Education & Career Trends: December 6
Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Article by Catherine Winter, published on lifehack.org.
Before the electronic era, everyday reading was a ritual adopted by almost everyone who wanted to gain knowledge. The benefits of reading need not be remembered all the time.
We have been so preoccupied with social media and the internet that hardly anyone contemplates reading books. While some may be too busy to read, others merely don’t care to read.
Reading has many benefits, from making you smarter to improving your reading and writing skills. If you want to understand what benefits one could reap from developing the habit of reading, then we have enlisted the top 10 benefits here.
10 Benefits of Reading
1. Mental Stimulation For Your Brain
When you read every day, you stimulate your mental activity. Numerous studies have been conducted to understand the benefits of reading. As per a study, one of the prime benefits of reading books is slowing down mental ageing. It happens since reading stimulates the brain and keeps it active, which allows it to retain its power and capacity.
Every part of our body needs exercise to stay healthy, and the same goes for our brain. Reading gives it regular exercise and keeps it healthy and sound.
Even playing games like chess or solving puzzles results in cognitive stimulation.
2. Good Habit For Stress Reduction
Everyday concerns will keep bothering you unless you do something to divert your mind. Reading gives you that mental space to occupy yourself with something more interesting.
When you read a great story, all your stress seems to slip away and relax you since you tend to travel mentally in a different realm. Sometimes, while reading, you also come across valuable advice or solutions to your problems.
3. Knowledge-Enhancement
Since the onset of civilization, we have grown and developed mentally. Many learned scholars give credit to the erudite tomes written by our predecessors for our knowledge. T
There are numerous ways to learn more about life, from self-help books to reading fiction. Even when you feel demotivated, you can read an inspirational biography to lift your mood. One of the great benefits of reading books is that the knowledge you gain from them can never be taken away from you. Unlike worldly possessions, your knowledge will stay with you till the end of time.
4. Vocabulary Expansion
If you are not yet convinced about why reading books is important, this might interest you. When you develop the habit of reading, you enhance your vocabulary. Reading any type of book can improve your vocabulary to an impressive extent.
Having great command over the language is known to help many in their professional and academic life. Moreover, with better vocabulary knowledge, you get to fill yourself with self-confidence when sitting in a group with a knowledgeable audience.
You can also expect to learn new languages when you develop the habit of reading various books every day.
5. Improves Your Memory
Regular reading is a great exercise for your brain. If you read a fictional book, your brain is forced to remember the names and nature of various characters. Going back to their history and remembering events or plots is fun and improves your memory.
One of the greatest benefits of reading daily is that your brain becomes super powerful. An amazing fact about our brain is that it can retain a great amount of information, and with every new memory, your brain creates new brain pathways or synapses.
6. Stronger Analytical Thinking Skills
If you are still wondering what other benefits of reading regularly are, consider this! One of the most amazing benefits of reading every day is that it can improve your analytical skills. Reading mystery novels helps you develop skills that can assist you in problem-solving.
While reading a novel, the disclosure is pretty slow, and your mind is forced to predict or make guesses. Upon disclosure, you get to connect the dots. It’s fun to make your brain smarter and enhance your analytical skills.
Subconsciously the brain is trained to think more smartly and develop strong analytical skills. You can expect to gain from this in your personal and professional life.
7. Improves Focus and Concentration
While reading can bring back the lost power of focus and concentration. If you feel that using modern technology lowers our productivity, then develop the healthy habit of reading every day.
Keeping yourself occupied with reading for about 20 to 30 minutes can be great for your brain. It can help you with better focus and concentration. You may have been doing it wrong for those who still find it difficult to develop focus or concentrate properly
8. Better Writing Skills
If you read more, you will naturally become good at writing skills. Since your vocabulary and pronunciation improve by reading regularly, it eventually makes you a better writer.
We are not just talking about writing fiction, books, novels, etc. Even when writing something in everyday personal and professional life, your writing skills would have improved with regular reading.
The more you read, the better your writing skills will become. You would tend to focus on various aspects of writing that would allow you to write more effectively than others.
9. Tranquility
Don’t you sometimes feel like just getting away from all the hustle and bustle of everyday nonsense? But it’s not always cost-effective to plan a trip to get some time in solitude.
Reading a book allows you to gain similar tranquillity. What’s more interesting is that people suffering from high blood pressure or anxiety can find peace in reading.
Reading self-help or spiritual texts uplifts your soul and makes you feel better. People suffering from mood disorders can also feel better about their reading habits.
10. Free Source Of Entertainment
We do spend on movies and music, but why? It is for entertainment, isn’t it? Then why not simply read books with the same purpose? You would be surprised to know that some of your favourite movies or TV series were made after getting inspiration from some of the greatest novels.
What’s more interesting is that reading books would cost a lot less and keep you entertained for longer. Just check out the local library which can introduce you to numerous entertaining novels. You can find books on any topic that you find interesting and keep yourself entertained.
Final Thoughts
From health benefits to getting smarter, there are numerous benefits that regular reading can offer. You can expect to enhance your knowledge about so many things if you just develop this habit of reading books regularly. It might appear boring unless you start, but once it is assured, once you get a grip on reading, you will be thanking yourself for this habit.
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Have you checked out yesterday’s blog yet?
How to Unlock Effortless Productivity and Creativity
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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