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Additionally, there’s something kind of comforting and soothing about focusing on something with concrete steps and incremental achievement levels. You can busy your mind for 15 minutes at a time and rest easy in the satisfaction that you crossed one more lesson off your list.
But don’t just take our word for it. A team of Harvard [sic] researchers found evidence that active learning is actually a more effective stress management technique than passive relaxation. In one study, employees reported fewer negative emotions and engaged in less unethical behavior on days when they participated in learning activities. In another, one group of employees engaged in more learning activities at work than the other group and reported similar results. However, employees reported the same level of negative emotions and unethical behaviors when they engaged in pure relaxation.
As it turns out, not only does learning equip us with skills and knowledge that we can use to troubleshoot our way through stressful situations, but it also boosts our sense of competence, achievement, and ability to improve ourselves.