What skill or talent would you like to learn?
Something we always encourage here at mindyourmind is to spend time building your self care toolkit. That includes taking time to update it with new tools that can help support you. This month the mindyourmind team is sharing a new skill or talent they’d like to learn and add to their self care routine.
Heather: I would like to intuitively know all the various yoga movements. I do enjoy yoga and have taken lots of classes in my life, however it’s difficult to remember the sequences and specific poses if you are doing it on your own. If I could magically know them all, then when I have a short break at work, or if I’m somewhere like on the beach or on a hiking trail, I could stop and do some yoga moves and feel the benefit of that for my overall mental wellness.
Josh: I always like to pick up new skills and hobbies. But the one(s) I’ve always struggled with are learning new languages. I’d love to speak Italian, Japanese, or Latin – but I have a nasty habit of not keeping with it for long enough. If I was in an area where the language is spoken more often I’m sure that I could pick it up. But it’s tough to learn a language when it’s just you and you’re not forced to speak it. That being said, practising how to keep yourself motivated for just your own sake is a skill in and of itself. So nothing is lost by keeping at it.
Elora: Like Josh, I too would like to master learning new languages. In high school, I briefly studied French and Spanish, but I didn’t pursue them further. I would love to relearn these languages as I find speaking another language to be a fun and mentally stimulating challenge. Plus speaking other languages is a great way to engage in other cultures and form meaningful connections.
Kyle: Right now I am completely infatuated with machine learning and AI and that’s what I hope to take up in the future. Particularly the field of generative art, where you train networks to produce text, images, and music. Google “stable diffusion” if you want to blow your mind! We are about to see the democratisation of creativity, where any person anywhere can express themselves via any art form with zero gatekeeping. I think it has really interesting potential for communication, mental health, art therapy, and expression. It’s going to be exciting, messy, controversial, and very interesting.
Scarlett: The language learning is definitely up there for me too, but what first came to mind for me was that I would really like to learn to fluently play guitar and/or piano. I took guitar lessons for a bit in high school and still have my guitar (and feel guilty every time I see it sitting abandoned), but I think I grew too impatient with myself when I wasn’t picking up the skill as fast as I had hoped. Music was always something that was really important to me – from a young age I would write and sing lyrics as a way to try and cope with my struggles and I really valued listening to music throughout life’s ups and downs. Unfortunately that interest has kind of fallen to the wayside in the last year or so, but hopefully the passion will come back. I think being able to play an instrument like guitar or piano, so that I could more fully express myself through existing songs or by writing my own, would be a really therapeutic outlet for me to have access to!
Simran: A new skill I would like to learn is how to create art with clay. I’m finding that being more tactile with the art mediums I use results in me feeling more calm. It also helps reduce my screen time and allows me to focus on one thing rather than multiple things.
Michelle: I’m with Simran on this one. I would love to learn to work with clay. I did a pottery wheel lesson this summer and loved it. Somthing about taking a blob of clay and using my hands to form it into a bowl. It was so rewarding. I really enjoy putting on some music and making things. It’s my way to reinvigorate and take care of myself.
Sanchi: A new skill I would like to learn is to speak Korean. I am a huge fan of BTS, a kpop group. I would love to be able to understand the lyrics and all the nuances that don’t translate well. BTS has always promoted self love and expression through their music and talks about a lot of mental health issues they, as musicians, have faced. I would like to learn more about their journeys and how they cope and work on themselves in their language.
