Reading books can be an escape for us. Here we will learn how developing a reading habit can be a constructive part of our life, how it is beneficial for our mental health and how parents play a role to engrain the habit of reading books in their children

Habits are the usual manner of behavior. It’s our daily habits that can take us uphill or downhill, making us successful or a failure. Healthy habits bring positive energy and are responsible for making our lives better. Ingraining healthy habits need no particular age, time or day. Among all the habits, developing a reading habit and incorporating them in our everyday activities certainly escalate our intellectual and mental growth. There are plenty of books that make a positive impact on us, some people love reading fictional books whereas some people are more into non-fictional books. Reading books is also a great idea to spend our leisure time in a constructive way. 

How to incorporate reading books in our daily life?

Sometimes, life gets hectic, students might have lots of assignments to submit, adults most probably are trapped in their job and old people might have lost their visual sensitivity. Besides the fact that life is really not easy, if only one can take a few minutes and dedicate it for studying even if it's just a few chapters of books of their preference, then it improves the functioning of the brain along with the increment in knowledge. Let’s discuss the ways we can actually make reading habits more consistent.

  • We always get some spare time here and there, whether it be when we are on a bus or having a coffee break. If only we carry books of our interest in our bag, it would be handy and easy to read. It’s a great way to pass the time.
  • Reading books in the morning can be another great way to start off the day. A good beginning with a positive mindset surely helps us to stay productive throughout the day.
  • Setting daily or weekly goals can be another way to develop reading habits. This will help to prevent ourselves from having to stop reading. It makes us ambitious readers and hitting the set goal comes with the satisfaction. 
  • Our interests and passions are real. If we find the book of our interest, reading becomes consistent and enjoyable.
  • Finding a good book that does not bore us can give us a hard time. However, getting recommendation from friends having similar interests with thoughtful descriptions can be really helpful. Going to the library with friends and having a talk about the books will help develop the habit and be consistent with it.

 

Benefits of reading books:

  • It lets us feel the waves of emotion. No matter how messed up our life is, how stressed we are, reading a good book will distract us and take us to another world, letting all the tension drain away and fill us up with relaxation. 
  • The knowledge, the growth and the intellectual capacity increases if the habit of reading books is developed. With every book, bits of knowledge add up which definitely make our life better. The more knowledge we have, the easier it will be to deal with the challenges in life.
  • Reading books makes us critically analyze and think from different perspectives. The concentration ability improves and the mind remains content. Mental skill gets enhanced and for sure, no amount of time is wasted with books.

In reference to Sashi Khadka, who has a daughter of 8 years old tells that she has been taking her daughter to the Library every Sunday and there has been a huge improvement in her cognitive skills. Since her daughter is already good at academic courses, the additional knowledge of other books has added up to her being more diligent and curious. The habit of reading books at such an early age has expanded her knowledge of the horizon to some extent. Sashi has also been gifting books of her daughter’s interest and visiting second hand book stores. She says that books are high in price, yet are very important to own and once read books are not often gone through twice. Hence, second hand book stores where she can buy and sell books have been beneficial to her. Often, children copy their parents or let’s say they are highly influenced by their parents. They notice almost everything their parents do. Hence, Sashi often read books herself so as to ingrain the same habit in her daughter as well. She says that her reading habits have made a huge impact on her daughter and the bookshelf full of different kinds of books makes her daughter inquisitive.

Developing any constructive habit takes time. However, once we get into it, the habit becomes natural and it becomes a part of our personality. Reading books might feel boring to most people, but that’s probably because they have yet to find the kind of their interest and their type of book genre. Reading books can be the escape for us, when the characters’ cry, we might shed tears, when there is happy moment, our face might glow up with happiness and we can come across stories relatable to our life from where we can get inspiration to find our way out of the problems.