Following on from yesterdays post about Physical self care, todays post is about intellectual self care. If you haven't heard of intellectual self care or don't know why anything other than physical and emotional self care are important check out my post on the basics of self care.
You don't have to be Einstein to look after your intellectual wellbeing. Keeping your brain active helps reduce boredom and in my experience can help with the dreaded brain fog.
Keeping your mind active also helps to pass some of the time if your stuck indoors.
There are many ways you can keep your mind active even if your stuck in bed and high on morphine.
For me, I like to learn new things. Take classes on Skillshare, my latest thing (as you can probably tell) has been learning about blogging. I also like designing new things out of fabric and then making them.
On bad days something as simple as listening to an audiobook can keep your mind active. I also like to watch videos on you tube that teach me something new like a new stitch or mini crochet project that I can do whilst been propped up in bed. Learning something new and then been able to put it into practice also gives a sense of achievement which is great for emotional wellbeing too.
Don't worry if your not creatively minded puzzle books, adult colouring books, reading, quiz shows can all keep your mind active and give you a sense of achievement.
If you want to try something new Skillshare is a platform for lots of online classes. Some are free, some you have to be signed up to their paying account to access. There's also adult learning classes in most towns in the UK that can cover a wide range of topics. I've been to henna, healthy cooking and nutrition classes, they're usually quite cheap, even more so if your on any benefits.
If you decide you like learning you could always take it further and enrol in The Open University. Ideal if you wanted to go to university but your health stopped you. They take all ages and if you've not had student finance before you can apply for student finance to pay the tuition fees.
Whatever you do it has to challenge you, make you think and keep you interested. Most of all it has to be right for you.
Do you have any ideas how to keep your mind active? What would you like to try and learn?
Thanks for reading. Make sure you check back Tomorrow for the next post in the series, Emotional self care.
Laura :)
