4 reasons why learning a new skill is vital as we age.
When you are born the brain is a malleable environment of synapses and electrical pathways. Every time we learn new skills as toddlers/children neural pathways fire in the brain.
As these electrical circuits begin firing we create neural pathways that wire together and solidify these pathways in the brain.
Let me give you an example of how this works:
Think about a sandbox of wet sand –
This sandbox represents your brain.
When we do something new it is as if we are drawing a line in the sand from point A to point B – this is like creating a neural pathway in the brain. If we do an activity just once or twice it is like dragging your finger once or twice along the same pathway to get from point A to point B as in the picture above.
The more we do something, the more we imagine dragging our finger over the same pathway in the sandbox and that groove from A to B gets deeper and deeper and the more those neural pathways are “cemented” into the brain structure:
Repetition creates deep grooves/solidified neural pathways in the brain.
Those little marbles represent the mind/body execution.
Having deep grooves “cemented” into the brain is useful for us in some instances as it allows tasks that we perform every day to be quick and easy for the mind/body to execute. For example – it’s really easy and quick for a marble to find it’s way from point A to point B when the pathway there is very deeply grooved into the sand!
Having these “quick pathways” is really useful for some activities; tying your shoelaces, driving a car, brushing your teeth. (But it can also be unhelpful for us if there are pathways that we’ve created through repetition, that are less favourable: automatic road-rage reaction or flying off the handle at your partner when you feel hungry, for example.)
When we are children, we are constantly creating new neural pathways in the brain as we learn and grow – we are dragging our fingers around in the sandbox from left to right, up and down, backwards and forwards all over the show – the sandbox/your brain is ALIVE with multiple networks and pathways that are firing and wiring together.
As we get older (read: “stuck in our ways”), or as life becomes, dare I say – repetitive, we tend to favour a select few useful pathways – as in the image above, leaving a whole host of space in our sandpit that is unactivated/unchartered.
The thing is, if you don’t use it, you lose it – so all those areas of your sandbox that aren’t being activated may as well harden up into rock formation!
What we are aiming for as we age is neuroplasticity – which creates multiple pathways to NEW locations in the brain –
So what does this look like in practice?
Very simply it is about trying something new! And this is where CREATIVITY is such an important component. Creativity is innovation and it continually forces the brain to explore new unchartered territory.
Learning a new skill is such a good way of challenging the brain/roughing up your sandbox!
- It creates opportunity for NEW neural firing and wiring
- It gets you OUT of conditioned routines and ways of thinking
- “If you don’t use it, you lose it” – so if we are not challenging the brain/body/mind to learn something new we begin to lose that ability.
- It is a way to take some time to slow down and reconnect back to yourself!
This month on MOVE BREATHE CREATE – it is all about LEARNING NEW SKILLS.
We have a whole host of content that is related entirely to the beginners mind: Ranging from
- an intro to yoga course
- an intro to meditation course and
- an intro to basic line drawing
If you’ve never done yoga or meditation or tried your hand at something creative, then this is the perfect thing for you to jump in on!
Think about it as a workout for your mind – all while getting calmer, clearer, more energised and more playful.
Come join us over at MOVE BREATHE CREATE to learn some new skills this month!
Simple yet eloquent.