There are many ways to improve your mental health, with one of the most commonly known ways to do so being exercise. However, recent research has shown that it's not just working out physically that will boost your mental state, but exercising your brain will too!
We all need to keep our minds active to ensure that healthy cognitive function is upheld over time and our minds don't age prematurely. However, learning new skills isn't just beneficial to keeping our minds active. It improves mental health and wellbeing by enhancing self-confidence and improving self-esteem.
So, it's time to start learning!
The Mental Health Benefits of Learning New Skills
1. Improved Brain Health and Concentration
Research shows that learning new skills can improve the brain by stimulating neurons and promoting neuroplasticity (creating more neural pathways). Meaning impulses can travel faster.
This supports concentration, improves memory, and boosts cognitive skills such as visual comprehension.
2. Improved Self-Esteem and Confidence
Learning new skills and expanding your knowledge can help you feel more confident and improve your self-esteem by helping you feel more intellectual and adding in-depth meaning to your life.
Learning about specific niches that you're interested in and taking pleasure in exploring them can add a sense of real purpose to your life, too, increasing your happiness!
3. Improved Connection With Others
Learning new skills can also help you improve your connection with others in many ways. For example, learning new skills can help you educate yourself in a group or community of people and therefore lead you to make new connections with others.
In addition, the relationships you already have can be strengthened when you learn new skills - you can share your new insights with your peers, or you can bond on a deeper level with those who share a similar skillset to you!
Ideas of New Skills You Can Learn
Of course, you can learn about anything (trust us, there are courses and lessons about pretty much everything and anything). Still, we thought we'd give you a few ideas of new skills you might want to learn!
Learn a new language
Learning a language will not only help your summer holiday flow a little smoother, but it will also boost cognitive function, improve your ability to multitask, and make you feel a little more accomplished in the world of lingo!
Improve your DIY skills
Whether you're interested in plumbing or carpentry, sharpening up your DIY skills can help you understand the world of DIY better and provide you with valuable skills for the future.
Brush up on your digital skills
The world of technology is always evolving, and it's always useful to keep up to date on your digital skills, whether your job requires you to or not. Moreover, doing so will improve your confidence in using tech in every aspect of your life!
Get Arty and Crafty
Whether you're interested in painting, pottery, or upcycling some of your furniture, learning how to do arts and crafts can not only provide you with new technical skills, but will also bring you instant joy. In addition, these types of tasks encourage mindfulness and calm.
Look Into Exercise and Nutrition
Exercise and nutrition are both significant factors in bettering your mental health. Therefore you're hitting two birds with one stone by educating yourself about these topics.
Learning about health can help you learn about ways in which you can better your physical wellbeing and provide you with information that you can use to help others.
Educate Yourself About Something You Truly Care About
Since there are courses about pretty much every topic out there, try and educate yourself about something that you're genuinely interested in and care about. Whether that's flower arranging, astronomy, building chairs, or playing the saxophone - whatever you're into!
Where Can You Learn New Skills?
Although Google and Youtube might provide you with some pretty good resources, the best way to learn new skills is by using proper platforms that supply you with real courses and tutorials.
On Juno, you'll find hundreds of products, services, and experiences that are specifically selected to improve mental health and wellbeing.
So, it's time to get researching, learning, and growing - your mental health will thank you for it!