10 Reasons You Should Read Everyday

The habit that could change your life.

I've always been a reader. My whole life, I turned to books to give me perspective, shut off my brain, or increase my understanding of the world.

Yet I never knew how much this habit benefitted me until I went through periods of time when I stopped reading. It was during this time that I became aware of how positive reading had been for my brain, my relationships, and my self-understanding.

If you've been skeptical about reading, let me try to sell you on it. Here are ten reasons to start partaking in this incredible habit.

Reading daily will gradually improve your ability to concentrate, think clearly, and recall ideas.

Plus, it has been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Reading a book gives you an excuse to ask people about the book or the topic you're reading about.

Consider you're at a party and just finished reading Atomic Habits. You can say, "Have you ever read Atomic Habits?" Or you can say, "What's your opinion about habits and the easiest ways to form them?" Then you can supply some cool facts from the book you're reading and blow their minds.

In conclusion, reading makes you the life of the party (if the party is full of nerds, but alas).

Stephen King once said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

Exposing ourselves to a variety of writing - particularly good writing - can give us examples of good communication. We can see how to properly form a story to get people hooked and how authors experiment with ideas and writing styles to create their work.

It also increases our vocabulary!

Give me an example of another hobby that achieves this. Uh... sudoku? Crosswords? Doing math for fun (like my brother used to)?

When you read, you have to be focused and concentrated to actually absorb the information and actually... do it. It's an active hobby... if you're passively scan-reading while zoned-out, you're losing details.

Watching a movie or watching TikToks doesn't require that your brain is active. Your brain doesn't have to assemble images or create meaning from words. All you have to do is keep your eyes open.

This is why reading stimulates your brain and keeps you entertained at the same time (given you're reading an interesting book and not, say, a math textbook - except if you're my brother, cuz in that case, you're very much entertained).

I believe that anyone can get into reading. It's not a hobby that only caters to certain personalities because the amount of books and genres out there means there's something for everyone.

Don't like reading? Maybe you just haven't found a writing style that speaks to you. Or a genre that keeps you engaged. Or just a good book, in general.

For a while, I stopped reading and mostly watched videos and TikToks. When I tried to get back into reading, it was a challenge.

I would read a single sentence and be immediately bored.

It took training to get my attention span back into shape, but it made me realize that reading is like a workout for concentration.

The more you do it, the easier it becomes.

And doing it has benefits in all areas of life! When people talk to you, you can stay focused on what they're saying. You can also remain focused for longer when you're watching a movie.

It might be uncomfortable to read at first, especially if your attention span has been destroyed thanks to TikTok, but its benefits make it worth it.

In this article, Chris Tomson illustrates how reading can be used as a meditative tool:

When we read our brain is alive; you are producing your own images, sounds and feelings in your imagination. It is this that makes the action such a great candidate for meditation. It offers you opportunities for mindfulness on two levels; in the physical act of reading, and in the cognitive reactions to the physical act. You can be mindful of the feel of the book, the texture of the pages, the fonts used and the smell of the paper. You can also enact mindfulness upon the world you have created in your head; take time to appreciate the gifts of your imagination.

Is that not beautiful? Reading can allow us to truly take a break from the constant stream of thoughts that run rampant through our heads. It allows us to slow our brains down and put all our focus on something else.

Often, after reading a good book, I notice that the things that worried me before I started reading seem less overwhelming. Reading offers us perspective, a break, and a chance to find comfort within our own heads.

This is why...

In an article from The New Yorker by author Ceridwen Dowey, Dowey states, "Reading fiction makes me lose all sense of self, but at the same time makes me feel most uniquely myself."

For me, I agree with Dowey - reading often feels like a way to discover myself yet also lose myself simultaneously. My own self-identity becomes less important as I take on the mind and situations of a character. Yet after reading, I feel a connection with the character that reaffirms my experiences and my emotions. It also allows me to feel deeply present in my mind and body.

Reading not only improves one's mental health, but can also improve relationships with others. A 2011 study using fMRI scans revealed people reading about an experience display the same stimulation within brain regions as when they go through that same experience themselves.

This means reading can improve empathy and can allow us to deeply understand and feel other people's perspectives.

In addition, reading reduces the false consensus bias effect. The false consensus bias refers to our tendency to believe that our own ways of seeing the world and beliefs are more normal, widespread, and common than they actually are. Reading about different perspectives allows us to challenge this bias, showing that multiple ways of thinking exist. This, in turn, is another way that reading can make us more empathetic and understanding towards the people in our life.

Reading expands our knowledge of the world in many ways:

• By introducing us to different ways of thinking.

• By allowing us to experience what it's like to live in different time periods, cultures, and as different people.

• By challenging our preconceived notions of how things are.

• By giving us new facts and statistics about subjects.

• By exemplifying how "you don't know what you don't know"... until you read about it.

Whether you want to be able to talk about a subject you currently don't have a great understanding of, learn more about something you already believe yourself to be an expert on, or challenge the preconceived myths and beliefs you've been told throughout your life, reading is the answer.

Reading is also the perfect way to feel both like an uneducated fool and a genius. While you're reading a book about a topic, oftentimes you'll think, Wow, and I thought I was an expert on this? I clearly knew nothing.

But afterwards, you'll be like, Wow. I learned so much. I feel like such a nerdy genius.

The best way to become more creative is to see creativity in action. Exposing ourselves to various story ideas, artistic wordplay, unique characters, and individualized perspectives can give us the confidence and inspiration to let our imaginations roam free.

You'll often realize that no idea is a bad idea - but what does matter is how you execute that idea (this concept has been proven to me due to the countless number of books that had plots that sounded SO good, but then they turned out to be the worst book ever. Great ideas, poor execution).

You'll unlock ways to express yourself, new words to use, unique plot devices, and more. All-in-all, it will make you a more creative person in business, life, and art!

Overall, reading is an extremely beneficial habit that could actually change your life (yeah, yeah, I know that's dramatic, but I'm serious).

So why not start reading today? Take a look at the articles below for some places to start.

And let me know in the comments what your favourite thing about reading is.