18+ Psychological Benefits Of Reading

Having adequate understanding of the various psychological benefits of reading can inspire passion to read anything within sight. Reading is one of the major strengths of elites and initiator of many innovations. Making reading a habit will increase one’s capacity for unlimited exploration and ability to tap into ancient wisdom. Reading is one of the crucial life skills and it enables one to have a better quality of life.

Psychological Benefits Of Reading

Below are some of the psychological benefits of reading books ;

It Instills Leadership Capacity

Readers are potentials leaders. The knowledge and exposure gained from a book will put them in a better position to provide solutions to people’s issues and is one of the psychological benefits of reading  . One of the necessary things for citizens who desire growth in their country can do is to block illiterates and unexposed people from accessing the seat of power. Having wealth might make them look like they are able to deliver good governance, but such people will cause more havoc than good if elected because of their inability to comprehend the rudiments of managing the economy.

True leadership is not forced, people recognize a leader when they see one based on his or her content and character. His knowledge gained through exposure to books will form an aura around him and commend him to much respect from the people.

Entertainment

Have you found yourself finishing a novel with more than five hundred pages in less than 48 hours? Some even burn midnight candles to get to the end of a book. All of that is possible if one is reading an interesting novel written by an inspired author who has great strategies of keeping readers engaged through lots of suspense till he/she finishes the book.

Many people consider reading a book as a serious activity either for the purpose of passing an examination or to prepare for the future. However, entertainment is one of the psychological benefits of reading. There are lots of interesting novels that can help relaxation inform of laughter during the time spent reading the book. You can access lots of those books free of charge by clicking here.

It Improves Imaginative Ability

Imagination is the origin of all innovations and imaginative ability boost is one of the psychological benefits of reading.   Scientists get their ideas and inventions from their imaginations. Psychologists emphasize that we spend more than 90 percent of our day in the realm of imagination and also state that the imaginative realm is even more real than the physical realm and other planets.

No one has the full idea of the contents of a book before they start reading but the reality of the book will fill their thought processes and imagination by the time it is finished. Thus, most passionate readers always seek a private place in their place of abode to read and reminisce on what has been read in a book.

Reading inspires the mind with lots of thoughts which will engage one’s imagination to picture what was read in books to reality. The contents of what has been read will also intermittently fill the thoughts and guide future actions.

It Develops Analytical Skills

Development of analytical skills is one of the psychological benefits of reading. Reading interesting books inspires the analytical skills of individuals especially if it deals with critiquing the work of others to arrive at a reasonable position. Giving attention to all details when reading an interesting novel will give the reader the opportunity to own the book’s thought pattern and one will be able to explain their opinion clearly to others.

Reading Encourages Inner Peace

Assurance of inner peace of one of the many benefits of reading. Reading lots of inspiration novels has a way of taking struggles from the mind and bringing peace to the heart. Apart from the satisfaction gained from reading, it also helps get rid of depression and sad feelings. Reading spiritual books further reignites lost hope in the heart and gives reasons to live long above the struggles of life.

It Sharpens Concentration

Life’s activities demand multi-tasking, and this has made people prone to attention span issues. This attention span deficiency has made many people have issues with concentrating on a single task per time. Generally, people tend to engage in more than five tasks within a short period of time. For example, they could be eating, chatting with people around them, watching movies, surfing the internet and engaging the mind on other issues all at the same time. Removal of attention span issue is one of the psychological benefits of reading.

Reading is seen as one of the lasting solutions to get rid of attention span issues. Reading interesting novels enables one to pay attention to the single task of reading for a long period of time. Having a recurrent daily reading plan will automatically strengthen the ability to concentrate on a given task per time.

It Improves the Memory

Memory boost is one of the psychological benefits of reading. Remembrance, retention, and assimilation are core activities of human memory. Remembrance deals with bringing information exposed to the mind through the senses to the limelight. Reading lots of books thus enables the mind to remember lots of thought which expands the brain’s capacity.

Remembrance is not possible without retention. Recurrent reading expands the mind’s capacity to keep thoughts for a very long time. While assimilation deals with the understanding of the concept of interest. The new memory created strengthens the existing knowledge to assist short and long-term memory to recalls events when needed.

It Enhances the Vocabulary

Speaking right diction with the right tenses is one of the psychological benefits of reading and cannot happen without reading. The more books you read, the more vocabulary is stored in your mind for use in communicating well with people and the community in general. An average book contains more than ten thousand words with their proper usage and meaning. Reading fifty books will enable readers to store more than five hundred thousand words in their mind consequently his/her speech and writing will be rich in words because he has an abundance in store to draw from. You can also read 11 Powerful Strategies On How To Improve Literacy Skills Of Your Children

Accumulating more vocabulary contribute positively to one’s profession because such people can beautifully express themselves through oral and written communication in the course of their duties and are able to get promotions and recommendations from their organizations. More so, official mails from the individual to clients are well couched which strengthens commitments to continue doing business with such good communicators.

