Reading books can be a very powerful part of your self-care routine. Many people fail to realize that just as physical exercise is required to maintain and improve your physical health, reading is also required to maintain and improve your mental strength.
Reading books is the primary and most beneficial way to preserve and enhance your mental strength. It nourishes and stimulates your mind, which in turn helps to develop your mind further.
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Very few people cater to strengthening their minds, until it is too late. When you go to the doctor’s office, they encourage and recommend that you work out a minimum of three days a week for 30 minutes. But who’s advocating for the maintenance and enhancement of your mental strength?
Why is reading books so important?
Knowledge is power, and that knowledge comes from reading many, many books. Through reading, you can learn about different people, cultures, behaviors, and experiences from all over the world.
Furthermore, reading introduces you to places you have never been, and encounter people, you would never otherwise have met. The benefits of reading go beyond that. Multiple studies have found benefits to reading every day.
13 Powerful Psychological Benefits Of Reading Books
1. Reading is exercise for your brain
When you read books, you are exercising your brain. The more you read, the more you exercise your brain. And the more your mind exercises, the stronger and more resilient it becomes. Regular reading and brain exercising minimize your chances of developing diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
2. Teaches you empathy
Empathy is when you can share others’ feelings and understand their point of view. When you are reading a good book, you become a part of the story, and your feelings resonate with the feelings of the characters in the story. You feel what the characters feel, and understand the different emotions they experience.
3. Reading develops your emotional health
Through reading, you experience basic emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, and frustration. The different emotions and reactions experienced both by you and the characters in a book can contribute to your emotional intelligence.
Not only does reading presents you with different scenarios, it demonstrates the different emotions you could potentially experience in those scenarios, and appropriate reactions and responses.
Likewise, reading can valid your feelings, and teach you how to read social cues.
4. Self-discovery
The more you read, the more you come to know about yourself. You are exposed to your likes, dislikes, what makes you happy, and what makes you sad.
Regular reading will eventually lead you to self-discovery. And discovering who you are and what makes you tick can be one of the most rewarding experiences.
When a situation happens in a book, your true feelings and reactions reveal themselves. If your response to that situation is inappropriate, you can learn about the safe and appropriate way to respond. You experience without having gone through the experience (I hope you caught that).
Some mistakes are not worth making. When you learn from the mistake of others wiser and with more life-experience than you, you are saved from making a mistake that could have dramatically affect your mental and emotional health, and well, thank God!
5. Gives you motivation
Lack of motivation and loss of interest in your favorite activities are symptoms of many mental health disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression).
Reading is a great source of motivation. When you read that an underdog overcomes their biggest obstacle and accomplish a challenging goal, it motivates you to chase after your own dreams. You learn that your situation can be much worse and that the story’s main character is in a much desperate situation than you.
6. It helps you to make better life-altering decisions
One of my favorite quotes and I believe this wholeheartedly, is, “you are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of your choice.” The more you read, the more knowledge you gain and the smarter you become. When you are knowledgeable and can look at a situation from different angles, you can make better life decisions that will save you a lot of headaches.
7. Reduces stress
Related article: It’s More Than Stress: How To Recognize Generalized Anxiety Disorder In Adults
Reading is one of the most effective ways to reduce stress. According to a study done by scientists in 2009, at the University of Sussex in the UK, reading for only six minutes a day lowered stress levels by 68 percent!
Reading reduces stress more effectively than listening to music (61 percent), going for a walk (42 percent), and drinking a cup of tea (54 percent). The scientists believe it is because you are able to get lost in the book and fully commit your attention to it without distraction.
8. Helps you to sleep better
Difficulty falling or staying asleep is also a common symptom of many mental health disorders. Sleep is a crucial part of your functioning. Lack of sleep can cause you to hallucinate, and that’s not even the worst part.
I share with people often about the benefits of reading before bed; it helps you fall and stay asleep. Although I only recommend reading positive, happy, and calming materials before bed.
I do not recommend reading scary, horror, suspense, thrillers, or mystery during bedtime. Reading those kinds of materials can cause you to have nightmares or cause night terrors to return if you have had them in the past.
Related article: Sleep Better Tonight: 10 Tips For A Good Night Sleep
9. Reduces the feeling of loneliness
The feeling of loneliness can be bothersome. Reading will introduce you to new people, and depending on the book you are reading, teach you how to cope with loneliness. Plus if you are a reader, are you really ever alone?
Related article: 5 Helpful Tips To Overcome Loneliness
10. Reading makes you happy
I think many people love and enjoy reading because it makes them happy. If reading makes you happy, go ahead and read! They are benefits to reading a book a week!
11. Reduces symptoms of depression
Symptoms of depression include loss of interest in your favorite activities and lack of energy. However, if you can push through those very challenging symptoms and pick up a book, specifically a self-help book, you might be able to get some relief from the depression symptoms.
12. Enhances your social skills
Part of being social is being able to share what you know with people. When you read a lot, y
ou won’t have to worry about running out of things to share, because you will most likely always have something to say.
And the best part about being a reader is that when someone talks about a place they have been, even if you have not been there physically yourself, you know enough about it to participate in the conversation because you have read about it.
13. Builds self-confidence
Many people struggle with a lack of self-confidence (e.g., I am not good enough. I am not smart enough, etc.). Reading increases your self-confidence. When you are knowledgable and know of what you talk about, total confidence booster!
Conclusion
There are so many benefits to reading, but I wanted to focus on the psychological and mental health aspects. Reading is so important to maintaining and enhancing your mental strength, that I even recommend people read the first thing in the morning. If you talk about waking up at 5 am to go to the gym for physical exercise, why not wake up at 5 am to read for mental exercise?
