DUBAI: An idle mind is the devil’s workshop, or so the clichéd phrase goes.
A recent Yale University study has shown that as the brain was made for learning, it should constantly be kept on its toes, so to speak, by keeping it at work, else it loses its reason for existence and becomes – yes – a devil’s workshop, where you end up doing bad things.
“We only learn when there is uncertainty, and that is good,” YaleNews quoted Daeyeol Lee, Yale’s Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and professor of psychology and psychiatry, as saying.
It’s fine to give the brain some rest once in a while, according to Lee, saying: “If the brain is learning all the time, we would give up whenever we experience failure; we wouldn’t persist.”
Then how to strike the balance?
“Travel,” said an article published on Inc.com which, taking off from the Yale study, noted that “plenty of thinkers have argued time spent abroad increases important skills for business success like comfort with ambiguity, confidence when confronted with the unfamiliar, and accelerated learning.”
Traveling breaks monotony, itself a not-so-pleasant outgrowth of the comfort zones, as there are always something new to feed hungry eyes; new things to do and discover; new people to get along with, experts said.
So, where’s it going to be?
