Mayuri Sarmah
Our parents and elders often say that reading empowers an individual, and, hence, they often advise us to read books. Let’s check out some of the benefits of reading:
1. Vast knowledge source: Besides various sources available for gathering knowledge such as watching movies and viewing online content, books are a great source of knowledge. When you read a book, you give your undivided attention to it, and, not only just acquire knowledge from it, but also experience different emotions while reading it. You also develop a good vocabulary when you read books.
2. Great source of entertainment: There are basically two broad categories of books – fiction and non-fiction. Fictional books provide us with different genres such as adventure, fantasy, horror, romance, and, hence, are most popular.
Non-fiction books are mostly centered around areas such as personal development, self-help, memoirs, autobiographies, biographies, travel guides and travelogues, academic texts, philosophies and insights, history, etc.
3. Reducing stress: When you read a novel or a memoir, you tend to absorb its information with both your conscious and subconscious mind. It stimulates your brain, and eases your muscles and heart at the same time. Since it involves a lot of creativity and fantasy, it transports your mind to places that are relaxing and thrilling, and, thus, reduces stress. Reading a book has almost the same kind of effect on the mind that yoga has on the body.
4. Increase creativity: With a wide range of genres found in fiction, one can learn the art of creative writing. It can also help in improving your vocabulary. Reading books increases your logical and analytical thinking. It stimulates the mind and brings a lot of perspective on a subject.
5. Instilling patience, consistency, and self-discipline: Reading a book requires consistency and patience. Nowadays, our attention spans are getting shorter, with lots of distractions in the form of electronic gadgets, social media, etc. If one is able to cultivate the habit of reading books, he/she can, for sure develop great traits in the form of patience and consistency.
6. Providing inner peace and tranquility: One can find peace and relief by reading books when one feels depressed. There are many books on self-improvement and spiritualism that soothes the utterly chaotic situation in one’s mind or the world outside. Quotes and inspirational stories can immensely motivate us. Thus, books are also considered an introvert’s best friend.
7. Health benefits: Reading books also has health benefits such as preventing cognitive decline, reducing chances of developing mental illnesses like Alzheimer’s and dementia, and, helps alleviate depression. It also aids in sleeping.
8. Improving your personality: It is a proven fact that the more you read, the more you gain. Books help readers gain knowledge, articulate their speech, improve vocabulary, build patience and self-discipline, reduce stress, add creativity, achieve peace, improve concentration and memory power as well as develop empathy. All of these automatically add up to one’s personality. A pleasing personality is contagious and liked by all. All of these can come from reading books.
There are innumerable benefits of reading. So, go, grab a book today!
