On remembering Spanish and sonatas

When I took my current job, I hadn't spoken Spanish consistently in almost four years.  A couple of months after starting, I went to the Dominican Republic to work. When I started trying to speak in Spanish again, my mind felt like a huge, rusty gear, and every word came out of the recesses slowly, jerkily, and painfully.

If I thought to hard about it, it was detrimental.  It was a bit of a frustrating process, because I knew that somewhere in my mind that I knew the word I was looking for, but the harder I thought, the further the word always seemed to slip.

But I found that if I could just forget to worry about it, and get immersed in whatever conversation was at hand, the gears would start to turn, and the words creep out of where they were hiding.  Sometimes I would go to say something, and the word would just be there, out of the blue - I had completely forgotten I ever had learned it.

The last two years have been a slow progression of relearning what I used to know, and then learning new words, conjugations, and comfort with speaking and understanding.  I am constantly amazed at how much my mind retains despite being in and out of Spanish throughout the year.  And I am also amazed that it is not really a conscious process for me - not something that I've been able to force, but something that comes as I relax and let it happen.
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A week ago I bought a digital piano.  I grew up playing, but haven't played regularly... in over 10 years.  The first day that i sat down to try to play, it literally felt like my mind was a huge, rusty gear, and every word note came out of the recesses slowly, jerkily, and painfully.

If I thought to hard about it, it was almost detrimental.  It was a frustrating process, because I knew that somewhere in my mind that I knew the songs and chords I was looking for, but the harder I thought, the further the word always seemed to slip.

But strangely, if I can just forget to worry about it, and just sit and play, my fingers seem to be able to remember things that my mind can't... the notes just flow out of some deep recess.

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I've been amazed so much with the processes of my brain in remembering Spanish and sonatas.
Our bodies and minds are truly phenomenal tools.