Different people have different ways of understanding instrument nav. You figure out which one works for you and run with it... Sometimes being exposed to a new way to skin a cat helps but sometimes it doesn't.
In the meantime, don't lose sight of the big picture and have helmet fires over "head falls/tail rises" vs "God's eye view of the map," figuring out holding (it's not that hard... really... stay calm and remember to watch your fuel, set up your navaids, do landing checks, listen to the radios, or whatever it is you're really supposed to be doing).
When sitting on deck, sometimes I like to ask studs for a rough direction to xyz fix or navaid (xyz being something that will soon be important during the flight). Responses vary from "Really? It's obviously right over there" (good job, junior, keep it up) to "I... hadn't... thought of it that way before now..." (well there you go, and I hope this one small thing helps the flight go better).