Learning Is One Of The Best Stress Relief Methods

Learning is the Best Stress Relief! “When was the last time you bothered to learn something new?” If we ask, we guess the majority will point to the near times. There may be different triggers for large numbers of people to adopt this behaviour at the same time. The most common reason is the desire to fill the time gained from decreased activities, especially during the pandemic. For some, it is an opportunity to focus on a subject that is always postponed and of interest. It is an obligatory activity for those whose jobs are decreasing, ending and preparing to work in a new field during this period. Stress Relief with Learning is probably the most profitable method of stress relief. If you like to kill more than one bird with one stone, we recommend you make a habit of relieving stress by learning.

Another reason may be that it is one of the most effective methods of combating stress. This last one is the focus of this article. Work stress is a critical issue that has been increasingly emphasized recently. It affects the efficiency of institutions, the health and happiness of employees, and their well-being. In the days under the influence of the pandemic, managing work stress, depending on the institution’s culture, external forces such as economy and politics, or the health conditions of ourselves and our relatives, was more on our agenda.

The negative consequences of work stress are not only anxiety and health problems based on individuals. Unethical behaviours also lead to essential negativities, such as communication problems between employees in the eyes of organizations. According to an article summarising extensive research, we generally have three main strategies for stress relief at work.

-You are choosing to tackle the stressful job with more and more effort.
-Getting away to relax, do things we enjoy, and freshen up with breaks.
-Focus on learning something.

Those of you who follow our posts may know that we put a lot of emphasis on learning, and the research aspect says that the last of the above strategies are the most effective. There are several reasons why learning is the most effective among these strategies, each of which can be a separate article. Our capacity to learn is unlimited; it is not a resource we consume. Another is that besides the benefit of cutting us off from the stress it provides at the moment, it also creates future results and gives us new tools to use when necessary. But of course, there are prerequisites such as desire and curiosity. Also, seeing learning as a “job” or a “task” will not provide the intended benefit—of managing job stress relief well here.

What Do We Mean by Stress Relief with Learning?

If we are going to use the learning activity as a tool for overcoming work stress, learning about the subject that causes stress and other unrelated issues can be helpful for us. They both work that the mind that goes into learning mode creates a buffer zone between us and the stress factor, separating us from negative influence. It is necessary for the learning activity to contain a dose of difficulty, not too much or too little, and it will give our brain the focus it needs, taking our attention from the problem and focusing on the solution. (For the Enthusiast, The most famous theory of performing an appropriate dose of strain is Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory.)

Don’t Exaggerate the Difficulty Level

If you are experiencing significant stress, it is wise not to exaggerate this challenge. If you are temperamentally prone to targets that are difficult to reach or take a long time to go, and if your expectations from yourself are generally higher than those from others, it will be instructive to set a different strategy this time—for example, trying to explore along the way to a seemingly small goal, choosing a topic that is easy to handle or a pleasure to deal with.

Reflecting or reflecting is also an effective learning technique. It will open new doors to describe and make sense of your experiences about the learning you have chosen, to think about what you have learned and what you need to learn, or even better, to write. For this method of thinking, you can also use questions in a sub-topic. A lot of observation will be helpful for this. Observing both yourself and other people creates opportunities for discovery. As always, it is critical to be non-judgmental while doing this, remembering that the goal is discovery. It will provide ample material for making decisions, assigning homework to yourself, making trials and evaluating each experiment, and being able to reflect as you explore.

Another critical point is to observe our progress, regardless of the topic being addressed for learning purposes. Seeing your progress gives you both motivation and an opportunity to internalize. How to monitor progress It is easier to learn by attending a course or lecture. Applications such as pre-test and post-test, homework, exams, and measuring our knowledge and skills between stages provide this. Suppose we are not in such a structured learning environment and are researching and reading a topic or simply working on our chosen topic and our behaviour on our own. In that case, we can evaluate progress by asking ourselves the following questions. Asking these questions in the first place can provide more clarity than expected. Then, setting time targets and asking the same questions again at certain stages will lead to evaluating the progress made and making our learning sustainable. You can make a mind map during this whole process.

What do I want to learn and improve about this topic?

What do I need to see to say “I learned”?

When can I say “I have progressed”?

What can I do differently than usual to reach the stage I aim for?

What have I tried, and what were the results?

What are my failed attempts telling me to do differently?

What’s next for me to try?

What have my successful practices taught me?

How should I do it next?

How far am I now from my starting point?

How close am I to where I want to be? Making room for learning Deciding to learn something and taking action is, of course, at our initiative. However, different opportunities may arise, especially in corporate life, such as corporate training, coaching and mentoring programs. While we can periodically request these, sometimes they can be offered to us as a necessity. In any case, we still have the initiative. Thinking ahead of time about how we can use the time we spend for these opportunities, provided without a fee, dramatically increases the benefit we will receive. Not everyone is equally demanding when it comes to learning or using it as a stress relief management tool. People who can cope with work stress effectively will benefit themselves, positively affect their stress relief, and increase work and team performance.

Encouraging people to learn, to take steps to learn about factors related to job stress or other issues, is an excellent example of leadership. From a holistic point of view, if we see those in our immediate environment, such as our family and friends, who are also exposed to the adverse effects of work stress, it may be an excellent idea to take the lead or provide appropriate support for them. It may be wise to look at what we want to learn about which subject and choose the topic we are interested in. Because the effort we will spend on the subject where our interest and desire are high will be more voluntary, and our learning skills will be higher. On the other hand, if we set out to overcome work stress but have indecision in choosing a subject or aim to make rapid progress in any matter and increase motivation, it is possible to select according to our age group.

Many studies have found that different skills peak in other age groups. Whatever your skills are currently in their most developed period, choosing a subject to learn or work on can help you get the quick results I mentioned above.

It is helpful to consider the ages in this list as approximate periods, not fixed ages. Also, do not forget that the activity suggestions below for each age group are only suggestions; you can find better ideas yourself. Eighteen years The brain’s information processing power and ability to follow details are at their peak—a suitable period to learn all kinds of new information and subjects.

Success will be exceptionally high in matters of great detail or importance. Twenty-two years The age at which the power to remember different names is the highest. Occupations involving sociability and contact with people are good ideas—Thirty-two years of Learning new faces. Again, social tasks, activities and studies can be performed with high performance. Forty-three years of Concentration and focus are rising. This is the appropriate age if you need to do long readings in any field of natural interest. Activities that involve listening to and understanding other people can also be learned relatively quickly. Forty-eight years The ability to correctly understand people’s emotions. Influencing people, impacting groups, training, consultancy, mentoring, coaching, subjects that require one-on-one work with people, and support roles are best learned in this age group. It is easier to develop your emotional intelligence at this age. Fifty years of Understanding and learning new information and arithmetic skills. This is an excellent time to research and learn about topics of interest. Activities involving a book of accounts can also be included. 67 years of Vocabulary. Actions such as writing, speaking, preparing content, improving oneself in a foreign language of interest or translating can be selected.

As we can see in the Future Competencies list published by the World Economic Forum, it seems that learning will be a stress reliever and a feature that we will use for our purposes in almost every field today and in the future. We always wish to remember that all the difficulties that life throws at us are an opportunity to strengthen this side of us…