It is good to learn new things. It stimulates building new neuronal connections. The ‘average’ neuron (brain cell) makes about 10,000 connections to others. Newborn babies can make a million new connections a second! While it is said our number of brain cells decrease later in life it is never too late to make new connections.
If you’ve been doing your ‘mind’ exercises e.g. crossword, Sudoko, Wordle, Luminosity or Brain HQ, socialising, attending groups, practising music, art, writing, gardening, perhaps learning a new language, you’ll be making new connections. In some way that meditative time, perhaps in Nature, perhaps practising mindful meditation, allows for connections to be made, as does good sleep.
Instead of resisting new things, such as the endless flow of new apps, digital processes, logins, online banking, shopping and living, learning anything new is an opportunity to make more neuronal connections. Taxi driver students, for example, have way more ‘density’ of white matter, which are largely found in the tentacle-like connections between neurons, for that area of the brain that relates to ‘geography’.
Learning a new language is particularly good. There is so much to learn. Check out the courses of offer at the University of the Third Age, aimed at people who are retired and have some time to learn new things in the UK. Find information about local groups and how to join online: https://www.u3a.org.uk/join#:~:text=Join%20your%20Local%20u3a%201%20Open%20the%20map,coloured%20pin%20for%20details%20of%20your%20local%20u3a.
What have you learnt this week? If nothing, what action are you going to take to remedy this?