7 New Skills to Learn in Self-isolation

There are many benefits to becoming bilingual. From slowing cognitive decline as we age, to increasing academic performance — learning a language gives your brain such a good workout.

Lockdown life is the perfect time to start learning that language that you’ve always wanted to speak. Devote half an hour to it each morning and you’ll come on leaps and bounds within a few weeks. Duolingo is a great app to use to gamify the process.

Do you have a sketchbook stashed away in a cupboard somewhere? Dust it off and get drawing! Creative activities work a different side of your brain and are a mindful way to relieve stress.

Try setting yourself a daily drawing challenge. Maybe 3pm will be your daily draw time and each day you’ll sketch a different still life scene. Arrange your fruit and flowers and see what you can create.

Whether you do a headstand, a handstand or shoulder stand, spending time upside down is an effective way to re-energise. Inversions benefit a number of systems in your body: cardiovascular, lymphatic, nervous, and endocrine.

Handstands in particular are also great for improving balance and building upper body and core strength. They aren’t the easiest to master, but practice every day and you’ll gradually improve your form. This daily handstand practice on YouTube will get you off to a good start.

Gone are the days when you barely had time to think, let alone cook a meal from scratch. Now we all have more time on our hands, why not get experimental with your cooking?

If you can easily get the ingredients delivered or are able to get to the shops, try cooking a new recipe each day. Take photos to keep track of your culinary creations.

We all get a bit stuck in our ways with our cooking sometimes, so this is an excellent opportunity to mix things up. Try those recipes that normally seem like too much bother and add some new dishes to your repertoire.

Partner yoga, or AcroYoga as it’s also known, has got to be the pinnacle of Instagram relationship goals (cringe!). But don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

If you’re self-isolating with a partner, the dynamic can get a bit stale. AcroYoga offers a playful way to reconnect. A combination of acrobatics and yoga, one partner (the base) lifts the other (the flier) to achieve a balanced pose.

Here’s an introduction to some basic partner yoga poses. Accept now that you won’t be great at first! Failing (and falling) together is all part of the fun. You’ll may end up in a pile on the floor and you’ll definitely end up in a fit of giggles.

Have you always secretly thought you’d make a great tech tycoon? Well now’s the time to build the skills to get you there (!). While, in reality, you may not be the next Mark Zukerberg, learning to code is a great mental workout and useful string to add to your bow.

Here’s an extensive list of 22 places to learn to code for free. Take your pick and get those computational grey cells working. If all goes to plan, you could use your new-found skills to create an app or game to keep your kids or grand kids entertained.

Writing angst-filled poetry may have been the reserve of your teenage diaries. But if there ever was a time to get poetic again, this is it.

You may not want to read what you write to another living soul, and that’s ok, but give it a go nevertheless. Writing poetry can be a powerful way to express your emotions, even if you’re terrible at it.

Try writing a poem a day and experiment with different poetry styles, if you’re feeling adventurous. Writer’s Digest are doing a daily poetry challenge, so check in each day for a new poetry prompt.