As you age, learning new skills preserves the health of your brain. The act of learning itself improves cognitive functioning and keeps you sharp. The more unfamiliar it is to you, the better it is for you to learn about it. It’s possible that challenging mental activity slows the rate at which the brain ages.
Where can seniors go to learn?
Since learning is objective, depending on the person and what they want to learn, the answers to that are endless. Seniors want to learn new things and the way they learn is also dependent upon their personality.
- Classes. There are classes available in just about everything at local colleges.
- Online. Websites for colleges and universities provide free courses in many subjects. There are also websites dedicated to providing free learning opportunities.
- Your local senior centre. This is where many seniors go to learn basic computer skills, yoga, tai chi and various other subjects.
- The library. Your local library may offer courses for seniors or the public in general.
Beside the places we would expect to go to learn something, what other opportunities are available for seniors to learn?
- Travel. Even in your own area you can learn something new every day. Most of us never take a close look at our own towns, we are too busy dreaming about travel to far off places.
- Our ancestors, relatives and friends. Much can be learned by reading the diaries of our ancestors, looking at old postcards, talking to new and old acquaintances about their experiences.
- Social media. What are your interests? What might you be interested in? Type it in the search bar and see what you find. Look at the interests of others on social media and you’ll see new websites and groups that you didn’t know existed.
More than anything, the desire to learn is the one thing that most seniors have in common. You don’t grow old until you stop learning and for those who have varied interests, what is out there that you would like to learn more about? Some suggestions could be:
- Finding out about our solar system; the stars, space and planets
- The history of the world
- Languages of different countries and more about countries around the world
- Taking up bird watching, or learning about butterflies or animals
- Rock collecting and geology
- Painters and writers; musicians through the ages and styles of music in their time
- Poetry and memorizing it; learning about the different poets
- Past crafts of our ancestors
- Learn calligraphy or learn how to sing – there are choral groups in most towns
- Maybe you’d like to learn to act; many areas have theatrical groups
As you can see there are so many things to learn and many places to learn them. Right within your area are opportunities to learn how to do new things or knowledge of things from the past. Look online or check your local newspaper to find what is available near you. Learning will keep you young!
