Reading is much more than a pleasure

Reading is one of the most enriching activities we can do. However, it has lost popularity in the modern world, due to new and less demanding forms of entertainment, such as television, movies and video games.

Thanks to reading we can enter wonderful worlds, know the minds of different people and explore the unknown. It is worth stopping for a few minutes to reflect on the habit of reading and everything it can give us.

What does reading give us?

1. New knowledge and important food for the mind

Reading gives us almost unlimited knowledge. Likewise, it stimulates our imagination, our senses and our emotions. It is a mental exercise in which our brain actively participates by organizing ideas, relating concepts and evoking images, emotions and deep feelings.

The habit of reading gives us, not only new knowledge and ideas, but also new vocabulary and ways of seeing and understanding life and the Universe.

Furthermore, reading favors the cognitive abilities of our mind, strengthening and establishing new neural connections. These will have a positive impact on our critical thinking, delay the cognitive decline typical of age and help us better understand ourselves and life.

2. Reading can go hand in hand with success

This is indicated by a study carried out at the University of Oxford, according to which, Those who are frequent readers in adolescence are more likely to achieve success at a professional level in his third decade of life.

This is not surprising, if we take into account what we reviewed in the previous point about the benefits that this activity brings for our mind. The wealth of knowledge to which reading exposes us is infinite and very valuable.

Besides, Thanks to reading you can learn about the life and work of notable peoplein which, many times, they tell you what worked and what didn’t in their life, what valuable lessons and learnings they extracted from it, how to make decisions, assume leadership, etc.

3. It can improve human relationships

Reading can improve social relationships in several ways. One of them is that, by providing us with new and indirect knowledge and experiences, it gives us greater cultural background, as well as topics of conversation that we can share with other people. We will have the accumulated experience of many people who lived before usso we can offer better advice and help others with their vital issues.

On the other hand, you will be able to exchange more and better ideas with other people. This will enrich your way of seeing the world and living. You will be able to have deeper and more transcendent conversations with others.

Besides, A love of reading can encourage your inclusion in a group of people who share your same interests.. Nowadays there are reading clubs, poetry workshops, etc. You can meet people with whom you have this beautiful hobby in common. And who knows? Maybe you will find that special person for you.

Finally, It has been proven that reading the narrative genre, in particular, promotes empathy, since it makes us get involved and even identify with the feelings, dramas and emotions that the characters experience. Curious, right?

4. Reading can be an effective antidote to stress

Reading can help you cope with stress because it shows the lives of people in different places, cultures and times, with their lights and shadows.

Reading is also useful as a therapy for stress because it is a pleasurable activity in itself, that relaxes us and makes us enjoy such a pleasant activity. Hasn’t it ever happened to you that you have become totally absorbed in reading a book without thinking about problems?

In conclusion, reading is not only a positive habit for our brain. It is for ourselves, our relationships with others and to achieve, with greater possibilities, excellence in the most important facets of life.

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