The Benefits Of Learning A New Skill
Learning a new skill or trying a new activity can help reduce your stress levels.
By doing a task that forces you to focus on the present moment, you can experience similar benefits to practicing mindfulness. Being completely absorbed in something allows you put the outside world on hold. This is called flow
Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first identified the concept of flow in 1988.
Read more about Flow here.
The effects of brain flow are similar to meditation: it calms the fight or flight reaction (a physiological response to the perception of harm or threat) that keeps our bodies in a constant state of stress.
Plus, when you practise doing something that you enjoy, your brain releases dopamine , the “feel good” hormone, which is a natural antidepressant .
It is never too late to learn new skills. Learning new skills can help regenerate brain cells at any age And the longer you do it, the greater the benefits.
What is something that interests you, that you would like to try or learn more about?
“Now we live longer, and we have a fantastic opportunity to use that time with positive, motivating, stimulating and interesting activities -to learn things that we have never done before”. “Not only for the sheer pleasure of making them, but also for the possibility that they bring us benefits during those years, and live longer and healthier lives”. – Alan Gow, Psychologist.
