5 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD CULTIVATE A GOOD READING HABIT

By Gozhye Nelson

Hello pretty woman! I do not know whether you’re beautiful until we have had a conversation.

You look dashing, your makeup and nails are on fleek! Your entire assemble just screams class! One quick question though, do you remember the last book you read and when you read it? I bet you’ll probably say books are for nerds and you don’t have time for such. Don’t forget that the same way you take care of your hair and nails, upgrade your wardrobe and change your phone is the same way you need to feed your mind. Yanga without sense is like a bus without enough fuel…

I’m not talking about the Mills and Boons romance at this point, leave that for the teenagers. I mean books which will actually teach you something about your career, help with your personal development, or improve relationships and even your finances.  Well, yours truly is here to give you five reasons why you should cultivate a good reading habit, leggo!

Mental stimulation

Do you know that reading does for your brain what crunches and planks do for your abs? When you read, you exercise your brain and keep it from losing its power. Studies have shown that mental stimulation helps prevent Alzheimer’s, and guess what? Reading stimulates your mind! We all know that the older we get, the more our brain power declines, but constant reading can help slow down this process and keep your mind sharper for much longer.

You know that old man who lives beside your house right? The one who always talks about the civil war in the 60s and says he would make a great special adviser to the president? I’m sure you’re amazed at the kind of things he knows, and how smart he still is despite his age, but you forget that he is almost always buried in his newspapers. He’s been drilling his brain, and you my dear lady should try that too.

Analytical skills

It develops your mental muscles and strengthens your analytical skills. Have you ever watched a crime fiction movie and found yourself predicting who the villain would be? Now imagine the same with reading a crime fiction book where the only pictures you see are those you paint with your mind out of the words in the book, and you still try to put two and two together to predict who the bad guy could be. Girl, that’s a full blown brain work out! You’re activating your imagination and sharpening your mind. It makes you smarter and improves your ability to analyse things. You’ll also find that you’re able to remember things easily.

Concentration and focus

With the recent social media craze, books seem to have gone out of fashion; if it isn’t the caption of an Instagram photo, then it isn’t going to be read. We’re constantly checking for new updates on Facebook and looking out for trending threads on Twitter and this is usually a distraction which makes one lose her concentration on useful things.

It has been proven that for every distraction, it takes one another 13 minutes to regain concentration. But the more you read, the more your ability to focus on things is enhanced. As you read more often, you’ll find yourself feeling more confident, productive, and less prone to distractions because there is a discipline which reading instils in you.

You shoud try reading for some minutes before work. That one hour you spend on transit to work every morning which you use to browse through Facebook, or continue the sleep which you didn’t have enough of last night, try reading a book or an article with that time for a change, and see how much more confident and focused you’ll be at work.

Stress reduction

You probably work 9 to 5 from Monday to Friday, or maybe you’re your own boss and you work your ass off all week and get completely stressed out so much so that you can literally feel the life being drained out of you. What if I tell you that reading can reduce your stress level? Yes, I said that. It gives you a sense of inner calmness and even reduces your blood pressure.

When you read a great book, or an engaging article your tension is reduced and you can relax your mind and lose yourself into another world. As someone once said, “reading gives you a place to go when you have to stay where you are.”

Knowledge and Vocabulary expansion

Remember when you were still in secondary school and your English teacher used to tell you to read books to improve your vocabulary? That still stands. When you read, there’s a 60 percent chance that you would learn at least two new words from every page.

Ever wonder why some people “blow big grammar” and you’re left wondering what just happened? It’s not big grammar, my sister; it’s you who doesn’t know the word. You fill up your reservoir of words when you read and you’ll find that you’re able to use a large variety of them when you communicate with people. Not only do you learn new words, but you also get to learn new things and gain new knowledge about things which you probably had no inkling to.

So, now that you know these, it’ll be a wise idea to pick up a book and dig into it reading right away. If you like money as much as I do, you may want to start with

The Smart Money Woman, by Arese Ugwu and I assure you that it’ll open your eyes to how you can professionally handle your financial life. Visit Safaya Money for more financial book recommendations.

Till I come your way next time, go exercise that beautiful brain of yours, and do give feedbacks in the comments section.

Faya on!