Life is tough, right? We’re always looking for ways to become happier, smarter, richer, and just plan better with the least effort possible. So why, when the obvious time-tested answers are staring us in the face, do we look away in search of something new and gaudy?
The answer, when wondering how to become better in almost all possible ways, is to READ. Reading makes us better in so many profound ways. Obviously, through the right kind of reading, we become more knowledgeable. We also become clearer thinkers with more expansive vocabularies. But if you need more incentive than that to pick up a book, consider five more ways reading will make you better:
1. Reading makes you happier.
“A nationwide survey commissioned by the National Year of Reading to explore the importance of reading in everyday life confirmed that reading can have real benefits for your health, as well as for your social circumstances, with 86% of respondents confident that reading improves their mood.”
2. Reading makes you calmer.
“Reading works better and faster than other methods to calm frazzled nerves such as listening to music, going for a walk or settling down with a cup of tea… reducing stress levels by 68%. Subjects only needed to read, silently, for six minutes to slow down the heart rate and ease tension in the muscles… In fact it got subjects to stress levels lower than before they started.”
3. Reading exercises your brain.
“Just like muscles, the brain benefits from a good workout. And reading is more neurobiologically demanding than processing images or speech… The benefits of all this mental activity include keeping your memory sharp, your learning capacity nimble, and your mind basically hardier as you age.”
4. Reading makes you a better writer.
“Above average readers wrote significantly better than below average readers… teaching with literary models increases students’ organization and may result in improvement in the mechanics of writing.”
5. Reading makes you a better member of your community.
“Literary readers are more than twice as likely as nonreaders to volunteer or do charity work… the strong link between literary reading and volunteering was observed in virtually all demographic groups… Moreover, when controlling for education level, gender, age, and ethnicity, the study found that literary readers were three times as likely as non-readers to volunteer.”
And if these reasons weren’t enough to have you running to a library, other research suggests that reading makes us healthier and more attractive. Basically, the right kind of reading makes us better in nearly every single way. All you have to do to reap the endless benefits reading offers is to learn how to read better and read every day. Read now and thank us later!
Mike Bergin