10 Benefits from Reading More

We hear all of our lives that reading is beneficial. Here are 10 reasons why!

Make reading a priority in your life. Join a book club or read with your family and friends. Schedule time for reading. Below are 10 reasons why reading is important.

Reading is important because it develops the mind. ... Understanding the written word is one way the mind grows in its ability. Teaching young children to read helps them develop their language skills. It also helps them learn to listen.

1. Food For Your Brain

Just as we eat nourishing foods to keep our bodies healthy, we also have to nourish our brains. One of the easiest ways to do this is to pick up a book. Reading has been shown not only to increase intelligence, especially when children start reading at an early age, but also to slow down the brain aging process. Think of reading like an exercise for your brain—the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

2. Improve Vocabulary

In my experience, most people with an advanced vocabulary and above average language skills tend to listen more and talk less. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, people who read more tend to have a better vocabulary with a greater understanding of the usage of those words.

3. Be More Attractive

Does reading make you more attractive to the opposite sex? eHarmony UK says it does — especially if you’re a man. The popular online dating site notes that men who listed reading as one of their interests received 19% more messages while women readers received a 3% bump in communication

4. Become a more interesting person.

To me, people that read self-enrichment books and biographies are the most interesting because it makes me confident that they’re on the path to self-improvement. I automatically gel with people that talk about books by Tim Ferriss, Robert Greene etc., because it subconsciously makes me feel like they’re chasing excellence.

5. Become who you should

University of Toronto researchers Maja Djikic and Keith Oatley (2014) decided to tackle the question of whether and how reading fiction can change personality. In a fascinating review of an emerging field of research, they propose that there are specific ways in which fiction can engage readers in ways that enhance important personality qualities.

6. Fun & Relaxing

Reading can be a wonderful (and healthy) escape from the stress of everyday life. Simply by opening a book, you allow yourself to be invited into a literary world that distracts you from your daily stressors. Reading can even relax your body by lowering your heart rate and easing the tension in your muscles. A 2009 study at the University of Sussex found that reading can reduce stress by up to 68%. It works better and faster than a relaxation method, such as listening to music or drinking a hot cup of tea. This is because your mind is invited into a literary world that is free from the stressors that plague your daily life.

7. Exercise For Your Memory

If you are looking for ways to improve your memory and concentration and also relieve stress, reading will help. The brain-stimulating activities from reading have shown to slow down cognitive decline in old age with people who participated in more mentally stimulating activities over their lifetimes. It also has shown a slower rate of decline in memory and other mental capacities.

8. Opens Your Mind

Reading lots of books has many benefits depending on the individual. Gain in the knowledge and improved vocabulary are the immediate benefits by reading books. Many a times knowledge gained by reading a book comes in handy while having a discussion with a friend or relatives. Many experiments done across the world have proved that reading enhances imagination power of a person which helps in fighting diseases like Alzheimer's in the long run. It is also a great stress buster and calms a person. Reading is also vital for enhancing the speaking ability of a person as it helps in gaining vocabulary. An individual is able to easily recall a particular word while communicating as reading creates specialized compartments of these words in brain.

9. Improve your focus

Think of this. Your reading a book. a detail forgotten about in chapter three will have detrimental effect to the plot in chapter twenty five. Plus there is a lot to be said of focus. When you finish the "Song of Fire and Ice books or Harry Potter series. Those take focus over time.

10. Improves the World

Reading “availeth much,” to borrow an old phrase from the King James Bible. To read is to experience more of the world than we can in person, to enter into the lives of others, to organize knowledge according to useful schemes and categories…. Or, at least it can be. Much recent research strongly suggests that reading improves emotional and cognitive intelligence, by changing and activating areas of the brain responsible for these qualities.

Reading is absolutely essential to mental, spiritual, and emotional development. In today's world a you tube videos and movies are the norm. Therefore the love of reading will set you apart from all others who do not. Plus you will experience a world they cannot know. You will use imagination and wonder.