What’s your favourite book?
Unable to answer that question. Don’t worry a lot of teenagers can’t, this needs to change. On average a teenager should read at least 30 minutes per day. As a teenager myself I understand how hard it can be to pick up a book and start reading. The desire to look at your phone can be challenging. The idea of wasting time when you could be relaxing. But, did you know? Reading is one of the main ways to improve educational and social skills. A book allows your brain to switch off ,your body to relax and your mind to escape into an imaginary world.
Sharpening your mind. By concentrating and reading words and sentences your brain becomes stimulated without you even noticing. This sort of simulation in your mind ends up activating the part of your brain that controls analysis and concentration. So next time your teacher asks you to analyse an extract, you can achieve full marks. Improves your memory and focus. Reading one book a week can cause your brain to focus more on memory and improve your attention spans. This means you can remember all the quotes for that English exam coming up. Increasing your vocabulary. When reading a book some words can be challenging to understand and can cause confusion. This gives you the perfect opportunity to open a dictionary and look up these words to find the definition. It also strengthens your writing abilities which can improve your education and life skills. This can happen without you even realising. Enhancing your imagination. This might seem obvious but books are a great way to immerse yourself into a completely different reality. Imagining the characters and settings helps to advance your mind. Reading a book can increase your mental health. A book can lower stress by 68%, slow your heart rate and ease your muscle tension. Reading reduces your stress: 60% more than listening to music, 100% more than drinking coffee, 300% more than going for a walk and 600% more than playing a video game. Focusing your mind into one place can relieve it from the pressures of every day life and limit the overwhelming thoughts. Reading can help decrease depression and avoid depressive occurrences. Reading can bring excitement and joy to your life. It can brighten your day and put a smile on your face. If you’re having a bad day just pick up a book and tuck in. Opening a book can improve your sleep cycle. It causes your body to relax and de-stress so reading just before bed can pull you into a deeper and undisturbed sleep. This is because a book signals to your body that its time to relax and helps you zone out. As well as it being a healthier pass time before bed than a phone screen.
As you can see picking up a book can improve major aspects of your life such as, your academic progress, your social skills and your mental health. What’s not to love? Next time you are bored try tucking into a book. I know this is harder said than done so here are some steps to follow.
1.Visit a library and go to the section that most suits you. Do you like action or romance?
2.Once you have found the section you want, pick a collection of 10 books that look appealing.
3.Sit down and read the blurbs.
4. After this limit your collection down to a couple of books and take them out.
5.When you get bored, pick the book up and have a read.
After all a book can be a great source of entertainment and as Dr Seuss once said “ The more that you read, the more hings you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
