The following is a guest post from Katie Wilson.
It’s an understatement to say that the human brain is a complicated mass of neurons and connections that is hard to comprehend. What we can understand though is the concept of plasticity, the fact that the brain can be taught nearly anything with the right amount of effort and the right kind of motivation. Your brain changes its wiring to adapt to new situations, new knowledge and new information. This makes learning a pretty easy concept. And since the brain retains plasticity even as we age, here’s how you can use it to enhance your lifelong learning practices:
Work at learning
A job that requires you to keep updating your knowledge may sound like a lot of work, but it is a huge blessing in disguise. For one, it keeps you from becoming bored with a mundane routine; and for another, you’re forced to keep pushing your brain and challenging it by learning new things and understanding new concepts.
Make a conscious decision to learn
Don’t be content with what you know; use any time that you have on your hands to expand your skills – learn a new language, play an instrument, take up music or dance or painting lessons. Reading, from varied sources, keeps you informed and in touch with all that is going on in the world. So read as much as you can if you want to stay current and relevant.
Make learning your best friend
The best way to motivate yourself to learn is to surround yourself with people who are intellectuals. I don’t mean they must be Einsteins or Edisons, just that they must have a thirst for knowledge that refuses to be slaked. When you hang around such people, their motivation is bound to be contagious and push you to explore your interests and realize your ambitions.
Expand your learning interests
You can connect learning to other things that you love to do or things that affect you deeply. For example, if you’re a fitness freak, you could learn more about the human body and health by reading up on it. If you have a friend or a relative with a chronic illness (or you suffer from one), you could search for more information on it and become a sort of pseudo-expert. If you love sports, learn more about the rules and origins of the game to enhance your brain’s database.
Grow with learning
The more you learn, the more mature you become. Learning need not come just from books and other sources; it could come through experience too. When you go through various experiences, you learn more, about yourself, and about the people you interact with. You may forget the experiences in time, but it’s important that you remember the lessons that they taught you. Learning helps you grow, both mentally and emotionally.
Continuous and lifelong learning helps you remain young and may help keep mental disorders like Alzheimer’s and dementia away. And as long as you keep pushing on with the learning process, you can keep pushing away boredom, illness and stagnation.
This post was contributed by Katie Wilson, who writes about the universities online. She welcomes your feedback at KatieWilson06 at gmail.com
