“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – Saint Augustine
Are you a bookworm? Do you often find yourself absorbed in a book that you cannot seem to put down until you reach the back cover? If that is the case, then you are certainly aware of the infinite magic books can enrich your life with. However, if you are not a book lover, you may not know just how much you are missing out on.
Not only can reading a good book improve your mood, but it can also improve your health. That is why you should definitely make reading a habit (if you haven’t already) and enjoy all the incredible benefits of it. Let’s cut to the chase and see what those are.
The Expansion of Knowledge
Knowledge is power. The more you read, the more you learn. Constantly learning about new things can really come in handy. Whether you are reading about new scientific discoveries, technological innovations, the history of ancient civilizations or fictional stories filled with magical creatures living in beautiful fantasy worlds, you are expanding your knowledge and that can never be taken away from you.
Knowledge is the light that can lead you on the right path in your life and it is definitely your greatest asset. Furthermore, working on increasing your intellectual capacities can boost your confidence and make you quite awesome.
Vocabulary Improvement
Since you expand your vocabulary as you expand your knowledge. When you read, you learn an abundance of new words that pretty easily creep their way into your everyday speech, making you more confident and boosting your self-esteem.
This can be your greatest asset throughout your career, since being well-spoken can make you look more professional and definitely help you get promotions quicker. When it comes to learning foreign languages, it goes without saying that reading is the exact thing that will help you on that road, as it exposes you to a whole bunch of new words that improve your vocabulary.
If you happen to be a writer, reading is, again, the thing that can be of greatest help. When you are exposed to well-written works of a number of authors, you become acquainted with plenty of words and different writing styles, which can greatly influence your own work and affect your writing skills. Expanding one’s vocabulary truly is wondrous.
Memory Workout
When you read a book, you memorize a considerable amount of things that give your brain quite a workout. The names of the characters, their backgrounds, their interconnected relationships, their inner thoughts and deepest desires, the sub-plots – you remember all those as you read, thus strengthening your memory.
Fortunately, our brains are magnificent and they can memorize anything with ease. It’s good to know that even something as casual as reading a manual or a food recipe keeps your brain active and improves your short-term memory recall, which, you must agree, is pretty cool and useful.
Mental Stimulation
Mental stimulation is crucial for your health, as it keeps your brain active and strong. The previously discussed memory workout is a form of mental stimulation that greatly helps your brain remain healthy. Taking part in mentally stimulating activities, e.g. solving puzzles, doing crosswords and playing games such as chess, is one of the most vital things you can do for your health.
Studies have shown that those exercises for the brain, as well as any creative and intellectual activities such as reading, help slow down the progress of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Therefore, consider digging into a good book in your leisure time, as you will give your brain a good workout and keep it young, ultimately doing yourself a huge favor in the long run.
The Development of Analytical Thinking
When you truly immerse yourself into the lives of the characters from a book, to try and understand them better, or when you are trying to solve different kinds of riddles and puzzles, you are developing your analytical thinking.
Your analytical skills will improve so much through reading that it will eventually become a piece of cake for you to solve a mystery and determine who the main culprit in a story is. Amazing, isn’t it? Reading helps you acquire the ability to easily analyze details and that can greatly help you throughout your life.
Improved Concentration
We need increased concentration if we are to make it throughout each working day of our pretty hectic lives. When you are at work, you have a million things to do and you quickly get used to multitasking. However, when you work on your tasks, talk to your co-workers, chat with friends, check your emails, monitor the activity on your social media accounts and perhaps answer some phone calls – all at the same time – it can lower your productivity immensely.
Working on so many things at a time requires great concentration and clear focus on the task at hand. If your attention is pulled in a thousand directions, it is not likely that you will be able to focus and effectively do your job.
The best way to work on your concentration is to read. Reading means concentrating on one thing only and, if the read is interesting, it sucks you in and makes the whole world around you disappear. It is an amazing way of improving your concentration, which ultimately increases productivity. Once you start practising the habit of reading even for 20 minutes a day, multitasking will no longer be a nightmare for you and you will definitely become successful and shine at work.
Stress Reduction
Reading reduces the levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lowers blood pressure, thus improving your mood and making you feel much better. No matter what problems you may have, curling up with a good book and losing yourself in its story can make you feel awesome and make all the tension disappear, allowing you to relax and reach the ultimate level of tranquillity.
When you’re in a company of a good book, you forget about everything else and the world around you fades away, as you slowly slip into the wonderful realms of magic your book takes you to. There’s not a more fulfilling and satisfying thing you can do for both your body and mind than that of immersing yourself in a fantastic read. It lifts your spirits, leaving you with warm and positive feelings.
Whatever genre you prefer, you can certainly find something of interest to immerse yourself in and let the world slip away. Find anything that captures your attention and start working on making your life much better than you could have ever imagined. Step away from your computer, enter the extraordinary world of books and enjoy the wonderful magic they present you with.