Books are windows to the world, and reading books is a way to open those windows so we can know more about the world that we didn’t know before. This activity can be done by anyone, children, teenagers, adults, and people who have advanced.
Books are a source of various information that can open our horizons about various things such as science, economics, society, culture, politics, and other aspects of life. In addition, reading can help change the future and can increase the intelligence of our minds and minds.
Without us realizing it, the benefits of reading books can provide a lot of inspiration for us. However, the pleasure of reading books lately has been neglected by various groups for reasons of being busy, as well as because of the more practical media to get information such as television, radio, and internet media.
Here are some of the benefits of reading books that we can get in addition to educating the brain. including:
1. Can Stimulate Mental
The brain is one of the organs of the body that requires exercise to stay strong and healthy like any other organ. Reading books can keep the brain active so that it can function properly and correctly. Several studies have shown that reading books can improve mental health and even prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
2. Can Reduce Stress
After doing a tiring daily routine, it is not uncommon for this to trigger stress. By doing reading activities that can be done for a few minutes can help suppress the development of stress hormones such as the hormone cortisol. Reading can make the mind more relaxed so it can help reduce stress levels by up to 67%.
Relaxation, reading a book can provide great inner peace and tranquility. Reading can lower blood pressure and has been shown to help people with certain mood disorders and mild mental illnesses. This is the benefit of reading books that many people treat well, many people think that reading books actually makes the brain continue to work and causes stress, even though the benefits of reading books are reducing stress.
3. Adding Insights and Knowledge
Reading books can fill our heads with various kinds of new information that we don’t know so far, most likely it will be useful for us in the future. The more knowledge we have, the better prepared we will be to face the challenges of life both now and in the future.
In addition, knowledge is a very valuable thing that is never lost even though we lose other things in this world, such as possessions, objects, and others. Stories and ideas contained in a book that we read can help to open our minds to know more about the other world and gain understanding more than before.
4. Can Increase Vocabulary
The more we do reading books, the more we will get explanations about things we don’t know and can increase the amount of vocabulary that we can use in our daily lives. This of course can help us to be able to articulate, help express opinions in simple language, and can increase confidence when talking to other people.
5. Can improve the Quality of Memory
Reading books can contribute to improving the quality of our brains in remembering the process, of various kinds of things we have read. For example, characters, backgrounds, ambitions, history, as well as various elements or plots of each storyline. Each memory can help to forge brain pathways and strengthen them. In addition, doing reading activities can find a person’s mood.
Reading, books can help exercise the brain to the fullest than just watching television or listening to the radio. A research director at Haskins Laboratories, Ken Pugh, Ph.D., said that the habit of reading books can stimulate the brain to think and concentrate.
6. Training Skills for Thinking and Analyzing
The benefits of reading books can train the brain to be able to think more critically and analyze the problems presented in what we read. We like getting access or a way to get into the storyline and help in completing the story. It can help develop our character in the future.
7. Can Improve Focus and Concentration
At the time of reading a book, we can train the brain to be more focused and concentrate on what we read. This will train us to be able to focus more on various activities or daily routines.
8. Train to be able to write well
With the increase in vocabulary that we have from reading books, it can automatically help us to be able to make our own written works in language that is as good as or even better than what we have read before.
9. Can Expand One’s Thinking
Someone who likes to read books has been reported to have a higher level of creativity than people who do not or are less fond of reading. By reading books, we can share experiences with others about various things, which later we can use as material for consideration to be able to decide something.
10. Can Improve Social Relations
Activities like reading this book also affect aspects of human social life, where he can get to know various kinds of characteristics, culture, and social life of a society. So that if one day he visits the place, he already knows how to act to respect their customs and culture.
11. Can Help Prevent Decreased Cognitive Function?
Based on a study conducted by Rush University Medical Center, it was stated that someone who spent their time doing creative or intellectual activities such as reading experienced a cognitive decline rate of up to 32% more than those who did not read in the future. Reading books can make the brain work more efficiently by changing the structure of age-related neuropathologies.
12. Can Increase One’s Empathy
According to research conducted by New York University, reading books can improve our ability to better understand other people’s feelings. So that it can improve the quality of better relationships with the people around us.
13. Can Push One’s Life Purpose
According to research conducted by Ohio State University, reading books can help a person to get motivated in overcoming various kinds of obstacles so that later they can help in achieving their life goals. When people can better identify their characters, experiences, and events as if they were happening to them, more likely they are to take action.
14. Can Help Us To Connect With The Outside World
A psychologist from the University of Buffalo stated that when a person is reading a book, it can help him to identify the characters in the book he is reading. He will experience the kinds of real-life relationships that can increase the sense of inclusion. In other words, reading can increase friendships with the outside world.
15. Can Save More
Reading books will have an impact on the economy. Where reading books can save money instead of having to bother looking for the services of other information or entertainment providers, such as cinemas.
Tips for Reading Books Effectively
- Choose the right free time to read a book, for example, at night before going to bed.
- Choose a comfortable position when reading a book, for example by sitting in a chair. Always set the distance between the eyes and the book, which is about 25 to 30 cm.
- Determine the purpose of reading books to get optimal results. A person who reads a book aimlessly is the same as a wanderer who knows no direction.
- Before reading we should know the big picture of the contents of the book, it will make it easier to concentrate when reading.
- Always focus on what we read.
- Being an active reader, in the sense that we can have a dialogue with the book. For example, we can make various questions which we will find the answers to in the books we read.
- Determining techniques in reading, for example, when is the right time to read quickly, slowly, aloud, or read silently.
- Take note of the important things we have read. This will help us to remember the gist of the book we have read.
Hopefully, this article is useful
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