Choosing among a plethora of possible hobbies can be a tough ask. After all, there’s so much to do, and such little time to do it in. It might be that you want to learn how to play the keyboard, how to knit, to go running three times a week, or spend more time in nature, to catch up on your TV shows, and to learn technical skills like programming.
No matter what, it’s hard to know where to start. Consider one more suggestion – integrating reading into your schedule.
It might not seem as if we’ve helped with that suggestion. Reading takes time to properly take part in, and mental energy to keep up with. That said, it can actually help you in many different avenues of life, informing, supporting, and nourishing all the other activities you might engage with.
On top of that, reading is a form of self-care. It helps you relax, train your focus, your creative and lateral thinking, while also allowing you to escape or learn depending on the subject of your reading approach.
In this post, then, we’ll discuss four timeless reasons to make reading part of your daily schedule once more:
Reading Helps You Explore The World
Vacations are expensive, television programs are fun but time limits prevent them from being too deep and explorative, but books? Well, books can help you understand the history, cultural considerations, depth of understanding, and worth of the world around us.
Millions of topics from the best way to cook a certain cultural cuisine to learning about leading figures, to even enjoying history through the scope of fun historical fiction, reading helps you explore the world using only your mind, becoming more familiar with it than a basic and surface-level tourist destination might. That doesn’t mean you need to lock yourself away in your reading corner, but you can certainly see how this will always be a worthy measure of health for anyone curious about the world outside.
Reading Exposes You To New Point Of View
It’s very easy to go through life thinking you have all the answers, and that you’re right about everything. After all, you wouldn’t have formed these impressions if you didn’t think they were right, right? Of course, we’re not going to suggest that you’re a misinformed or uneducated person. But you don’t have to be in order to be locked into your cultural viewpoint, your own idea about how the world runs, or perhaps your own norms and expectations from day to day.
For example, reading into history can help you learn about different perspectives or cultural attitudes, be that how a certain movement you agree with today began, or how ancient cultures developed the very real iconography still used today. That doesn’t mean you have to be in lock-step agreement with everything and everyone you read, but it’s always healthy to learn what they think and why they think it.
If nothing else, this is a great deal of fun!
Reading Engages You With Community & Charity
When you read, it’s nice to talk to other readers. Often, that means joining communities, even if that’s just online using sites like Goodreads to review and rate the books you’re enjoying.
You may even contribute to charity, because many charities use book drives and book shops to sell and raise money for their causes. For example, Oxfam bookshops are wonderful volunteer efforts that local communities often donate books to. Your efforts perusing and buying books from their shelves actively help you commit to good. Now that’s a good way to spend your recreation time!
Of course, reading to your children and helping them become literate is wonderful, as are programs that inspire you to join reading groups with local elderly services for people who may be alone most of the time. And of course, public libraries are always the heart of a community, or at least it’s important to help sustain them in that way.
Reading Preserves & Delivers Culture
Ultimately, reading is the best way to showcase the culture and to retain it. Want to learn more about your local history? What about that play you’ve heard of but have no idea about? What if someone you know is entering the military and you want to know about the history of the Air Force and its current aircraft in motion?
It’s a little redundant to say “reading gives you access to an education,” but you’d be amazed at just how much it can if you’ve been lacking in this hobby for a while. After all, some people around the world would give anything to have access to books despite archaic restrictions imposed on them, and so it’s always healthy to try and access books if you can, and teach your kids the value of doing so as well.
With this advice, you’ll no doubt have fun making reading part of your daily, weekly or even monthly schedule. Every word helps.
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