Learn, Share, Grow – Why Learning Leads to Happiness

Below is a lesson from Huffington Post on why learning leads to happiness, as well as our key learning.

The Blue Courage team is dedicated to continual learning and growth.  We have adopted a concept from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why team called “Learn, Share, Grow”.  We are constantly finding great articles, videos, and readings that have so much learning.  As we learn new and great things, this new knowledge should be shared for everyone to then grow from.

Why Learning Leads to Happiness

By Philip Moeller

Your mind may be the closest thing to the Holy Grail of longevity and happiness. Education has been widely documented by researchers as the single variable tied most directly to improved health and longevity. And when people are intensely engaged in doing and learning new things, their well-being and happiness can blossom.

This effect becomes even more valuable as we get older. Even in old age, it turns out, our brains have more plasticity to adapt and help us than was once thought. Old dogs, in short, can learn a lot of new tricks.

Continue reading here.

Key Learnings:

• Flow — degree of engagement people have with tasks that provide them knowledge and fulfillment. People may get tired by the task but emerge energized and happy.
• People engaged completely in pursuits can trigger healthful changes in their brain chemistry and respiratory patterns.
• It’s possible to experience your job and your family life as “flow”. Think of various stages of engagement as forming a path toward flow that also provide satisfaction and happiness.
• “Manageable Difficulties” — To derive these benefits, the task involved must be sufficiently hard to really challenge us. The challenge draws us in, overcoming the challenge produces health and happiness.
• Benefits of learning and engagement are particularly important in promoting healthy aging — your mind is like a muscle and we must use it.
• There is a beneficial relationship between lifelong learning and staying socially active with mental well-being and happiness later in life.
• Just being involved in an activity does not produce the benefits of engagement — and engagement needs to be connected with a sense of purpose and achievement to produce happiness.
• Successful aging and longevity are built upon patterns of lifelong learning.