Reading is exercise and an enjoyable way to continue improving your mind, keeping your brain healthy well into your senior years. Reading activates your imagination. It introduces new ideas for your precocious brain to absorb like a sponge. If you read, you’re not only improving your mind but also developing a habit of reading that will last a lifetime. Reading is an activity that creates a positive connection between the brain and the rest of the body. It’s like exercise for your brain cells!
Improves Communication Skills
The more you read, the stronger your communication skills will become. You’ll learn new words, some of which you may begin to understand out of context; while others, you might have to look up. You might come across different dialects in the books you read. Jargon and beautiful turns of phrase that you can adopt as part of your vernacular if you read on a regular basis.
Improves Analytical Skills
You will be able to understand the intentions of authors better. You’ll be able to read more effectively, and more confidently. You’ll begin to have a sense of what’s going on in the story that you’re reading, and you’ll be able to understand themes and plot points more quickly than before. You’ll appreciate their brilliance and learn from them. As a result, you’ll become a more intelligent reader and develop a more analytical mind.
Learn Storytelling
Storytelling will feature prominently in your own mind, especially if you’re an avid reader of fiction tales. And you might even begin to create your own narrative inside of your own head, that mimics the voice of certain types of books you have read. This is definitely one of the biggest workouts you can possibly give your brain muscle.
Become a Better Writer
You’ll be able to write stories yourself, and you’ll find that your writing skills have improved. You will learn how to organize your thoughts more effectively. As a result, you will become more creative in other aspects of your life and especially when communicating with others. Plus, you’ll be able to write better stories for all the people who read them.
Gain Perspective
When you read, your mind gains a new perspective. You can step inside the mind of another person and begin to understand how someone who is very different from you might think. Reading helps you to learn about other cultures and people from all over the world. You can begin to understand how different situations, such as poverty, affect people in different parts of the world. You can envision and empathize with unique life stories you never knew existed.
Reading fiction can engage your brain in a delightful fantasy… take you places inside of your own mind where you’ve never been before. Imagine if you could view your own brain while reading, what parts would activate depending on the kind of material you were focusing on. In fact, many scientists have conducted research on the effects of reading fiction by studying MRI images of readers’ brains. At Stanford University, researchers had subjects read Jane Austen during an MRI. There was significantly increased blood flow to several regions of the brain. This was evidence of the complex cognitive function required to take in, imagine, and understand the written word and translate the words to see them in your mind’s eye.
Stories are powerful and creative. They can take you to different places, give you new perspectives on things, and enable you to understand others. Non-fiction has the ability to change how we think about ourselves and our world. Fiction has the ability to broaden our horizons and expand our understanding of the art of the possible.
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