Reading and its Impact on Your Mind

By: A. Lotufo

Since a young age, we have been taught that reading is crucial for your brain, that it’s a “brain workout” and that it will benefit you in many ways. The advantages of reading are vast, ranging from enjoyment and relaxation to prevention of diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Reading stimulates the brain’s neural pathways, improving cognitive function, memory, and brain activity. It boosts not only your creativity, but your capacity to learn. Reading enhances your vocabulary, your knowledge, your imagination, and your mental health.
Specifically for emotional health, reading exposes you to many different emotions, building up your resilience to different situations where, emotionally, things get difficult. Reading can also promote stress relief, relaxing your muscles and decreasing your heart rate.
Reading changes the way your brain connects with different circuits. It benefits your vocabulary, your cognitive function, and many, many others. If you struggle with reading frequently, start slowly, by reading only a few pages a day, until you feel more motivated to read more. Some ways of reading more are:
- Developing a routine (for example, reading before bed).
- Read books on topics you are interested in (such as murder mysteries, economics, biographies).
Reading, for many people, can be a hard habit to pick up. But once it becomes a routine, the rewards will be indispensable.