accidentally stumbled on the Buddhist practice of deity visualization, which created a second conscious voice in my head. She helps me learn how to embody more than one new personality trait at a time easier than if I simply focused on being those things. It's weird/complicated, and I'm willing to go into more detail if people have questions.
I would love you to go into more detail, though probably only for all the wrong reasons (such as my own entertainment).
Standard advice to learning a set of new personality traits: pick one each morning to choose to embody for the day & focus on it.
How I do it: associate the set of traits with an identity somewhat separate from my own. She's essentially a clone of my personality, except she identifies as a woman & embodies the following personality traits: gentleness, patience, valuing relationships based on emotional support available through them, emotional thinking, relational thinking, intuitive. While these traits are considered stereotypical female traits, I don't view them that way. I think the process I went through would've worked the same if I'd chosen to associate those traits with an animal or, as Buddhists do, some kind of humanoid deity.
She develops her own beliefs, behaviors, emotions, and motivations that emerge from her core values. I'm ultimately aware she's simply a part of my brain...a set of neural networks encoding a set of traits...so it's easy for me to adopt her perception as my own.
That's how we learn together. It's a collaborative relationship. We can practice new ways of communicating in my head. It's the difference between having a two-sided conversation aloud where you're using your own voice for both sides versus using a different voice for each side.
It's sometimes easier to hear ourselves when we hear what we're saying coming from someone else.
Thank you for taking my mean-spirited response in good part (I upvoted your initial comment because it entertained me - though you've since edited out the best bit! - and I'm upvoting your reply because it was interesting and delivered with gentleness and humility).
I'm far too much of a troglodyte to understand any of this stuff, but good on you for you trying to improve yourself (if that is indeed the intended goal).
What I'm doing with my life is both serious and entertaining. I laugh at myself all the time because some of the things I do are genuinely hilarious!
I stopped showering for 4 days after initial success with trying to see a stick figure that moves with my body on the back of my closed eyelids.
The persistent thought haunting me?
"What if it's all in my head?"
Fucking with your mind fucks with your mind, typically in very funny ways.
As for not being able to understand any of this stuff, perception is key to learning. Perhaps practice choosing to believe things? Start with small, easy to believe things that are inconsequential to your life, but still meaningful. An example would be temporarily choosing to believe an opposing political stance has merit and then seeking the merit. Everyone has a reason for believing what they do, so go find perfectly valid reasons to believe something crazy. It'll get easier to do the more you practice.
If you want a simpler practice, go "look at the space between branches" and enjoy the different spaces you find. The skill progression comes from loosening your definition of the words in that phrase. Here's a starting point: go from finding 2D shapes to 3D ones.
I would love you to go into more detail, though probably only for all the wrong reasons (such as my own entertainment).