If your reading mostly revolves around scrolling past Facebook and Twitter updates, viral articles, and an infrequent flip of the newspaper pages (online or offline), you may be losing out on what’s possibly the greatest gift to mankind, reading.
Reading helps an individual grow in myriad ways and creates a mental and physical environment for a person to live their life fully and wholeheartedly. Want to know how? Here’s why you should read more than you’re doing.
1. To develop empathy
By reading profusely, you enter the minds of so many different authors, as well as take a journey into the lives of myriad diverse characters. This builds empathy, as you learn to accept and understand all kinds of journeys in life.
2. For mental stimulation
Reading is to your mind what exercise is to your body. If you don’t stimulate your mind, it starts to wear off. Maybe that’s why reading is known to prevent Alzheimer’s. Start reading more so you can be sharper every day.
3. To know more about the world
You live in this world with billions of other people who’re spread across 200 different countries, each with many different languages of their own. There’s so much to learn and experience out there. Reading makes that possible for us.
Image Source: RS Grey
4. To express yourself better
The more you read, the more your vocabulary expands. And the more number of words you know, the more easily you can express yourself to others. Self-expression is easily one of the most important traits for any individual.
5. To help you relax
Reading also helps you relax. A study carried out by researchers of the Sussex University revealed that reading may reduce as much as 68% of a person’s stress levels. That’s a substantial decrease in stress, and one that you can use.
6. To write better
Writing is a skill in this modern age, where people can’t help but write given the number of platforms available online — Facebook, Twitter, blogs. Besides helping you succeed professionally, writing is a therapeutic process too.
Image Source: Write Styling
7. To focus for longer periods
When you sit with a book, you sit down for a long time, sometimes for several hours at a stretch. Doing this regularly will develop your focus and concentration, which you can then use for your benefit in many other areas of your life.
8. To enhance your imagination
You know how as little kids our stellar imagination made our lives exciting? That wears off as we grow older, unfortunately. Reading books is a fantastic way to fire up your imagination once again and access life’s beautiful mysteries.
9. To discover and create yourself
As you read, you learn more and more about who you are. Also, you start to realize who you want to be, what your ideals should be, and what sort of a life you wish to lead. This helps you discover and create yourself more easily over a lifetime.