#018 “Want to Feel, Intellectually, Like Someone is Rotating Your Tyres?” Why developing a culture of learning will boost your wellbeing.
Happy New Year, dear readers!
I hope everyone had a restorative holiday season, and that you have been able to do a handful (or bucketful) of big or small things to boost your wellbeing in 2023.
I love to read – it’s key to my wellbeing (see post #010 on why reading is important to your wellbeing here). So it’s probably no surprise that I love to read about reading.
I was flicking through the New York Times Book Review section this morning and came across the headline Want to Feel, Intellectually, Like Someone is Rotating Your Tyres? The headline stopped me in my tracks and I immediately wanted to know more.
I LOVE this feeling, but have never quite heard it expressed like this before (for info – the book review is for a new anthology of Christopher Hitchens’s unpublished work – which I immediately ordered).
That feeling of staring off into space after reading something or listening to someone talk - where you try engage in sense making, or mental gymnastics (or tyre rotation). It happens to everyone. Think back to the last time you considered a new idea, a new way of doing things, or something else that was paradigm shifting?
How did it make you feel?
Excited?
Frustrated?
Desperate to know more?
Did you sit with the feeling? Or push it out of the way to get back to whatever you were doing?
Do you seek out opportunities to engage in mental gymnastics? Or do you prefer to stick with the familiar?
While we are often more comfortable in the familiar – physically, socially, emotionally – we know that we don’t get the opportunity for growth if we stay in our comfort zones.
We all live parts of our lives in our comfort zones. I live in my comfort zone in the kitchen. I tend to cook the same things on high rotation, but have a tonne of cookbooks that I could pick up and extend myself with a new technique or recipe.
You might also cook the same things, or do the same activities, hang out with the same handful of people, or stick to tasks that you are confident in doing.
There is beauty in rhythm and rituals, but there is magic in the undiscovered.
What might happen in 2024, if you were to move from the comfort zone to the growth zone and commit to develop a rhythm of personal learning?
Engaging with new ideas and learning new things is good for our health and wellbeing.
There are a tonne of benefits to developing a personal culture of learning.
First, your rate of learning improves. People often ask me how I have time to read so many books or fit in part-time study with kids and work. The main reason is that I am pretty quick at it now. My neural pathways are primed for new information – it means I can pick-up new ideas relatively quickly – and doing lots quizzes or written assignments over the years also means that I can stitch together an essay during toddler nap time.
Second, your knowledge improves. Learning new things helps you to develop connections back to things you already know – you might apply what you know about cooking to learning how to ferment foods. Or you might apply what you learned in a horticulture class to beekeeping.
Third, if you are committed to lifelong learning, your ability to adapt to new situations improves. You’re also more likely to have a growth mindset, which can help you to be more open to success.
Fourth, you don’t get bored or lonely as often. Learning new things often means you enter a flow state – hours might pass by in a flash. You might be in a class or online community with others who share your interests. I can’t remember the last time I was bored (which I remind my kids anytime they complain that they are bored!).
Fifth, our brains love to learn new things. Developing a practice of lifelong learning helps to fight cognitive decline through increasing mental stimulation and social interaction. Current research on mental stimulation shows that neural networks in the brain can change through growth and reorganisation. These changes, called neuroplasticity, range from individual neuron pathways making new connections to more extensive systematic adjustments such as cortical remapping.
The benefit of learning a new skill goes way beyond the skill itself. I think too often we get caught up in learning new things because we think it will get us a better job, or we might be able to monetise it as a new side hustle. Lifelong learning is important in the workplace, but learning how to use Excel might not necessarily as fulfilling for our wellbeing as say, learning how to make bread from scratch, or turning a bowl on a pottery wheel.
Don’t feel like you need to go back to college or university to learn if that is not something that your enjoy – it’s better to do activities that light you up and integrate these into your life.
Below are some ideas to step-up your learning in 2024.
Love cooking? Sign up for a cooking class, or get a cookbook out of the library and try a new cuisine or technique every week.
Love tinkering? Volunteer at your local tool shed or environment centre and help others fix their household items. Or sign up for a woodwork or pottery class.
Love languages? Try signing up for a language course on Duolingo. It’s free and you can learn anything from Spanish to Swahili. I started learning Spanish when my middle child started at a Spanish bilingual preschool. I didn’t speak a word of Spanish before he started, but after doing 5 mins a day for a couple of years I can have a basic conversation and quiz him on common words.
Love formal learning? If you are in Australia, there are still a handful of online fee waiver diplomas and undergraduate certificates at the University of Tasmania. I have just signed up for my 4th (!) fee waiver degree through UTas – an Undergraduate Certificate in Climate Change Awareness and Action. I have also done the Diploma in Sustainable Living which I would highly, highly recommend. Coursera is another great option – and there is even a free short course on the Science of Wellbeing!
Let me know if the comments if you are committing to learning in 2024? What are you curious about?
Be well
Alicia