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April 2, 2022 11 mins

Research shows that learning new skills can also improve your mental wellbeing by:

  • boosting self-confidence and raising self-esteem
  • helping you to build a sense of purpose
  • helping you to connect with others

Even if you feel like you do not have enough time, or you may not need to learn new things, there are lots of different ways to bring learning into your life.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Fessenden (00:01):
Welcome to the drunken worm podcast. Each week,
I will be bringing you dynamiccontent that will educate and
inspire. This podcast wascreated to talk to mental health
professionals about addictionrecovery and their own personal
stories that can help inspire usto become better people, and
live healthier lives. Welcome tothe show everybody. My name is
Carl, the host and the creatorof the drunken Warren podcast.

(00:24):
And you are listening to thefive in five, where we are
bringing you five episodes infive days. And today's episode
is part three, where we're goingto talk about learning new
skills to help our mental wellbeing. Research shows that
learning new skills can alsohelp improve our mental well
being by boosting confidence,raising self esteem, helping you

(00:47):
to build a new sense of purpose,and helping you connect with
others. Even if you feel likeyou do not have the time, or you
need to learn new things. Thereare lots of different ways to
bring learning into your life.
And that's what we're going totalk about today. I hope
everybody is doing well. HappySaturday. And I hope that you
guys are going to have afantastic weekend. And this is a
great episode for us to startoff on for this weekend is

(01:10):
learning something new. So letme ask you a question. What do
you now already know how to doproficiently? Well, and when I
say proficiently, meaning thatyou could describe how to do a
process to another person, andteach somebody a new skill.
Okay, you have an idea in yourmind. Perfect. Now, I want you

(01:35):
to think about learning a skillthat you don't know anything
about. I want you to think aboutlearning that skill, so that you
can perfect it and teachsomebody else that skill. This
is a great way for us toapproach bringing our mind into

(01:57):
the conversation and bringingour brain cells into the
conversation as well. Becausewe're going to get all those
things firing inside of ourbrains. Now I know a lot of us
don't have a lot of time on ourhands, you know, I'm super busy.
And I still try to make timethroughout the week to learn

(02:20):
something new. I'm constantlygoing on to see caps website,
I'm going on to Nadex website, Iam looking at different webinars
I can take to try to absorbsomething new that I didn't
already know. Or to brush up ona skill that I've learned in the

(02:41):
past, but feel that I need to bemore proficient in. So think of
something that you will want tolearn how to do. Maybe it's
learning how to cook. Or maybeit's learning how to cook
something new, maybe a newcuisine, that would be so much
fun learning how to do a newcuisine. So what would you do,

(03:01):
what I would do is I wouldprobably go onto YouTube, and
try to find some videos or go onto Google and look up some
recipes. Now, if I'm teachingmyself a new cuisine, I am
cheating already. Because Iworked as a chef for many years
in different restaurants allover the Bay Area, also on a

(03:24):
cruise ship in Hawaii. So, youknow, for me learning a new
cuisine is probably going to bea lot easier than for most
people. But challenge ourselves.
This is what this weekend is allabout. I want you guys to go out
and challenge yourself to learnsomething new, to learn a new

(03:47):
skill to start a new hobby.
Maybe once you get back to workon Monday, or maybe if you're
working this weekend, and you'relistening to the podcast, maybe
it's trying to take on a newresponsibility at work, or
learning a system or process atwork that you already didn't
know how to do. So you know, youcould work with a junior staff
member or improve yourpresentation skills, if you're

(04:10):
in the clinical world, tried tositting in on a group that you
haven't sat in on before so thatyou can start to understand what
that group talk topic is about.
And what they're doing in thegroup. Maybe it's a cognitive
behavioral therapy group, ormaybe it's a dialectical
behavioral therapy group. Ormaybe it's just a education

(04:31):
group or a didactic group, youknow, so many different ways
that we can approach clinicalaspects in our lives. So take on
something new.
What about doing a DIY project?
Or what about fixing somethingthat's broken in the house? We
had a shower here that wasdripping. And so I went online,

(04:51):
and I watched a video and it wasa little intense on how to fix A
dripping showerhead. Because yougot to take the the nozzles at
the bottom off, because that'susually probably where the water
is leaking from, and then it'sgoing up through either the
showerhead, or the or the thingat the bottom where the water

(05:14):
comes out to fill your bathtubup. But you have to check the
the seals around the, the thenozzles, because inside of all
the mechanisms are, so there's arubber seal, and a lot of times
those seals will get worn out,and then water is going to start
to leak through those, orthere'll be so deteriorated,
that they're gone. And I didn'tknow that until I started

(05:35):
researching how to fix thisdripping showerhead in the
shower. What about signing upfor a college course. I love
this idea. I love learning, wewere taught in the Marine Corps,
that knowledge is power. Andthat is something that I will

(05:58):
hold until the day that I die.
That knowledge is power, we needto constantly be challenging our
brain and challenging ourselveswith new skills and tasks, so
that we can stay on top of ourprofessions. And that we can

(06:19):
become proficient at what we'redoing. That's going to give you
confidence, and ultimatelycompetency in what you're doing.
And if you guys are unfamiliarwith those two words,
confidence, the saying that, youknow, yeah, I can go ahead and
do that. But if you havecompetency in something, then

(06:39):
that means you know what, I cango ahead and do it. And I can
show you how to do it. Because Iknow the process so well that I
can train you or show you theprocess. Right not just do the
process, but have enoughconfidence and competence to
show somebody the process. Sowhat about signing up for a

(07:03):
local college course, you couldtry learning a new language, or
maybe a practical skill such asplumbing, damn, maybe I should
go take a plumbing course at thelocal college. So that I'll know
how to fix things, or anelectricians course. Or it may
be learning a new language. Ithink that that's really cool.

(07:24):
You know, I'm in the process andnot through college, but through
through my friend. You know, I'mlearning American Sign Language.
And, you know, I'm it's not acourse that I'm taking. But it's
really wanting me to take acourse when I go back to school
this next semester. So these arethings that we can start doing,

(07:44):
we can start getting our mindactive, we can start learning
new things, and I get reallyexcited when I take on a new
task. I love learning. Whatabout trying a new hobby that
you haven't done before, such aswriting a blog, or learning a
new sport or learning to paintor you know, anything. It could
be anything. But the fact isthat our brain is going to

(08:09):
continue to function at a higherlevel. If we continue to
challenge it. As our we move onand age, it's so important to
challenge our brain it's soimportant to read. It's so
important to do crosswords, it'sso important to do puzzles,
because we are challenging ourbrain in our world right now is

(08:30):
so locked in on devices that webecome stupid when it comes to
things sometimes, right? Wedepend so much on devices. And
yes, I did tell you go looksomething up on YouTube. But
follow through with that withthe task. Follow through with

(08:51):
what you're watching so you canput it into practice you can get
your hands dirty. And that'sgoing to make our connections in
the brain so much better. I hopeyou guys have enjoyed this
episode and all the informationthat I just talked about will be
posted in the show notes below.
And I hope you guys have a greatSaturday
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