I learned guitar, a long time ago, from records not lessons. That was more of a Crash Test Dummy Approach to learning guitar. The thing that got my rhythm going in the beginning, was to think about dancing to the music. How would my body interpret a given rhythm if I was dancing instead of playing a guitar? (I found that the Bass and Drums were the best place to hear the rhythm in most recordings) When I did this, I found my feet and ass already knew what to do with varrious rhythms, so... I then I translated that motion to my picking. May have not been the fastest way to learn strumming, but it worked for me.

Dance with your pick.