When was the last time you read a book, or a substantial magazine
article? Do your daily reading habits center around tweets or Facebook updates? If you’re one of countless
people who don’t make a habit of reading regularly, you might be missing out:
reading has a significant number of benefits, and just a few benefits of
reading are listed below.
1. Mental Stimulation
1. Mental Stimulation
Studies have shown that staying mentally stimulated can slow the
progress of (or possibly even prevent) Alzheimer’s and Dementia, since keeping
your brain active and engaged prevents it from losing power. Just like any
other muscle in the body, the brain requires exercise to keep it strong and
healthy, doing puzzles and playing games such as chess have also been found to
be helpful with cognitive stimulation.
2. Stress Reduction
No matter how much stress you have at work, in your personal relationships, or countless other issues faced in daily life, it all just slips away when you lose yourself in a great story. A well-written novel can transport you to other realms, while an engaging article will distract you and keep you in the present moment, letting tensions drain away and allowing you to relax.
No matter how much stress you have at work, in your personal relationships, or countless other issues faced in daily life, it all just slips away when you lose yourself in a great story. A well-written novel can transport you to other realms, while an engaging article will distract you and keep you in the present moment, letting tensions drain away and allowing you to relax.
3. Knowledge
Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information, and you never know when it might come in handy. The more knowledge you have, the better-equipped you are to tackle any challenge you’ll ever face. Additionally, here’s a bit of food for thought: should you ever find yourself in dire circumstances, remember that although you might lose everything else—your job, your possessions, your money, even your health—knowledge can never be taken from you.
Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information, and you never know when it might come in handy. The more knowledge you have, the better-equipped you are to tackle any challenge you’ll ever face. Additionally, here’s a bit of food for thought: should you ever find yourself in dire circumstances, remember that although you might lose everything else—your job, your possessions, your money, even your health—knowledge can never be taken from you.
4. Vocabulary Expansion
The more you read, the more words
you gain exposure to, and they’ll inevitably make their way into your everyday
vocabulary. Being articulate and well-spoken is of great help in any
profession, and knowing that you can speak to higher-ups with self-confidence
can be an enormous boost to your self-esteem. It could even aid in your career,
as those who are well-read, well-spoken, and knowledgeable on a variety of
topics tend to get promotions more quickly (and more often) than those with
smaller vocabularies and lack of awareness of literature, scientific
breakthroughs, and global events. Reading books is also vital for learning new
languages, as non-native speakers gain exposure to words used in context, which
will ameliorate their own speaking and writing fluency.
5. Memory Improvement
When you read a book, you have to remember an assortment of
characters, their backgrounds, ambitions, history, and nuances, as well as the
various arcs and sub-plots that weave their way through every story. That’s a
fair bit to remember, but brains are marvelous things and can remember these
things with relative ease. Amazingly enough, every new memory you create forges
new synapses (brain pathways)and strengthens existing ones, which assists in short-term
memory recall as well as stabilizing moods.
6. Stronger Analytical Thinking Skills
Have you ever read an amazing mystery novel, and solved the mystery
yourself before finishing the book? If so, you were able to put critical and
analytical thinking to work by taking note of all the details provided and
sorting them out to determine “whodunit”.
That same ability to analyze details also comes in handy when it
comes to critiquing the plot; determining whether it was a well-written piece,
if the characters were properly developed, if the story line ran smoothly, etc.
Should you ever have an opportunity to discuss the book with others, you’ll be
able to state your opinions clearly, as you’ve taken the time to really
consider all the aspects involved.
7. Improved Focus and Concentration
In our Internet-crazed world, attention is drawn in a million
different directions at once as we multi-task through every day. In a single
5-minute span, the average person will divide their time between working on a
task, checking email, chatting with a couple of people, keeping an eye on
twitter, monitoring their smart-phone, and interacting with co-workers. This
type of ADD-like behaviour causes stress levels to rise, and lowers our
productivity.
When you read a book, all of your attention is focused on the
story—the rest of the world just falls away, and you can immerse yourself in
every fine detail you’re absorbing. Try reading for 15-20 minutes before work
(i.e. on your morning commute, if you take public transit), and you’ll be
surprised at how much more focused you are once you get to the office.
8. Better Writing Skills
This goes hand-in-hand with the expansion of your vocabulary:
exposure to published, well-written work has a noted effect on one’s own
writing, as observing the cadence, fluidity, and writing styles of other
authors will invariably influence your own work. In the same way that musicians
influence one another, and painters use techniques established by previous
masters, so do writers learn how to craft prose by reading the works of others.
9. Tranquility
In addition to the relaxation that accompanies reading a good book,
it’s possible that the subject you read about can bring about immense inner
peace and tranquility. Reading spiritual texts can lower blood pressure and
bring about an immense sense of calm, while reading self-help books has been
shown to help people suffering from certain mood disorders and mild mental
illnesses.
10. Free Entertainment
Though many of us like to buy books so we can annotate them and
dog-ear pages for future reference, they can be quite pricey. For low-budget
entertainment, you can visit your local library and bask in the glory of the
countless tomes available there for free. Libraries have books on every subject
imaginable, and since they rotate their stock and constantly get new books,
you’ll never run out of reading materials.
Article originally appeared
on http://www.lifehack.org