It Improves Writing Ability

Writing expresses one’s thought on a subject of interest. Writers who do not devote their time to reading resourceful materials will be empty of thoughts to express. One of the psychological benefits of reading is the accumulation of thought patterns to express. Readers pull out different thoughts they have accumulated through reading into writing. Readers who are also writers do not only gain from vocabulary formation, but they also get to improve their thought flow and writing styles. You can also read on Pro-Strategies To Improve Your Writing Skill

It Grants Expected Academic Success

The psychological benefits of reading are an academic success. There is no better way to get high grades in all your school courses or subjects without reading.

Students should be able to structure their reading time in such a way to ensure that they cover all their subjects and books before the test date as examination questions become very simple when students have gone through all the prescribed materials for the course.

Students who read very well are not short of ideal answers to all questions and this will give the examiner no choice but to award good grades.

It Expands Knowledge

One of the ways to increase knowledge is through reading and it served as one of the psychological benefits of reading. A book is a reflection of the intellect and experiences of the author. If one reads two or more books in a month, it gives the reader the opportunity to accumulate the knowledge and experiences of two or more people. You can imagine how resourceful one can be if we can discipline our self to read three books in a month. Reading three books in a month means reading a minimum of 36 books in a year and if the reading activity continues for ten years, it will help one to glean and learn from the lifestyle, knowledge, and decades of experience of more than three hundred and fifty people.

Reading Instils Wisdom to Resolve Life Issues

Books contain most of the solutions to life issues. There is no issue that you are passing through that people have not also gone through. It will be good to know that the present is a reflection of the past. Reading books gives the opportunity to access solutions to life issues. Readers are seen as solution providers. Encourage yourself to read more books to be able to proffer solutions to life issues for yourself, your family, and your generation large.

Reading Increases Your Income

Income boost is one of the psychological benefits of reading. There is no amount of money spent on knowledge acquisition that is lost. It will always come back in multiple folds, either it allows you to secure a well-paid job or raise you as a pillar of knowledge to solve life issues in return for monetary and other means of compensation such as a subscription to your training or coaching services or buying of books you authored, among others. It is rare to find a person who reads that is without a means of livelihood as such people are typically full of ideas to sell to the world to bring in more income.

It Enhances Spiritual Activation

We cannot separate religion from reading. Every supernatural being gained its power from acquiring knowledge of the supernatural. Spiritual activation is one of the psychological benefits of reading. The perfect way to get to the peak of spirituality in your chosen religion is to embrace all books of that religion. The bible contains wholesome knowledge of God and reading it gets one closer to God. There are lots of Christian spiritual novels written by inspired Christian, click here to access Christian books.

Mental activation

Mental activation is one the psychological benefits of reading. The more a brain is used the sharper and more active it is. One can increase the capacity of the brain by filling it with lots of positive thoughts daily. Recurrent reading activities can greatly reduce dementia because reading keeps the mind engaged which keeps it from losing its power.

Reading can serve as an exercise to the brain just as it is to other body parts. Many people starve the body of some food and visit the gym daily to maintain their present shape or reduce excess fat. Reading daily will increase the sensitivity and capacity to understand and retain all knowledge that it has accessed.

Pride of Parents and Society

One of the psychological benefits of reading for students is that it makes one’s parent or guardian proud. It also makes such a student a point of reference in society.

The excitement that fills the mind of a parent when their children receive a standing ovation in the process of receiving an award in recognition of their efforts either academic or other social development is ecstatic and the resultant effect of the joyous feeling contributes to their overall health. Such a child that has brought much joy and fulfillment to his or her parent can have access to all benefits and privileges that a parent can give to their children. Click here to read more on the psychological benefits of reading.

