I love to learn things! So I can think of multiple answers to this prompt.
An obvious one: I am going back to school.
For the next four semesters, I’m doing pre-requisites, and after that, I plan to join the nursing program.
That’s definitely a mind-expanding thing to do in my 40s.
Another: I’m casually working on learning Spanish.
I’m using a combo of the Duolingo app and Rosetta Stone (free through the library). I don’t need to know Spanish, but I do think it would be mind-expanding to be bilingual.
A third: I read a lot
Reading, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction is mind-expanding.
I especially find this to be true of non-fiction books, such as memoirs. I love learning about the lives of other people, and I am having a great time on my current tour of medical memoirs.
And lastly: I listen to podcasts
I usually listen to podcasts while I’m doing boring tasks like cooking, driving, or folding laundry, and I have learned so much from this habit.
Obviously, I read a lot too. I try to read some things I wouldn’t normally pick up to make it less about confort reading and more about actually challenging myself. Books my husband has enjoyed are a good bet for this, because he is very intelligent but has very different interests and tastes in reading.
My job at the school has greatly expanded my mind. It was orginally just going to be monitoring recess and so on (at least, that’s what I thought), but since I’ve worked there, I’ve learned about phonics instrution, special needs accomodations, new math (ugh), and, this year, a LOT about how modern libraries work.
I read a lot and I ask a lot of questions. We’ve also changed our tv habits recently. We’re watching a lot of things about the wilderness, hunting, fishing, construction, car racing and reconstructing, travel and more. Seems like most everything else is either R rated or MA and full of “violence, nudity, language and smoking.”
I also read a lot about frugality, decluttering and financial independence (FIRE)…though I’m quite late to the game on that one.
We’ve also changed our tv habits in the last few years and now when we watch something, it’s almost always a documentary or something similar. I have wondered if it’s that we’re getting older (35 and 36, so not OLD but older) or if it’s just a change in preferences. Not sure.
Do you have a list of the medical memoirs you have read? Would you be willing to share? Thanks!
I would saying reading and listening to podcasts for me, too. The last year or two I feel like I’ve really branched out more in my reading and listening choices.