Developing a reading habit is a significant part of building a positive mindset. Reading as a habit holds the power to transform and uplift your wellness quotient. It is an important part of almost every successful person’s lifestyle. It is truly a hobby that makes a lot of difference in people’s mindsets.

Stephen King says ‘If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all: Read a lot and write a lot.” While I have been consistently feeding my passion for becoming a writer by doing the latter for as long as three years now, I have recently begun to take the former sincerely too.

Being a literature student, reading is expected to be a part of your routine. But, it was a little different for me. While I explored myself as a writer and absolutely loved writing, I was never an avid reader. But, ever since I turned my passion into my profession, reading has never slid off my schedule.

Reading is truly a habit to set you apart from the crowd and helps you improve not just your knowledge but also your mental wellbeing. Each book you read isn’t just an addition to your personal library but also adds to your all-over improvement.

The benefits of reading are not limited to the visual growth of an individual, i.e. the elevation in vocabulary, improvement in their speaking skills, and refinement of knowledge. But, there are many covert benefits you enjoy as you develop a reading habit:

Why should you Develop a Reading Habit?

1. Reading paves a path to meeting yourself

Reading opens the gateways of a new world to the reader. You begin to enjoy the content of a book and thrive to know more about it because it creates a sense of belongingness to the reader.

While you progress with the plot of the book, you are so intrigued by the incidents, characters, detailed descriptions of locations, and all the other things that you find yourself as a part of the plot.

Hence, reading helps you to discover who you are and what your aspirations are in life. It helps you to create new dimensions for your thoughts and ideas. It allows you to extend and expand these thoughts as much as you can.

Hence, every new page of every book you read is a new chance for discovering more about your passion and purpose.

2. It reduces the level of stress

You, your book, a coffee mug, and absolute silence in the surrounding. Oh yes, and a balcony with a view – may be as simple as your house garden. How calming does that feel?

There’s a serenity that runs down the spine and makes everything feel so soothing. Reading without any distractions is a blessing in disguise. It helps to reduce your stress. Also as per researchers, reading propagates an easy, better, and healthy sleep. This is why it is often advised to read before going to bed.

Even though there are a lot of ways to cope with stress, reading has got its own charm. The next time you feel uneasy, just take a deep breath. Open your current read or maybe a blog or any other column that you enjoy reading and begin reading it with a calm mind.

Before you know it, the unwanted feeling would have vanished already.

3. Reading improves your concentration level

Social media, OTTs, and mobile phones (as a whole) tend to play a significant role to destroy your concentration level daily. And, the habit of reading is what rescues you from it. Moreover, it restores it too.

Reading is similar to watching your favorite series. The difference is in the medium or the mode of communication. Once you develop an interest in a series, it is hard to skip or leave it incomplete.

Reading as a habit is something similar. Once the interest is developed, it is hard to give up on the plot or content of the book.

Hence, developing a reading habit increases your level of concentration and makes you more focused and aim in life.

4. It builds your emotional health

Do you ever cry, smile, or laugh out loud while watching any movie or series?

Well, reading does the same but in a little more effective way. Books are packed with emotions. Whether is it fictional or non-fictional, it has a lot of emotions attached to every page of its story. Sometimes you’ll have real tears while reading about the heartbreak of the character and sometimes you’ll smile and laugh when the character wins in life in the book.

Reading teaches you emotional upliftment, it upkeeps your emotional wellness. It transports you to the story and makes you fall in love with the protagonist or it makes you hate the antagonist. Every book is an amalgamation of various emotions and they help to grow you with the same.

5. Reading aids in building your critical thinking

Including reading in your daily schedule can lead to an improvement in your critical thinking ability. It increases and influences the decision-making skills of an individual by sharpening their critical and analytical thinking.

It makes you intelligent. No, I am not referring to your academic intelligence. I am rather talking about intelligence in terms of your creativity. How does that happen? Reading helps you to connect with the people in the stories and allows you to analyze real-life situations.

The process of reading processes a lot of information in your brain at one point in time. It broadens your perspective on both the content and context of the book. It is not just important to improve your vocabulary but it plays a very crucial role in your overall development too.

Conclusion

You have all the positive reasons to develop a reading habit in your daily schedule and make it a part of your routine. Reading is different for everyone.

After all, we are human beings with different interests and choices. Therefore, reading as a hobby shall never restrict you. It should, instead, empower and embrace your personality.

So, what are you waiting for? Understand what field of knowledge excites you. Try to find what gives you the adrenaline rush and simply choose it for your well-being.

You don’t need to buy thick books to invest in yourself. You can very much opt for the free pdf versions available on the internet. There are many free digital libraries and they are a pool of knowledge and life lessons.

So, go ahead and develop a reading habit. You are absolutely free to not be a bibliophile.

A bibliophile is someone who is addicted to reading. I don’t consider myself a bibliophile but reading is very much a part of my daily routine. And, it is the very reason I can show up here and do what I love doing for you guys – write.

Thank you for reading and sticking around my blog though.

And, do select a book for yourself if you haven’t already.

See you on Wednesday!!!

Bye!!!