By Taylor Legall
Image courtesy of Pinterest
If you’re first experiences learning to read were anything like mine you might remember all the cheesy posters in your Kindergarten classroom. You know, the ones with the colorful block letters and cartoon characters. They usually said something like “Reading is a passport to countless adventures.” I used to roll my eyes at such mantras as these, but the truth is reading really is an important tool for us that can help us at every stage in life. I’m not talking about the skill of reading. No one can dispute that you won’t get too far in life if you can’t read. What I am talking about today is the impacts of the activity of reading itself and what it can do for you and your mind.
For starters, reading allows us to deepen our understanding of any topic that may interest you. It also allows us to grow our vocabulary, in both quality and quantity, in a way that is organic. Learning how words are used in context is the best way to understand any language. Communication is vital for success in any career field. In fact, “a 2019 poll conducted by Cengage showed that 69 percent of employers are looking to hire people with “soft” skills, like the ability to communicate effectively” (Health Line). Reading allows us to understand the flow of communication naturally so that we may apply it to real-life situations.
Reading also gives us a lesson in creativity. Learning a multitude of stories, fictional or otherwise, gives us the ability to be okay with the ambiguous. We are better equipped to find solutions to open-ended problems and to see the world from a different point of view. “‘When you can entertain multiple perspectives, it is easier to see new possibilities,’” says Professor Maja Djikic (SACAP). So essentially, when we read, we gain mental and creative dexterity that helps us to solve more abstract problems.
Additionally, when you read, your brain switches on in a very unique way. Reading activates the somatosensory cortex, which for you non-Psychologists, is the center of the brain that manages physical sensations like pain or movement. Essentially, we begin to feel the same way as the characters in the pages of our books. So it is safe to say that our favorite literary figures affect us in a biological way, which is pretty cool. Neurologist Professor Gregory Berns says it best: “‘The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist. We already know that good stories can put you in someone else’s shoes in a figurative sense. Now we’re seeing that something may also be happening biologically’” (SACAP).
And if that has not convinced you to pick up a book right now, maybe this next fact might. Readers are actually less prone to mental illnesses later in life. “One study found that people who read later in life have a 32% lower rate of declining mental abilities” (SACAP). Now that is pretty cool. We can actually protect our brains from deterioration by reading.
The reality is that reading is not just something we have to do for school or work. It is a life skill and a tool that we can use down the road to allow our brains to thrive for years and years to come. So even if you are not exactly a bookworm, I still recommend picking up a novella every once in a while to do your brian a favor. It seems that “a child that reads will be a adult who thinks.”
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