Transform Your Life: Embracing the Joy and Benefits of Reading

Chapters

• 0:00 The Benefits of Reading Podcast
• 8:28 The Power of Reading Podcast

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:39

Hello again and welcome to the first episode of Tanisha's Reading Podcast. This has been a passion project of mine for many years and it's finally come to pass, and it's incredibly satisfying to finally be here. Well, for starts, why a reading podcast? Of all the podcasts to do, why one about just reading?

Speaker 1: 1:00

As a daughter of a language arts teacher, reading was drilled into me at a very young age. Even in the summertime, my mom would get us up early in the morning on the same time that we would only be ready for school, and she'd have a stack of books and of reading things that we had to do and we had to read them. We had to do summaries of them. So, yeah, and that is actually a habit that I continue to this very day during the summer, I make a list of all the books that I want to read and I get through as many as I can. And, yeah, I'm constantly uploading and updating my reading list with new books, all types of genres romance, horror, mystery, murder mystery. I'm actually getting more into, more into murder mystery. Since I'm getting older, I'm getting more cynical, but anyway, but, yeah, but. However, as I have been getting older, it's been harder to keep up with the habit as I graduated from high school, went to college, got into the workplace no day to day living, it's kind of hard to find those moments when you just stop and rest and find a little corner to sit in and just read. So this past year that has been one of my goals to get back into that habit of reading and I made it my mission to get back into that reading habit. Even if it's only 15 minutes a day, it's better than nothing, because I've noticed that when I don't actually read something of fiction or whatnot, I am a very unpleasant person to be around. I'm cranky, I'm sad, I just don't really like to be around people. And that's because I'm not taking the time out to take care of myself. And honestly, I think that's something that a lot of people are dealing with nowadays.

Speaker 1: 2:41

And just in doing research and coming up with this reading podcast, I found out there are so many benefits to reading. So the title of today's episode is called the seven benefits of reading. So let's dive in. Benefit number one reading calms us down, literally. There is research studies to prove that. In 2009, the University of Sussex shows us that reading was the best way to overcome anxiety and stress. In fact, it can decrease stress up to 68%. Reading they show that was even better than going for a walk or listening to music. So how they conducted the experiment and proved this was to monitor a participant's heart rate and tension and saw it only took six minutes for the readers to ease tension once they began reading. So next time you're stressed out, pick a book up and read.

Speaker 1: 3:42

So benefit number two books help us tap into our imaginations, and that impacts our day-to-day creativity. As we read, we are transported into different worlds where we can soar above the clouds or dig for treasure in the deepest caves, and in doing this, looking into the main character's thought process gives us better critical thinking skills and communication skills that we can use in our day-to-day lives. Which brings us to point number three. Benefit number three Fiction, especially bodies of fiction, increases our ability to empathize with others. By investing in any fictional character makes us more readily able to actively identify those same scenarios that they go through in others, and also this helps us to push past our assumptions and also stereotypes that we place upon others. Benefit number four reading helps with sleep.

Speaker 1: 4:32

I'm a person who suffers from bouts of insomnia where, no matter how hard I try, I just cannot get to sleep. Or if I do get to sleep, I can't stay asleep. But one thing that I have noticed is that, you know, oftentimes on nights, when I'm just, you know, sitting in front of the tv for long hours at a time and then trying to go to sleep, I can't fall asleep. But when I read a book, turn off everything the cell phone, the laptop, the tablet, the tv and just open up a good book and read for like 15, 20 minutes, I can put that book down, turn off the lamp and go to sleep, fall asleep and I stay asleep. And I think mainly that's because when we watch TV it gives our brain way too much stimulation and thus makes it harder to turn off stimulation and thus makes it harder to turn off. So that way, adding about 15-20 minutes of reading to your evening routine, that helps the body to naturally de-stress, and when we naturally de-stress we're much better and easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. All right.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Benefit number five reading improves our vocabulary. One practice I like to do is have a reading journal improves our vocabulary. One practice I like to do is have a reading journal. A reading journal is basically something I like to have when I'm reading Kind of simple, but yeah. So basically it's a journal that I write in notes and I'm writing character plots and I'm writing recurring themes and motifs. So that way I'm actively reading is what I like to call this. So I'm taking what I'm reading and I'm putting it into use. So that way it helps to improve my just fuller understanding of the text and what is really speaking to me.

Speaker 1: 6:15

In future podcasts I will definitely go into more depth about this, but for the sake of this benefit, how this aids in improving our vocabulary is that when I come across a word that I'm not familiar with or I don't know, I go pause on the reading, grab the dictionary, look up the word, I write that word down in my reading journal, I write the definition of it in my reading journal and then that way I can go back to the text like, okay, that's what this means and in doing so, that just improves our overall vocabulary and just makes us more smarter, which brings us to number six. Reading strengthens the brain. Seriously, reading is a constant way to engage the nerves in our brain, to improve memory concentration, and may even help us live longer, which is true, there is research behind this as well, but actually on the very next episode, episode two, I will dive into this further. I'm going to do more research and so that episode I'm going to write the title for that one is going to be reading and the brain. So yeah, there has been so much research and studies done on this that that's a whole podcast by itself and it's truly extraordinary.

Speaker 1: 7:25

So finally, benefit number seven, the last reason why reading is a great form of self-care because it's just fun. I mean, just personally, I love reading and that's why I'm doing a whole podcast on this. That's why I buy books every other week and I keep reading, because I love it. The euphoria I get when reading and just getting a new book, it's everything to me, my whole room, right now that I'm looking around. That's why I'm recording this podcast.

Speaker 1: 7:51

It's full of books that I've read won't give away. Don't ask me to not going to. It's like part of my family, like I can't give that away. And it's also full of books that I haven't read yet but I'm going to read. It's on the list and then there's a stack of books I just bought that's being added to the list, and the list just keeps getting longer.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Yeah, all my friends, especially when I was in college, all my friends were going to the club every other week and I was going to the bookstore and getting another book. Yes, I was that girl that when everyone else was clubbing, I'm like when my friends were dragging me to the club, I'd be like I just want to go home and read a book. I don't want to be out right now. So, to recap, seven benefits of reading Number one it reduces stress. Number two it taps into creativity. Number three gives us the ability to empathize with others. Number four helps with sleep. Five improves vocabulary. Six strengthens our brains. And seven it's just overall fun. These benefits are the reasons why I wanted to create this podcast, because I want to create something that guides other people into making reading a daily habit. You know this is for book lovers, or newfound book lovers, to get into that habit, and in upcoming episodes,