By Fiction & Non-Fiction Books Author Denise Turney (www.chistell.com)

My love for reading books started when I was a kid. Back then, I easily read through stacks of books a week. Reading fueled my imagination, making it easier for me to envision myself in different environments and scenarios. It didn’t matter that my family wasn’t financially wealthy.

What an Imagination!

Strength in my imagination let me know that I wasn’t stuck. If I wanted, I could use my mind to make decisions that would change my life.

This might be one of the greatest benefits of investing in a lifetime of book reading. A lifetime of options, new ways of looking at life experiences, real-life success stories, thoroughly researched material that gives insight on important events, and first-person payoffs linking resilience and success are a few gains I got from years of book reading.

After I entered adulthood, I discovered that there are even more reasons why you might want to invest in a lifetime of book reading. For starters, it was surprising to learn that reading books supports brain health. About this, Healthline shares that, “Using MRS scans, researchers have confirmed that reading involves a complex network of circuits and signals in the brain. As your reading ability matures, those networks also get stronger and more sophisticated.”¹

Reading Books Offers Benefits

Who knew something as fun as reading could offer so many benefits?

If that’s not enough reason to invest in a lifetime of book reading, check out these additional benefits that are gained from reading books. The ability to empathize is a benefit that the world is in dire need of. People might be more understanding, patient, forgiving, and caring if they felt more deeply connected to others.

Reading and becoming emotionally connected to book characters can help open the pathway to achieving that. Characters in a good book can help you see how childhood programming, hidden motivations, fears, hopes, trust, and beliefs, including erroneous beliefs, lead someone to feel, talk, and behave the way that they do.

Multi-faceted novel characters also give you a close-up view of how people can and do change, experience by experience. That alone could build communication and understanding bridges.

Book Reading Lifetime

Although the above reasons offer a wealth of pros, there’s more. Check out these below reasons why you might want to invest in a lifetime of book reading:

Stress reduction – Simply sitting down and reading a book could help your stress levels to lower.² It’s a reason why some adults read one or more chapters in a favorite book before they go to bed.

Improved critical thinking – This ties into how reading can strengthen understanding. The more you read and gather information, the sharper your thinking may become.

Healthy self-care – Because reading can help reduce stress, it’s a loving act of self-care. “Today” puts it this way, “when you read a book, your brain comes up with images to accompany what you’re reading about, engaging your creative mind while helping you relax at the same time.”³

Rest – While reading books, you can gain “real” rest. As your mind focuses on what is happening in a book, particularly a novel you love, your focus shifts from cares of the day to what’s happening to characters in the book.

Lively discussion – Join a book club and you can engage in lively discussions about the latest book that you read. And although this isn’t specific to book reading, when you join and participate in a book club, you may also build marvelous friendships.

Making Book Reading Investments

Fortunately, unlike watching television, streaming a show on your tablet, going to a concert or sports event, your brain can get more healthy exercise while you read a book. Even more, you don’t have to take college courses or study to make stellar grades in high school to learn while reading. If you enjoy reading historical fiction, there’s a lot you could learn before you reach the book’s last page.

But don’t just take my word. Try it. Start reading a novel that has a theme you like. Notice how you feel. If you read a nonfiction book, take note of what you learn.

Should you be like a lot of book lovers, you might start to feel better moments after entering a bookstore or library. No joke. You also might feel less alone. Who knows? After a few years of book reading, you might even become a storyteller, also known as a novel writer, yourself.

First, you must make this good investment. It’s an investment that could pay off for years and years.

Resources:

1. Benefits of Reading Books: For Your Physical and Mental Health (healthline.com)
2. Reading Books: Benefits for Mind and Body (webmd.com)
3. 10 Benefits Of Reading Books Backed By Science And Psychology (today.com)