Psychological benefits of reading

The number of readers in Spain increases every year. According to the FGEE of 2020, the 68.7% of the population reads books, which represents an increase compared to the previous year and, in addition, it is known that the average per reader is 11 books per year. Let's look at 9 positive things about reading.

1. Stimulates cognitive abilities

It increases our capacity for concentration, memory and attention. Something super important is that lowers the risk of Alzheimer's or other dementias and stimulates intelligence.

2. Reduce stress

It helps us to evade what it allows us rest and oxygenate. A "parallel world" opens up where we can have other different experiences and where we can relax, helping us improve our mood. When we relax we also stimulates sleep, reducing the. Reading can be considered a habit of self-care, which improves our mental and physical health.

3. Increases empathy and emotional intelligence

Help to understand and connect with different characters and different perspectives. Putting ourselves in the place of the character and increases our ability to understand that the feelings, beliefs, thoughts, or desires of others are different from our own. Which in turn expands our value system and helps us to better connect with people on a day-to-day basis and to cultivate our own.

4. Improves communication skills

Not only does it improve our vocabulary and our spelling, but it also optimizes our public speaking skills, since it allows us to develop better verbally.

5. Encourage imagination

Chen we read, we see the different scenes in images and we even experience them in the first person, feeling very varied emotions. East emotional enrichment increases our creativity when handling situations in the real world. On the other hand, unlike the cinema or the theater, in reading we imagine the characters and places where it is set to our liking, according to our previous experiences or our wishes.

6. Stimulates our critical sense

It allows us to understand the conflict from different angles, which helps us enrich our thinking and positions in the face of everyday dilemmas. The characters can also be understood as teachers within the different plots: how they think, what consequences their decisions have, what is their ethical system, etc. which can help us change our mind in certain aspects and open ourselves to new interpretations of reality.

7. Increases personal autonomy

Knowing how to enjoy being alone is essential to feel a free person. A book can also be a good company.

8. Have fun

This is undoubtedly the fundamental reason for reading and at the same time, one of the main benefits. The more you read, the more you can enjoy it. It is a pleasure accessible to all pockets and has no age.

9. Improves general knowledge and culture

It is a window to the world. Through fiction, data from multiple disciplines are also learned, for example, geography, different cultures and religions, philosophy, data on specific topics, etc. 30

How to make reading a habit?

• Find a little space to read every day, 10-15 minutes it may be enough to start the habit. You can increase the reading time as the enjoyment takes hold.
• Change your beliefs: do not see it as something expensive or boring but as a pleasure. He presents each book as a achievement.
• Create the right environment. Find a quiet place, with good light, a good tea and stay away from interruptions. Find the moment and recreate yourself.
• If you do not like what you read, do not force yourself, leave it and select another reading. There are books for absolutely all tastes.
• Create possibilities: take a book wherever you go, exchange it on the phone in those little blank moments of the day.
• Enter forums, literary web pages, blogs, literary feeds on social networks ... but also join a book club, go to book launches or literary fairs, etc.
• Encourage the smallest of the house

• Beyond making us have a good time, reading has other interesting benefits: it stimulates concentration, memory, attention…; reduces stress; encourages imagination ...
• Finding a small space to read each day, 10-15 minutes, may be enough to start to establish the habit.
• Bibliotherapy is an incipient discipline that helps us face the difficulties of life. A book can also have a very therapeutic function.

Health Psychologist and Psychotherapist at Teladoc Health