Swallowed by an Idea: How I Turn What I Read into What I Teach

How I turn what I read into what I teach, by Dr Shiam Chuttoo.

Swallowed by an idea

Many of us know the story of Jonah, told in the Bible and in the Quran, swallowed by a great fish and carried in the dark until he was set down on the shore, changed, with a message to deliver. I think of that story every time a book or an idea takes hold of me.

When I meet a good idea, I swallow it whole. It churns inside me for days, sometimes weeks. Slowly I digest it, test it and turn it over, until it comes out as something new: a model, a handout, a blog post with my own experience woven through it. People sometimes ask where my models come from. This is my honest answer.

My JONAH Method

© Dr Shiam Chuttoo 2026. Five stages for turning an idea into something worth sharing.

J, Join it: take the idea in whole. Read the book, study the post, listen to the talk, and note where it came from.
O, Overturn it: let it churn. Question it, argue with it, and look at it from every side before you accept a word.
N, Nourish it with life: mix in your own experience. For me that means eight years climbing poles for the Central Electricity Board in Mauritius, nursing, social work, lecturing, coaching and faith.
A, Analyse and discern: test it against research. Keep what is true and useful, drop what is not, and say plainly where the evidence is thin.
H, Hand it on: shape it into something of your own, credit the people whose ideas started it, and share it so others can use it.

The ladder of learning underneath

For years as a lecturer I taught with Bloom’s taxonomy, the ladder of thinking first published by Benjamin Bloom and colleagues in 1956 and revised in 2001. My method climbs the same ladder:

Join and Overturn cover remembering and understanding.
Nourish is applying the idea to real life.
Analyse and discern covers analysing and evaluating.
Hand it on reaches the top rung, creating something new.

Old wisdom that churns too

My method is new, but the idea behind it is very old. I grew up with these stories, and each one says the same thing in its own way: knowledge must be churned and digested before it becomes wisdom.

Samudra Manthan, the churning of the ocean: in Hindu tradition the gods and demons churned the ocean of milk to win the nectar of immortality. The first thing to rise was poison, which Lord Shiva held in his throat to protect the world. Only after long churning did the nectar appear. New ideas are the same: the first thing that rises is often confusion or doubt. Keep churning, and the nectar comes.
Shravana, manana, nididhyasana: the Upanishads describe three stages of learning: hearing the teaching, reflecting on it, and contemplating it deeply until it becomes part of you. These sit beautifully alongside Join, Overturn and Nourish.
The hamsa, the swan that separates milk from water: an old image of viveka, discernment. Offered milk mixed with water, the swan takes the milk and leaves the water. That is my A, Analyse and discern.
Matsya, the great fish: in one of the oldest Hindu stories, Lord Vishnu takes the form of a fish to carry Manu, and in many tellings the sacred Vedas, safely through the great flood. So the fish carries knowledge as well as people, and sets it down where it can begin again.
Guru and shishya: knowledge in this tradition always flows from teacher to student, with the teacher honoured by name. That is my H, Hand it on, with credit where it is due.

Other traditions agree. The Roman writer Seneca advised readers to be like bees, gathering from many flowers and turning it into honey of their own. The Buddha compared his teaching to a raft: use it to cross the river, then do not carry it on your head once you reach the far shore. Take what helps, and let the rest go.

Why digesting matters

There is a world of difference between swallowing an idea and spitting it back out unchanged. Copying takes someone’s words and puts your name on them. Digesting takes their idea, lets your own life work on it, and gives the original thinker credit for the seed. That is why every model on this blog names its sources. Why reinvent the wheel? Better to take a good wheel, understand it fully, and fit it to the road you know.

Two examples from this blog

The Ladder That Lets You Climb Back On began with Istvan Balyi’s model of how athletes develop. After it churned for a while, it came out as a ladder you can climb, step down and climb again, held by rails of resilience and determination.
Open the Windows began as scattered notes in my notebook, written in my car. It came out as my SPRING Model, tested against Maslow and the law I worked under for years.

Try it yourself

What idea have I swallowed recently that is still churning?
What does my own life add to it that nobody else could?
Where is the evidence strong, and where is it thin?
Whose name belongs on the seed?
Who could I hand it on to this week?

Swallow it. Churn it. Feed it with life. Test it. Hand it on.

A word of caution. This piece is for education and personal reflection. It is not medical, psychological, religious or legal advice, and it does not replace care from a qualified professional. Please understand any technique before you use it. Anyone who uses these ideas does so by their own choice and is responsible for their own actions. If you need support, talk to your GP or another health professional.

© Dr Shiam Chuttoo 2026. The JONAH Method is the original work of Dr Shiam Chuttoo. Bloom’s taxonomy is credited to Benjamin Bloom and colleagues (1956), revised by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl (2001). Credit: JONAH Method, created by Dr Shiam Chuttoo. You may share or use this model only with my permission, or with clear credit to me as its author. Contact: shiamduth@outlook.com. Work record: Ref DSC-2026-JONAH-01. Title: Swallowed by an Idea. Author: Dr Shiam Chuttoo. Created 15 October 2026. All rights reserved.

How I prepare my work

I write as a life coach, lecturer, nurse and social worker, and as a Mauritian who has made his home in Britain since 1988, carrying Kreol, French, English, Bhojpuri and Hindi with me. My aim is to inspire, to transform and to get you thinking actively. I think divergently: I take an idea from one world, merge it with another, and see what new shape it takes. Every piece begins in my own notebook, with my own sayings, my own models and the lessons of my own life.

Why do I turn ideas into models? People learn in different ways and at different speeds, so I teach eclectically, drawing on many fields of knowledge. I then shape what I find into a short model with an acronym, such as SPRING, STORM, QUEST or HOME, because a few letters are easy to remember and easy to carry into daily life. Over the years my students have told me this is what stays with them. As the old saying goes, give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime. Each of my models is my way of teaching you to fish.

To research, check and shape each piece, I use every tool I can put my hands on: books, libraries, my training notes, Google, Microsoft Word, and AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT. I name them openly because honesty matters to me. Some people will say a piece is copied, or that a machine wrote it. Few see the hours behind it: reading, researching, checking sources, testing each idea against my own experience, and rewriting until the message is clear. The tools help me search, sort and polish. The ideas, the models, the stories and the final word are mine, every source I draw on is credited, and I take full responsibility for what I publish.

If you spot an error, please tell me and I will put it right. And if this is not for you, that is perfectly fine. I have no wish to force anyone to read it. The door stays open for anyone who wants to come in.

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