How Changing Your Reading Habits Can
Transform Your Health
Reading
doesn’t just improve your knowledge, it can help fight depression, make you
more confident, empathetic, and a better decision maker.
My
favorite book is War and Peace.
And
I know what you're thinking: "Oh, another writer wanting people to think
he’s all intellectual and highbrow."
But
it really is my favorite book, only not because it has 1,500 pages of
unforgettable characters or a generational plot that is more compelling than
that of any other book I’ve read. It’s because right before I started reading
it, my life was in a rut. I had recently been passed over for a promotion at
Apple and I had just been rejected by a graduate school I applied to. This
double whammy left me doubting myself, my abilities, and my future. So when I
came across the massive tome that is War and Peace, I thought, "Why
not? I’m not doing anything else."
People
who read find it easier to make decisions, plan, and prioritize.
Two
months later, I finished the book and immediately knew I had a new
"favorite." But it wasn’t my new favorite book just because it was so
compelling. It was my new favorite because it changed something in me. It’s
almost impossible to explain why, but after reading it I felt more confident in
myself, less uncertain about my future. I became more assertive with my bosses.
I got back on the horse, so to speak, and applied to three more graduate
schools. I attended three interviews and got accepted to all three schools
(without mentioning War and Peace at all). As weird as it sounds,
reading War and Peace put me back in control of my life—and that’s
why it’s my favorite book.
But
according to Dr Josie Billington, deputy director of the
Centre for Research into Reading at the University of Liverpool, my experience
wasn’t so odd. It’s actually the norm for people who read a lot—and one of the
main benefits of reading that most people don’t know about.
Reading
for pleasure can help prevent conditions such as stress, depression, and
dementia.
"Reading
can offer richer, broader, and more complex models of experience, which enable
people to view their own lives from a refreshed perspective and with renewed
understanding," says Billington. This renewed understanding gives readers
a greater ability to cope with difficult situations by expanding their
"repertoires and sense of possible avenues of action or attitude."
And
those possible avenues of action don’t have to mimic those in the book. After
all, I had no interest in learning the best ways to fend off a French invasion,
even though that was a major part of the story in War and Peace. Rather
it was in reading about the challenges the dozens of characters in War and
Peace faced that I learned to look at my life’s challenges from a renewed
perspective.
"People
who read find it easier to make decisions, plan, and prioritize, and this may
be because they are more able to recognize that difficulty and setback are
unavoidable aspects of human life," says Billington—and astonishingly
these aren’t the only hidden benefits of reading regularly that researchers are
now discovering.
If
the standard benefits of reading, which include knowledge absorption and
entertainment, were only complemented by the additional benefits of the ability
to refocus, regroup, and make better decisions, it would be enough to argue
that everyone should read for their own good. But according to Billington and
Sue Wilkinson, the CEO of The Reading Agency, a UK charity that
develops and delivers programs to encourage people to read more, experts are
now discovering reading has numerous additional benefits to physical and
psychological health.
Reading
helps promote respect for and tolerance of others’ views.
"Reading
for pleasure in general can also help prevent conditions such as stress,
depression, and dementia," says Wilkinson. "Research has shown that
people who read for pleasure regularly report fewer feelings of stress and
depression
than non-readers. Large scale studies in the U.S. show that being more engaged
with reading, along with other hobbies, is associated with a lower subsequent risk of incidents of dementia."
Wilkinson
also notes that people who read books regularly "are on average more
satisfied with life, happier, and more likely to feel that the things they do
in life are worthwhile." A recent survey of 1,500 adult readers found that
76% of them said that reading improves their life and helps
to make them feel good.
And
despite reading generally being considered a solitary experience, research has
shown that reading has benefits for society at large—beyond helping create more
educated people. Wilkinson points out that it’s been proven that reading improves empathy and increases social
support.
A
reader's template of what the world is, is widened, and their place within it
feels more secure.
"Reading
has huge power to make you see things from another person’s point of
view," says Wilkinson, citing research that shows that reading reduces stress and creates
neurological changes in the brain that makes it think you’re in another
world—or another life. "Reading about people different to you, for example
who come from another culture or background, can help you understand their
perspective and readdress former prejudices."
