Personal Development - Mental wellness and life-long learning

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Why:

Keeping your mind sharp is one way of maintaining your overall wellbeing. Mental wellness is boosted by constantly giving yourself the right nutrients, but the most direct means of working your mind is to do mental exercises. Like the rest of the muscles in your body, the brain needs a good workout, through informational input and output.

Mental degradation happens over time. A granduncle of mine had stopped working for 5 years, and in the last 2 he left the house less frequently due to joint pains. In that time he became so reclusive that he visibly aged... not just in appearance but more so in his interaction with people. He was slower to respond and seemed to take a longer time to think. He is still joyful and likes to be around people though, and this was but a setback in this phase of his life.

How:

There are a few ways to stave off this issue. Learning a new skill stimulates different parts of the brain, allowing new neuron pathways to form and connect in the brain. So keep your mind alert and in tip top shape when you challenge yourself on a daily basis. Do the sport or hobby you've been putting off a long time; or travel a different route than the one you usually take; learn a new language; or cook a new recipe; use your non-master hand more; attempt a puzzle. It will take some effort initially but it's helpful to your brain in the long run.

MOOCs
Work your mind with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) too! They are freely available on educational websites, covering multiple topics from secondary school subjects like Maths and Geography, to higher education lessons like bioengineering and C+ programming and soft skills like business presentations. Most of them offer courses that are either free or allow you to audit for free but pay for the certificate at the end.

Here are some MOOCs websites you can check out:

If you google search MOOCs you'll find a vast array. Some styles of teaching differ so try out a few sites before you settle on the one best suited to your learning style.

Libraries
Also free educational books and magazines and newspapers are always to be found in your local library, so drop in and spend the afternoon there to build your brain power or knowledge.

Community
Make it your daily motivation to connect deeply with a friend or interact well with someone in the neighbourhood. Just remember that learning something new about someone too can delay the onset of dementia or other mental issues.

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