What Is Intellectual Wellness ?
Intellectual Wellness is the capacity to open our minds to fresh ideas and experiences that can be applied to personal decisions, group interaction and community betterment. The yearning to learn new concepts, develop skills and pursue challenges in pursuit of lifetime learning contributes to our intellectual wellness.
∙ Learning because you want to – not because you are told to. Doing the work assigned.
∙ Learning through varied experiences – reading, writing, sharing and exploration
∙ Observing what is around you
∙ Listening & Questioning
∙ Finding applications for material learned in the classroom
∙ Staying current with world affairs/news
∙ Exposing yourself to new experiences (e.g. arts, theatre)
∙ Reading Books & Newspapers
∙ Staying interested in community activities
∙ Expand the knowledge of others
Are you engaged in the process of intellectual wellness?
Are you open to new ideas?
Do you seek personal growth by learning new skills?
Do you search for learning opportunities and stimulating mental activities?
Do you look for ways to use creativity?
Why Intellectual Wellness is important
Intellectual wellness encourages learning. It’s key to explore new ideas in order to become better rounded. It ought to arouse curiosity. Curiosity is essential because it motivates you to try fresh things and develop a better understanding of how you see the relationship between yourself and others.
Benefits of Intellectual Wellness:
• Stimulating mind within knowledge and apprehension of world transports richness to one’s life and other persons.
• One’s knowledge can save the world and countless individuals lives. For instance, knowledge of medicine by Hippocrates and knowledge of x-ray by Marie curie save the lives of many in this world.
• Make one curious to get more knowledge and can lead to amazing discoveries. For instance, Newton found the law of gravity as he was curious to know why the apple fell on the ground.
• Increase the memory power, recall and concentration of a person. It increases remembrance power of previously happened things and increase concentration in present things.
• Expand critical thinking skills to develop a good problem solving and coping skills which are essential to keep one more intelligent and productive. It can happen by practicing quizzes, jumble games, and by improving general knowledge.
• Increase the sense of self-worth as one can identify his/her productive work and success.
• Self-esteem, belonging, self-determination, patience, acceptance improves in an intellectually well person.
• Respect for others and try to help others. It does not mean one feels big-headed that he/she is more creative and has more knowledge. This is the knowledge and education which educates us manners like respecting each and every human even if his/her ideas are same or clash with you.
• Understand one’s potential, know and feel good about yourself and make encouraging attitude towards life.
• It helps to keep mind alert and intellectually sound.
• It aids to improve expressiveness of your thoughts and your creativity by challenging yourself and developing problem solving skills.
• Keeps mind crisp and vigilant help one to stay healthy and aware.
• It also develops openness of mind and free thinking because sad and tense people cannot be as productive and as knowledgeable as intellectually healthy person.
• Studying new skills with inquisitiveness to do great things. For example, you will be able to grow great interest in the world around you.
• Dedicated to lifelong learning through formal education and informal life experiences.
• Unceasing sense of humour, creativity, curiosity by realisation your own decisions, making up your mind, in your own interest when there is a choice or a problem, which is a daily event.
Eight simple steps to increase your intellectual wellness
Read for fun.
It might be hard to do when you are spending most of your time doing house work, dealing with children or going to work etc but try to find time during the morning, night, or weekend to sit down and read something for fun. Reading, particularly something you enjoy, can expand your intellect by stretching your mind to think about things you normally don’t think about!
Debate an issue with a friend, but choose the viewpoint opposite the one you hold.
Sounds tricky, right? That’s the point! Concentrating attention on information that is dissimilar than your beliefs can expand intellectual wellness. Instinctively, we tend to only focus our attention on opinions, beliefs, and facts that hold true to our viewpoints. When you bare the mind to opposing ideas, it expands the mind to hold new information.
Improve your skills for studying and learning.
Studying new things about the way your mind processes information can be a fundamental tool to helping you succeed.
Learn a foreign language.
Studying a foreign language can be valuable to your intellectual health and your employment prospects. Whilst learning diverse ways to communicate, your mind expands. This not only helps with being receptive to new knowledge, but also helps expands information already learned.
Play a game.
Board games and cards are commonly known as leisure activities. These activities can also help with your intellectual wellness. The next time you have free time, pick up a deck of cards or pull out a board game and play! It makes no difference whether you are playing alone or you are playing with others. As long as your mind is thinking, improvements are being made.
Play a musical instrument.
Music has a powerful impact on our minds. Playing a musical instrument can increase intellectual wellness by learning how to create sounds, make patterns, and emote through music. Any instrument can work to increase intellectual wellness, so start today and take up a new hobby.
Write down your thoughts or journal frequently.
Taking the time to write down feelings or journal frequently can help those who battle with articulating their feelings or in general for anyone who is trying to make sense of what they are feeling inside. Being able to recognise your feelings and understanding yourself more and your actions grow intellectual wellness by exposing your mind to deeper thinking.
Do crossword or sudoku puzzles.
Crosswords and Sudoku are leisure activities that have proved to expand intellectual wellness. Working through puzzles or finding words in patterns uses a great amount of brain power. Increasing your skill to work through these activities can support and build your intellectual wellness.
