Many people are taking their children for multiple extracurricular activities. Some of their reasons are -
- It keeps them occupied so that they are not bored
- It is a way to keep them away from the screen
- They get exposure to multiple things and therefore can decide what they really like
- This increases social interaction.
- It decreases stress
- It is an opportunity to discover oneself
While this satisfies parents, it does not necessarily make the child happy. They may feel overwhelmed and unengaged. They may take this as a task to do to keep the parents happy. Even these multiple activities are limited in number and decided by parents. Children may not like any of these and may think that it is a wastage of time and they have less time to interact with their class friends.
This race to learn new things is also prevalent in adults. So, is it a good thing?
Many benefits are cited for acquiring new skills-
- It prevents brain atrophy. Remember the famous saying- use it or lose it?
- It gives confidence
- It increases self-esteem
- It may increase income
- May help in the prevention of isolation
- People gain new experiences and interactions
- Not learning new may slow the brain
- It is important as things are changing every day
Are there any disadvantages to learning new things?
No one knows everything and no one can learn everything. It is a race to nowhere. We should not be learning new things just for boasting. There should be a clear personal or professional benefit.
- If learning new thing increases the stress of taking out time and money, is it really beneficial?
- Think if in the process of learning new things, are you losing your old skills?
- Is it better to refine old skills and get mastery over already acquired skills or learn new and never ger mastery in any skill?
- Does it indicate that our mind keeps wandering and can not relax and get a feeling of fulfillment?
- It may overload the brain and lead to a nervous breakdown.
- Failure to acquire new skill may lead to depression
- It may increase chaos in life as time is required for it.
- It may increase confusion
More important than learning new things is to implement the already acquired knowledge.
Yog practice requires us to withdraw from outside stimulus. There is only one goal and that is to look inside and attain moksh. Pratyahar is a stage when a person does not react to external senses and can feel the energy emanating from inside. For this to happen, we do not need to learn multiple new things. In contrast, learning multiple skills may be a hindrance to meditation as the mind wanders more, the more we know. Yoga teaches us that we do not need to compete with each other and learn new things always. Everyone's goal is the same and everyone has the potential to achieve that. The only skill required is to focus on ourselves.
Bharti Raizada
