Psychological Benefits of Reading

Making certain that you are in a good headspace or your mental health is perfectly fine is very significant, especially nowadays. And, reading has always helped maintain stable mental health. A daily habit of reading can also help in preventing Alzheimer’s. In this article, we are going to read about the 5 psychological benefits of reading.

Reduction of Stress

According to a 2009 study, reading can help reduce stress more than listening to music or a cup of tea, by 70%. And, you do not have to read for 2-3 hours; even six minutes of reading can cause a huge impact on the stress factor. Another study found out that a reading session of 30 minutes could reduce your mental stress as much as a yoga session of 30 minutes. And, this world needs a little bit of no-stress time every day. Make sure you give yourself some time to destress daily.

Builds Up Brain

Just like your body needs gym and workout sessions, your mind needs some reading time. It helps all those muscles that make your head a better, healthier place and keeps you in a good headspace. Reading makes your mind stronger. When we read a book, we are memorizing words, and events and we are constantly visualizing an incident or place or a character which improves our memory skills and imagination. It can also help with better communication skills. This means you can get both good grades and also a great job interview just by maintaining a reading habit.

Bedtime Benefits

Sleeping plays a huge role in keeping your mental and physical health perfectly fine. A goodnight’s sleep for 6-8 hours is very important for everyone. It helps our body and mind to rest and charge it up for the next day. But it is also before dozing off we think about the entire day, our past, people and a lot of other things. And, of course, your mobile phone is there to work as a distraction. This is why a lot of people, especially teenagers do not get enough sleep, they do not even have a proper sleep schedule, which causes a lot of issues in their academic work, and mental and physical health.

Reading can help prevent this issue and maintain a proper sleep schedule. The last thing and the first thing that you should do before going to bed and after waking up is read a few pages. It should be a book with real pages, not a tablet or Kindle, they can prevent sleep with the screen time and light.

Deal with Mental Illness

Reading is therapy – I know you have heard it several times and you are tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. There is a term called bibliotherapy and there are people who can prescribe books to help you with your grief, anxiety, or depression, they are known as bibliotherapists. These self-help books work as a huge help with mental health issues either on their own or as an addition to any in-person therapy. Some self-help books –  The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud,  Finding Calm by Aaron Balick, Notes to Me by Hugh Prather, The Wisdom of Anxiety by Sheryl Paul, The Book of Overthinking, Biblio/Poetry Therapy by Arlene McCarty-Hynes and Mary Hynes-Berry, and Feeling Good by David D. Burns.

Ability to Empathize

Reading helps you to connect to not just a story, but the story of each character, the life of the author, the century, and also the situation. It helps you to be more empathetic towards people, your surroundings, and even yourself. We all know empathy plays a huge role in today’s world. It helps you build connections. It helps you to communicate with others. Empathy helps you to understand people’s opinions, thoughts, desires, and beliefs better. It helps you in your professional space to understand your co-workers or employees.

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