What Happens In The Brain When You Learn Something New?

A few years agone, I saw a weakness in my outdoor skills that needed to be rectified: I had non camped alone. I knew I would eventually have to practise that for a story, and I needed to be comfortable with it or I'd hazard losing and/or blowing the assignment.

The starting time fourth dimension I camped alone was in Maine. Information technology was 4 years ago, and yet I recall not only the book I was reading (Robinson Crusoe) merely where I was in it, the howling air current lashing at my tent, even the color of the leaves when I woke up (vibrant golden yellow). As I climbed out, I felt live, vibrant, set to take on the world.

I thought I was simply learning a new skill. But in that location was so much more going on than that. "Inquiry into brain health and longevity suggests that regular feel of novelty is essential to a long, happy life," Brain World magazine writes.

Especially in fitness, fads come and go—we kicked like mad for Tae Bo, set PRs like mad for CrossFit, and now we pedal like mad for Peloton. Adjacent month something else will consume us before we movement on again. Lots of people curlicue their optics at that, only they shouldn't. We change upwards work routines, nosotros rearrange furniture, we continue vacation, all to spark something new and different in us. Why can't practice routines exist the same?

It can, and should be, and not only because new exercise routines offering a way for united states to convince ourselves to get motivated about motion. In fact, there is fascinating encephalon research that shows that trying something new isn't merely fun and energizing, it makes our lives ameliorate in myriad other ways.

When we experience something new and similar it, our brain triggers a release of dopamine. Dopamine makes us feel pleasure. And the benefits of doing something novel extend beyond just feeling good. Learning makes our brains better. "Every time you learn a new fact or skill you alter your encephalon," says Lara Boyd, director of the Brain Behaviour Lab at the University of British Columbia, in a TEDx talk chosen "Later on This Your Brain Will Non Be The Same."

The harder a skill is to learn, the better it is for your brain. "My research has shown that increase in difficulty, increased struggle if y'all volition, during practice really leads to both more learning and greater structural alter in the encephalon," Boyd said.

Many of the new skills I've learned (or tried to learn) as I've become physically active in the terminal 10 years have to exercise with facing fear—rock climbing, water ice climbing, ziplining, etc. Others involve fear'due south first cousin—getting comfy being uncomfortable—mountain/road biking, kayaking/canoeing, and camping alone.

And if you think camping alone isn't something a person needs to work on, let me invite you to go manner out into the woods, pitch a tent, and tell me how you react when branches crevice at midnight and the coyotes howl and information technology sounds like there's 100 of them and they're getting closer and IS THAT A MONSTER Breathing ON THE SIDE OF MY TENT?!?

The heebie-jeebies are real, or at least they are to me. Facing fear or discomfort in "play"—of heights, of the unknown, of looking like a fool in front of a guide and peers—helps me face fears every bit a parent, husband, writer and solopreneur.

"Constantly introducing new and dissimilar strategies for physical activity and life skills can permit individuals to accept more than 'tools' in their toolbox to handle full general life stressors," says Christine Mac Donald, Ph.D., the inquiry director for The Sports Institute at UW Medicine and a professor of neurological surgery at the University of Washington Schoolhouse of Medicine: "Learning new exercises and skills naturally makes do more than interesting. Incorporating them in your fitness routine tin can aid in physical action sustainability. It can be very like shooting fish in a barrel to go less motivated over time when routines become besides repetitive. A varied physical activity plan naturally keeps things interesting, and it'due south also an opportunity to mayhap observe an activity you like and didn't know."

The benefits of learning new athletic skills are both ethereal and physical. Equally Diane Ackerman writes, "Play is an activeness enjoyed for its own sake. Information technology is the brain's favorite manner of learning and maneuvering."

However true that is, there is besides a biological benefit to it. "When you elevate your heart rate, you increase the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain which in turn tin improve encephalon part," Mac Donald says. "The more you lot're agile the more than your torso benefits overall, just eleven to 20 minutes is long enough to become the heart rate elevated for plenty fourth dimension to positively impact brain function. That'south partially why finding whatever time for movement during the mean solar day is great for everyone."

Trying something new forces us to live in the moment. Almost cypher is boring the offset time y'all practice it. That's why memories of my trip to Maine remain so bright.

"We live in a state of constant mental churn and meaningless chatter," Michael Easter writes in The Comfort Crisis: Encompass Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Salubrious, Happy Cocky. "In newness, nosotros're forced into presence and focus. This is considering nosotros can't conceptualize what to await and how to respond, breaking the trance that leads to life in fast forward. Newness can even deadening down our sense of time."

I found that to be true in solo camping; that trip to Maine seemed to last forever. Subsequent solo camping outings in Texas, New United mexican states, Utah and once more to Maine flew by in comparison. Easter hints at a fascinating idea here: If we fill our lives with learning new things, it will feel like nosotros live longer, or at the very least fuller, lives. "This explains why time seemed slower when we were kids," he writes. "Everything was new then, and we were constantly learning."

Photograph by @vinnikava/Twenty20