about Habituation how exactly was I helping it to study that subject?
So I stepped away from the subject of Tinnitus. I felt alone and scared. It is so much easier to hang around people with the same issues. I decided not to talk about it at home either.
So I planned my week and filled it with work projects, cooking dinner, yoga, music etc, more importantly, I picked on subjects where I could improve my skills like video and photography. This meant going onto forums and googling subjects that were not Tinnitus!! It meant reading and learning new techniques and trying them out.
Habituation is something that happens when your attention is elsewhere.
My attention was now elsewhere.
Phil