Feeling Anxious? Learning a New Language Can Help
In an anxious world, how we can find our moments of calm?
Anxiety can get to the best of us. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America:
National prevalence data indicate that nearly 40 million people in the United States (18%) experience an anxiety disorder in any given year.
Approximately 8% of children and teenagers experience an anxiety disorder with most people developing symptoms before age 21.
If you’re suffering from feelings of anxiety or worry, here’s how language learning can help you out.
1. Focus on the moment
The problem with anxiety is that it causes both physical and mental symptoms and brings you completely out of the moment, so much so that all you can think about is suffering from anxiety and how to get out of it.
So, what do you do?!
You panic. Naturally.
One way learning a language can bring you back to now, and calm to mind, is through the means of concentration.
In other words, mindfulness.
Mindfulness is all about switching your brain to the present moment.
2. Bring you back to awareness
Similarly to bringing you back to the present moment, learning a language instils awareness. When you are learning, all you are thinking about is the language — the text, the phrases, the nouns, etc. It is a meditation in essence.
Anxiety can take over all your senses, so something to do to put your mind off the anxiety could be learning a language where you don’t focus on the future of perfecting the language by putting pressure on yourself, but instead, you enjoy the process.
A bit like life itself right — enjoy the ride!
3. Breathe
This is a given. However, when you experience anxiety, you fall short of breath. When learning a language and especially practising a new language with someone, you need your breath. Conversational learning is great for this because it is a social aspect that will get your juices flowing as well as dramatically improve your confidence in time.
4. Improves confidence
As mentioned in our article about language learning having great mental health benefits, it can also boost your confidence. You may be stress-induced when looking for a holiday, for example, and then not knowing the language on top of this may cause even more anxiety.
How do you sort this? Learn the language! Okay, so you might not need to be fluent, but knowing the basics can make all the difference.
Feeling uninspired still and the anxiety kicking in? Then here are 5 real-life language learning lessons and 20 inspiring quotes including:
“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.” — Chinese Proverb
So there you have our four top tips on how to beat anxiety by learning a language: Focus on the moment, the breath is key, improving confidence, and becoming aware.
We hope that these tips will help you and you can start learning to fight off your anxiety!