Billington
agrees. "In addition to enhancing willingness and ability to communicate
with others, reading helps promote respect for and tolerance of others’
views," she says. "Readers have a stronger and more engaged awareness
of social issues and of cultural diversity than non-readers: their template of
what the world is, is widened, and their place within it feels more
secure."
Yet
despite all the benefits to mind, body, and society, plenty of people find it
hard to sit down and start reading. It seems like we just don’t have the time
to read more. We have work and family commitments; we have smartphone pings and
social media mentions to respond to. But both Billington and Wilkinson say you
can become a more committed reader—and reap the major benefits of
reading—without putting your life on hold and locking yourself in a library.
Here’s how:
There’s
much to be said for reading the greats like Tolstoy, Hemingway, and Proust, but
Wilkinson stresses that the benefits of reading aren’t limited to the great
literary works.
"All
reading is good, and enjoying whatever you are reading is the most important
thing," says Wilkinson, who notes that The Reading Agency’s Reading Ahead program for adults operates on
this principle: it’s the act of reading that is most important—not what you
read.
"You
can read magazines, website articles, cookery books, or children’s
books—anything that helps you practice reading, as long as you enjoy it. Being
too prescriptive about what you can read will only stop you taking up the
habit."
Billington
notes that two-fifths of people in the latest Quick Reads study cited "lack of
time" as their chief barrier to reading. Yet the same study found that
adults who read for just 30 minutes a week reported feeling 20% more satisfied
with their lives.
"So
it is worthwhile making just a few minutes time in a day for reading, it seems:
when waiting for a bus, or for children outside school, or on the train, think
twice before social messaging and pick up a book instead," says
Billington.
Wilkinson
suggests those with limited time browse Quick Reads, which offers "short
books, written by well-known authors and designed to be read quickly so you can
read them on your commute or just when you have a short break."
Once
you’ve started making the time to read more, Wilkinson says the next step is to
set challenges to keep yourself motivated. If you normally read fiction, for
example, try switching it up with non-fiction. This keeps things new and fresh,
which means you’re both more likely to continue reading and more likely to find
new favorite authors and subjects, which perpetuates the drive to keep reading.
Adults
who read for just 30 minutes a week reported feeling 20% more satisfied with
their lives.
"We
use challenges a lot in our work, because they give you something tangible to
aim for and a sense of achievement once you’ve completed them. It can help you
develop your skills, or help you discover something new," says Wilkinson,
who notes that her Reading Ahead program uses this to great effect in
workplaces, prisons, libraries, and colleges. The program asks participants to
read six books to get a certificate at the end. "The achievable goal, and
the certificate, help people find the time and motivation to read."
Both
Wilkinson and Billington agree that it’s very important not to continue forcing
yourself to read something you aren’t enjoying.
"The
late great Doris Lessing was right to say that you should never continue with a
book you’re not enjoying—as though it’s a betrayal of the shared human
experience that the book, and reading, is really for, to carry on out of
‘duty,'" says Billington. "One of the blessings of reading is that it
is an individual thing, and books offer different things to different people or
to the same person at different stages of life."
That’s
not to say you should be prepared to give up too soon, however. "If you’re
returning to reading after a long time, or finding it for the first time, it
can be difficult to believe you can see the whole thing through, and some books
take a while to do their work inside us," say Billington.
"I
give any book 100 pages and any article a couple of paragraphs; if they haven’t
grabbed me after that, then I think it’s OK to put it down and move on,"
says Wilkinson, who agrees that you don’t have to get stuck with a book you are
not enjoying. "You have ‘permission’ to stop, and the freedom to explore
and choose other things to read."
And
as the research now shows us, it’s those that choose to continue reading that
benefit from the act in more ways than previously thought possible.
By Michael
Grothaus
http://www.fastcompany.com/3048913/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/how-changing-your-reading-habits-can-transform-your-health?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-weekly-newsletter&position=1&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=07312015
No comments:
Post a Comment