Learning is life
Learning is an ongoing process which
continues till our last breath. It’s absolutely mind boggling to even get a
grip on the quantum of learning one has to do throughout one’s life. The moment
we stop learning we stop growing and the moment we stop growing our downhill
journey starts. As soon as learning stops we begin to vegetate, gunk of
ignorance begins to accumulate on our minds and souls which asphyxiates life
killing us both literally and metaphorically. When there is no learning
happening, life becomes like a pond of still polluted water which does not have
enough dissolved oxygen at any level of its depth to support any animal or
plant species. When human beings stop learning, life begins to wither, the zeal
to live starts to dry up and we begin to helplessly drop everything that we
have acquired through our life like plants drop dried leaves in autumn.
Ultimately we become obsolete and perish.
Living beings are so programmed and
wired that learning comes naturally to us. We learn all the time, sometimes
with a conscious mind and sometimes with subconsciously, just like voluntary
and involuntary body actions. Our mind, like our heart, never sleeps, it works around
the clock. New scientific research has now shown that mind continues to work
even when we are not conscious, it processes complex stimuli, creates and
consolidates memories, makes creative connections, clear out toxins while we
are asleep.
My experience in life (whatever
little I have and whatever it is worth) tells me that voluntary learning is the
life force of a healthy and a thriving mind and makes the mind grow and evolve.
As far as I am concerned, voluntary learning makes me happy and contended in
the process. Voluntary learning for me automatically yields happy
hormones. The more serotonin I have the more I tend to learn and for me
it is a self-sustaining exercise. Conscious learning is my recipe for
happiness. The moment I stop learning proactively, I can actually feel
degenerative forces having a field day somewhere inside me and obviously there
is a visible drying up of the supply of serotonin and endorphins. The
degenerative forces begin to erode my sense of self-worth, they begin to rust
my self-esteem and they begin to bleach the colour off my soul. For me
there is no choice, I have to keep learning to live and to live a life of
happiness and contentment.
During the course of my life and learning
I have learnt some important lessons. Some of these lessons are like thumb rules of
my life and enable me to zoom in on any action that I do or choose not to, to
help me understand its consequences. I have discovered that fear and doubt are
the biggest enemies of learning and since learning is life, they are the
biggest enemies of life. Fear roots us to the status quo and doubt is the speed
breaker of our growth. In limited amounts both these elements work like
catalysts that accelerate action, but the moment they exceed the requisite
quantity they do just the reverse. In life just, fair and reasonable fears and
doubts have to be entertained, analysed, processed and resolved, but the moment
they cross the threshold of reasonability they must be discarded at the very
first instance. Excess of both these elements become lethal for learning,
life and growth.
