Intellectual stimulation and wellbeing

[Peppermintbach]

Hi all,

I feel we often (understandably) talk about our social, emotional, physical and creative needs but what about our intellectual needs?

Sometimes I feel this is overlooked...

I personally feel, for many of us, there is a need to feel intellectually challenged/stimulated. I feel discontented and restless if this need isn’t met especially lately as my brain seems to be starting to fix itself (so to speak).

So I was wondering what do you do to feel challenged or what do you do for intellectual stimulation?

All thoughts welcome...

I’ll be back later at some point to add some of my own ideas.

Kind thoughts,

Pepper

[Lici]

Hi pepper,

I recently got a pdf in class about evidence based practice and how clinical psychologists read journal articles and how they determine if a treatment study is good or not. If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to give a rundown on how to determine if the study is a good one or not. An article could have significant findings but that doesn't always mean it's a good study or one without fault.

Editing photos is definitely creative, you can either do advanced things like create a composite (merging two photos together such as putting a different sky on a foreground) or just bring out details. I tend to just bring out details at the moment but would love to do a composite of a milky way sky on a landscape one day!

Origins of us is in 3 parts and Dr Alice Roberts is the person who does it if that helps 🙂

Anyway, I must go get ready for my gp appointment. Feel free to ask any questions about photography or psychology etc!

Lici

[Lici]

Hi all!

I'm unsure if we can post links to YouTube videos in here, but I found some videos on psychology terms that may be helpful for people. It explains them in like a tutorial kind of way.

The channel is called khanacademymedicine and they have quite a few playlists on different topics. There's one that I looked at called attributing behaviour to persons or situations, but there's also playlists on depression, anxiety, psychotic disorders, personality theories, social psychology, psychological disorders. There's tons more on other medical based things as well!

I thought I'd share as people might be interested. I know that learning about the different theories etc behind mental illness has really helped me understand my experiences a lot.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Kind regards

Lici

[Peppermintbach]

Hi all,

Thank you so much for the wonderful suggestions and contributions 🙂

Please feel free to chime in on the thread topic:

So I was wondering what do you do to feel challenged or what do you do for intellectual stimulation?

I just thought of one that I would like to share:

• I read that activities/tasks that require both mental exertion and manual dexterity can help us maintain brain function. For example, 3D artwork (e.g. ceramics, making jewellery, etc), learning a musical instrument, creating mini models and lab work (although of course this last one might not be for everyone and there are safety implications too with lab work).

Lici: thank you for your wonderful insight and suggestions 🙂

Sorry, to the best of my understanding, I think only Community Champions can post links (?) I don’t think us regular members can do it although I’ve never tried.

Khanaacedemymedicine YouTube videos sounds really interesting. Thank you for mentioning it. I really like your point about how learning the theory behind a condition (mental or even physical) can help us make sense of our experiences, and possibly give us new ideas about treatment options too.

That article sounds really enlightening and it must have be so useful when you read academic articles. I feel learning to read written content with a critical eye is such an important skill regardless of whether it’s an academic article, newspaper article, media report, opinion piece, etc.

But I suppose with academic articles, there are certain things a person needs to look out for. Thanks Lici!

Making photo composites sounds challenging but rewarding. How spectacular would a composite of he Milky Way be? Stunning.

Thanks again,

Pepper