READING BOOKS FOR YOUR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH
Reading has many benefits for your mental health in the form of thinking and understanding. By concentrating on the words and the storyline, it stimulates your brain and cognitive functions.
Vocabulary expansion
When reading books, you might come across a few words you don’t quite understand. This confusion can lead you to look up the word and discover the definition. Because you didn’t know the word, to begin with, the act of searching for the definition helps your brain retain that new and exciting word, i.e. vocabulary expansion.
Lower levels of stress
The very act of reading and focusing on the written word can help relieve your mind of anxiety and reduce your blood pressure. By pulling your mind away from the stress at hand, you can relax and let the stress levels melt away.
Helps with depression
Reading can help ward off depressive occurrences and mood disorders. Just like with lowering your stress levels, it stimulates the part of the brain that deals with depression as well.
Strengthens your writing abilities
Those who write know the importance of reading books. Whether you write things for work or just for fun, heavy reading can improve your writing skills and abilities.
Enhances your imagination
Consider the worlds that you are immersed in and the characters you come across while going through a novel. Because of these worlds and characters, the part of your brain which houses your imagination is stimulated, causing you to imagine what the places and people look like just by picturing the words.
Boosts your sleep
Did you know that reading books can also help with your sleep? No, this does not mean that it helps you fall asleep, but it does contribute to improving your overall sleep quality, pattern and restfulness. Reading, since it enables you to relax and de-stress, can help pull you into a deep and peaceful sleep.
Enjoy your entertainment
With the ability to entertain and induce peacefulness, reading has been a constant comfort to people of all ages and from all walks of life. For years, this entertainment factor has been at the forefront of literature. Books and other forms of writing are still just as popular today.
Can brighten your day
The act of reading is a great benefit both to mental and physical health, but it can also brighten your day. Sometimes, the days can be stressful and worrisome, but when you lay down at night and curl up with a good book, it lifts your spirits along with that stress and worry.
Helps you to broaden your mind
Books allow you to see things from a completely different perspective. Reading about a certain culture, for example, can help you to understand how that culture differs from your own. You might not agree with that culture’s perspective, but at least you will look at things from a new angle.