Children learn something new on a daily basis don’t they? - Each time sharing the little nuggets of knowledge with you, their voices filled with wonder and excitement. As we get older, it can be challenging to learn new things as we lose confidence in our ability to learn. With that, we miss out on the amazing benefits we experience when we take the leap into the unknown. The learning process is not just about learning that new skill, but it is also an opportunity to learn more about ourselves: our limits, our goals, our personalities. Here are a few of our favourite benefits of saying yes to learning a few new things in life…
It can improve our mental health
This is such a broad advantage as learning has such a wide reaching impact. Learning is a core need for us as humans and our mental health. When we stand up to those negative beliefs we have surrounding learning something new, we begin to put ourselves first. Having that bit of ‘me time’ and setting and achieving goals just for you gives you an escape and space to breathe from day to day life and stress. Learning something new reduces our stress because it allows us to focus on something other than our work life, relationship or health problems for a little while.
It helps increase our self-esteem
When you learn something new, you also begin to learn more about yourself. When we are doing the same day-to-day activities, we become comfortable, but when we shake up the routine a little to learn a new language, creative skill or sport, we learn more about our motivations and our patience. We discover we were capable of so much more than we thought and we see our self esteem rise. Every achievement is another bit of feedback to tell us our limiting beliefs were wrong - we can be creative, we can be athletic, we are never too old….
We feel excited to learn more
The process of learning can increase our confidence when it comes to achieving future goals. It may be difficult to say yes to your first learning adventure, but once you have achieved those goals, you feel that you can achieve more. Your negative beliefs weaken as you realise you have proved to yourself that you have got the time, you can learn (and enjoy learning) and you are capable. You start getting curious about what else you can learn as you begin to look at learning opportunities from a new perspective. Suddenly, saying yes to further adventures gets a whole lot easier.
It helps give the brain a workout
Whenever we learn something new, it has a positive impact on the brain. Not only does learning help improve concentration levels and attention to detail, it also encourages our problem solving skills and improves memory function. When we are taking on lots of new information, the brain physical accommodates it by making new cells and connections between them. Recalling and using that knowledge then strengthens the connections and keeps the brain active. Not only can this help you learn quicker in the future as the electrical impulses learn to travel faster across the pathways, it can help reduce the chances of developing dementia.
It can help improve the body
Ok, so this one may depend on the activity you have chosen but many activities have an impact on our bodies that we may not have first thought of. We may feel drawn to learning to paint because we love the idea of being creative but we are also improving our dexterity and hand-eye coordination as we do. We love the coast and like the idea of surfing to enjoy the waves but we are also improving our balance and flexibility. We take up dancing because you’ve always loved moving to music and our balance, coordination and stamina slowly improve.
When we are scared to try something new, it can feel easier to accept those stories we tell ourselves and remain in our world where we feel a little stuck. However, when we do get brave enough to say yes, the benefits can be life changing and far more widespread than we ever anticipated. Are you ready to say yes to learning something new?