Psychotherapy for Stress Reduction

Reduction of stress and other psychological disorder is one of the psychological benefits of reading. If stress is not properly managed it might lead to other serious psychological disorders with the potential of dampening lives to the point of no repair or return. However, one can bury his/her problems in a sea of interesting and engaging storybooks. These books can serve as a means of entertainment and also provide the necessary knowledge and wisdom to live a happy life. Examples of interesting storybooks to calm the mind are;

S/N	TITLE	AUTHOR
1	The Kite Runner	Khaled Hosseini
2	Number the Stars	Lois Lowry
3	Pride and Prejudice	Jane Austen
4	The Outsiders	S.E. Hinton
5	Little Women	Louisa May Alcott
6	A Single Man	Christopher Isherwood
7	Charlotte’s Web	E.B. White
8	The Reader	Bernhard Schlink
9	Jane Eyre	Charlotte Bronte
10	The End of the Affair	Graham Green
11	To Kill a Mockingbird	Harper Lee
12	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone	J.K. Rowling
13	The Secret Garden	Frances Hodgson Burnett
14	The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe	C.S. Lewis
15	Anne of Green Gables	L.M. Montgomery
16	The Girl Who Fell from The Sky	Heidi Duro
17	Bridget Jones’s Diary	Helen Fielding
18	Uncle Tom’s Cabin	Harriet Beecher Stowe
19	The Bell Jar	Sylvia Plath
20	Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland	Lewis Carroll

 

Behavioral Modification

Reading interfaces with human minds and has the potential of purging bad attitudes since attitudes are the reflection of what we fill our minds with. People with a negative attitude, that is, socially unacceptable character, should be introduced to good books rich with contents that encourage behavioral modification.

Behavioral modification is one of the psychological benefits of reading. Most people with bad attitudes are ignorant of the negative effects of their attitudes, they just manifest what their minds have accommodated throughout their lifetime. It is good to know that the human minds is plain with no content at birth and the mind is gradually filled up by what is trapped through the course of human interactions. Good books with the capacity to help character modification should be introduced to help individuals change their bad attitudes. Below are examples of books that help behavioral modification;

S/N	Title	Author
1	Attitudes Is Everything	Jeff Keller
2	The Attitude Book	SimonTeyler
3	The Power of Attitude	Mac Anderson
4	Success Through A Positive Mental Attitudes	W.Clement
5	Yes Attitude	Jeffrey G.
6	Lord Change My Attitude	James Macdonald
7	Who Moved My Cheese	Spencer Johnson
8	Psychology of Attitude And Attitude Change	Goffrey H.
9	The Baggage Handler	David Rawlings
10	Attitude Is Everything	Vicki Hitzge
11	Find Your Why	Simon Sinek
12	Find the Good	Heather Lende
13	The Gift of Attitude	Sam Glenn
14	The Winning Attitude	John C Maxwell
15	Attitudes and Other Related Psychological Constructs	Lewis R Aiken
16	The Butterfly Effect	Andy Andrews
17	The Power of Habit	Charles Duhigg
18	Search Inside Yourself	Chade-Meng Tan
19	Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff	Richard Carlson
20	The Myth of More	Joseph Novello
21	The Power of Positive Thinking	Norman Vincent Peale
22	As A Man Thinketh	James Allen
23	A Message to Garcia	Elbert Hubbard
24	Acres of Diamonds	Russell H. Conwell
25	The Magic of Thinking Big	David J. Schwartz
26	Mindset	Carol S.Dweck Ph.D
26	Learn Optimism	Martin E.P. Seligman

Opportunity to Tap from Ancient Values

Gaining access to ancient values and wisdom is one of the benefits of the psychological benefits of reading. People exhibit values transferred to them by their forefathers and these values contribute greatly to coexistence within their community. Many of those with speaking platforms voice out their thoughts to people in their generation and keep these thoughts in books to give coming generations access to them.

People without such platforms also express their thoughts in books and give opportunity to people to enjoy from their wealth of wisdom. It will be difficult to transfer human history effectively without the wealth of wisdom penned down by those who witnessed most of the happenings. It is very important to retain the knowledge of the past so that it can be used to draw inference for the future. You can inspire your mind with rich historical materials to achieve positive changes in the world. Some of the historical materials are:

S/N	TITLE	AUTHOR
1	Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies	Jared Diamond
2	Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World	Jack Weatherford
3	Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-1944	Anna Reid
4	Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam	Fredrik Logevall
5	Rites of Spring: the Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age	Modris Eksteins
6	The History of the Ancient World	Susan Wise Bauer
7	Broken Lives: How Ordinary Germans Experienced the 20th Century	Konrad H. Jarausch
8	A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II	Sonia Purnell
9	Democracy: A Life	Paul Cartledge
10	The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation	Gene Roberts & Hank Klibanoff
11	The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land	Thomas Asbridge
12	The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America’s Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality	Anna-Lisa Cox
13	Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom	David W. Blight
14	An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943	Rick Atkinson
15	Stalin’s Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess	Andrew Lownie
16	1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus	Charles C. Mann
17	Behold, America: The Entangled History of “America First” and “the American Dream’’	Sarah Churchwell
18	Iran: A Modern History	Abbas Amanat
19	The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea	Jack E. Davis
20	SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome	Mary Beard