When was the last time you picked up a good book, and read it to the end? Or read something longer than a tweet?, a Facebook update, a Whatsapp Status, a quote(today’s blog has none though – bite me)

If you’ve lost that ability to focus long enough to read a book till the end, you’re  not alone – not with every screen struggling to catch our attentions, Humans are increasingly losing one vital ability – the ability to focus on one thing and believe it or not, it’s doing us more harm than good.

If you are not in the habit of reading regularly, you’re missing out on a lot big time and while we’re not saying you should spend all day reading, Cultivating the habit of a few pages daily can get you farther than 90% of the Human population and you get all the benefits of what happens to your mind when you read on a regular basis

Talking about those benefits? Here’s five that would blow your mind(and hopefully get reading back into your good books because we love to see you grow)

1. Stop your brain from rotting: e shock you ahbi?… Studies like this one have shown that mentally stimulating your brain by reading(and playing board games like Chess) can slow down or even prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s and Dementia since “exercising” your brain like this can stop it from losing brain power.

The law of nature states that you “use it or lose it” and this is truer with your mind. Cultivating a reading habit, doing puzzles and playing intellectually stimulating board games like chess has been found to be helpful for cognitive stimulation

2. Reading can help reduce Stress: How do you destress after a long day? More news, more social media “noise” or a good book(best if it’s fiction).  A good novel is a great way to end your day as it helps you escape the  stress you had at work, ones you have in your personal relationships, or the countless issues that plagues your daily life; it all slips away when you lose yourself in a great story (give it a try).

A well written work of prose, a best seller, a thriller or even a well written article like this one can help take you to another dimension where things are less sucky, keep you in the present (and not lost in your head), while letting all tensions drain away while you relax… 

3. Knowledge: “ Knowledge is Power” – Sir Francis Bacon 

You thought you escaped a quote right? Me too.  Talking about reading, This is the first time I’m “reading” about the original author of this quote(even though I’ve seen it so many times)…

Every single thing you read feeds your mind with chunks of informations and what you don’t know it that, while you might not have “perfect recall” on everything you read, It stays in your subconscious and is available when you need it (even if you’re unaware)

You have “ideas” that help you tackle certain challenges or see life in a different way than you did before, you learn from other people’s life experiences and from their mistakes. 

And the best part, While you can lose everything you own this minute – money, house, cars, jobs – your knowledge is one thing you’d hardly lose. This is why it is said that the best investment is in yourself

4. Improved Memory – Reading means you are able to recall things as you are continuously practicing “recall” by keeping up with plots, characters, background stories and more in books, novels, articles. That’s a lot to remember, but our brains are marvellous things and can remember these things with relative ease. They only lose this super power when we don’t practice

5. Improved Focus and Concentration: It’s becoming increasingly hard in our fast paced world to keep focus on concentrating on a single task – not with all the notifications popping up here and there, The messages, the need for the latest news – all available at the tip of your fingers. You find yourself going from app to app. This is practicing how not to concentrate and focus daily and you’d get good at it (It’s already a habit for most of us). When you start reading daily, you are going to be sitting and staying with something for a while and in time, this routine would become a habit you can apply in other areas of your life. 

Reading for 10-20 minutes daily can get you all these benefits and more. If you can’t get your hand on some good paperbacks, This website is free for you to download almost any book from any author.. You should check it out

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