The Four Stages of Competence

It is by design that The Playshop is simple, easy to understand, and easily practiced.

The four stages of competence are the internal conditions involved in learning a new skill. First, we don't know that we don't know, which we sometimes mask with denial. At this stage, we aren't sure if our skill set will be helped or hindered and so we tend to resist changing what we already believe.

The second stage is realizing that there is something to learn. Once we see value in an unknown skill, that resistance turns to interest and learning begins. In this stage we continue learning from others and absorb whatever we can.

The third stage is intellectual understanding. We already understand the skill and the steps involved in being successful, but it takes all of our focus and faculties to get it right. This is the practicing stage, where we find out how subtle shifts in our technique impact our results.

The fourth stage is corporeal. After enough practice, we achieve an unconscious competence: we can use the skill without thinking. In colloquial terms, we "get it in our body."

Learning Gets Into the Body

For any new skill, we go through these four stages. For some skills, like guitar playing, it can take moments to pass through the first stage, but then years can be invested in stage two to understand music theory and tab lines, tuning, posture, playing chords, and more. We could then invest years in stage three, practicing daily to make playing guitar second nature to us. When the guitar feels like an extension of our body, that we can play it at will and without thought, then we are at stage four. YBNL isn't like that though. The Playshop aims to bring students comfortably into stage three before the video lessons are even over.

Stage Three: Practice

By design, students can immediately notice changes in their outlook and sense of self when they test the information and exercises. Those initial epiphanies are not the end, however. They arise to show the possibilities and to encourage daily practice. Those secondary effects of being connected, including increased empathy, intuition and self-esteem, will ebb and flow during stage three. It takes active, mindful daily practice for several weeks to get through this stage of competence. Unlike intellectual understanding, corporeal mastery requires numerous repetitions over time.

Stage Four: Unconscious Competence

After weeks of the cascade exercise, those temporary insights and spiritual expansions can become more stable and available without conscious effort. When we notice this, we are in stage four. We notice new choices, see new possibilities, and no longer dwell on events long past (unless we choose to). We may feel lighter and feel a deeper understanding in general. These can all be confirmation that the process is becoming integrated and that a more durable sense of connection is becoming available.

Progressing Through the Playshop

The Playshop is the second class at The Your Body Never Lies College, after the free introductory class, Shift Your Inner Dialogue. The class has video lessons that can get you comfortably into stage three on the first day if you take the time to test the exercises you learn. With an activity feed you may post to or scroll through, and access to the founder and other members through messaging, the campus aims to support Playshop participants' journey to corporeal competence and connection.