Today on our daily dive into holistic wellness we are going to explore intellectual wellness. Intellectual wellness is when we engage in activities that expand our scholastic and critical thinking abilities. Intellectual wellness encourages learning and engaging with your environment. Not only does it promote a sense of purpose and well being, but also makes you a better friend and companion by keeping your mind sharp and conversation intriguing. Personally, I feel intellectual wellness is one of the hardest wellnesses to keep up with in our modern age. It can be easy to find new and interesting topics of discussion and activities that facilitate learning when you are in school and university, but after those days are behind us we can find this aspect of our lives missing. Oftentimes we are so drained from other activities in our lives that when we have the free time we might feel mentally exhausted and unable to do much more than watching TV or scanning social media. However, this is a downward spiral! You are feeling mentally exhausted because you are not stimulating yourself with something new, which is making you feel too tired to start anything. Furthermore, adding time wasters like television and social media can even further drain your intellectual wellness, making the whole thing feel like a maze you will never escape from.
To assess your intellectual wellness we will present you with a brief quiz to determine where you stand. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being never and 10 being always, rate each of the following statements. Before beginning, rate your own judgment of your intellectual wellness on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being bad and 10 being the best.
1- I enjoy learning new things.
2- I stay current in news and current events from a myriad of news sources, not just one or two.
3- I select my entertainment such as television and movies carefully.
4- I read or listen to books regularly.
5- I enjoy taking a new class, learning a new skill or attending lectures.
6- I make an effort to maintain and grow my writing and listening skills.
7- I am able to see both sides of the argument and carefully weigh all sides before making an opinion.
8- I enjoy intellectual discussion and can have one without it turning into a fight.
9- I take time to continue my education at work where I can advance to more challenging roles
10- I enjoy mentally challenging games such as sudoku, crosswords and trivia.
Tally up your score and see where you stand, scores 0-40 indicate a low level of intellectual wellness, 41-70 indicates room for improvement and over 71 indicates an excellent state of intellectual wellness. If you scored in the lower two categories and are interested in advancing your intellectual wellness or even if you are in the upper level and are looking for new ideas, check out the below tips for improving your intellectual wellness.
Improve your Time Management Skills
Whenever we are trying to add things to our lives we know are “good for us” the common excuse is always that there isn’t enough time. Yet often we are completely unaware of our daily time wasters. Start being aware of what you do and how long you do it by logging down the time before one of your guilty pleasures. When you are done, log the time you stopped. Usually we have one or two activities that we over indulge in that can be cut back for better uses of our time.
Make Learning Fun
Remember when you were little and going to the Science Museum or the Zoo was just the most exciting thing ever? Humans are born with a lust for learning but we tend to forget or push it off to the side as we get older. Bring it back by heading to local Trivia Nights at bars and restaurants or start your own trivia night at your house. Start playing or teaching your kids board games and card games, enroll in a class for a new skill. Or even right now, take advantage of the hundreds of free or discounted classes being offered online during quarantine.
Journal or Free Write
This one can be combined with mindfulness and meditation exercises. Start a journal and just write whatever comes to you. These don't have to be personal stories or dreams; it can be a work of fiction or putting a historical event in your own words. Just write for fun and leisure. Let these thoughts come out of you to improve not just your awareness of your mood but also improve your language skills.
Listen to Podcasts or Books during your Commute
The commute is a great time to listen to engaging content. With so many free and reasonable rates for books and podcasts, you have countless hours of intellectually stimulating entertainment. Not sure where to start? Some popular podcasts are Ted Talks, RadioLab, This American Life and You Must Remember This, all are intellectually interesting podcasts that will stimulate you.
When you start engaging your intellect, you will feel your whole brain come to life again. You will get the excitement back that you thought you lost for life, you will have interesting things to share with family and friends and often you will make new friends in the process as well! There is no downside to this!
How do you engage yourself intellectually? What are your favorite Podcasts or books? We would love to hear your comments and questions at info@bullionite.com