Reading is important, but you know that already, don’t you? What about the importance of reading more than you actually do currently though?

I’m sat here writing this during a break in proceedings while running my advanced hypnotherapy practitioner diploma for qualified hypnotherapists. I am surprised at how rare it is for hypnotherapists (or anyone else for that matter) to be encouraged to read more – it would benefit them and their clients so much if they did so.

The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” – Mark Twain.

Nowadays reading is increasingly less of a habit or pastime that individuals engage in, especially given the introduction and emergence of various social media channels and sources. People spend a lot of time on social media scrolling through content which occupies them, but does not necessarily help them in any way to advance in life and some might even say that they waste a large share of their time, energy and focus just distracting themselves with the banal and ultimately making it harder for themselves to invest time in reading.

Today then, I’m writing about why it is so important to read more, and here are a number of key advantages of reading books.

“A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it.”Edward P. Morgan.

Reading is one of the healthiest ways to get your brain to exercise. While reading, your eyes are visually focusing on the words in the text, meanwhile, your mind is conjuring images of what you are reading. The process of visually scanning a text and developing a mental representation of it in the form of images and stories in the mind is not only magnificent but essential in developing creativity, understanding, and new-found knowledge. That kind of stimulation is something we should relish over and above being spoonfed so much imagery in our modern media consumption. It improves our ability focus and concentrate without the need for continuous flashes of attention grabbing, fleeting moments of media consumption.

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” – William Styron.

Not only is reading a good way to passively practice and advance spelling, grammar, size of vocabulary, and other grammatical structures, but it’s also a good way for an individual to transfer into another’s experience without actually having to physically leave where they are. A junior school student who has never had the experiences of a coal miner in South America, nor the experiences of an Iditarod race, can get to experience these events vicariously through the author of the text he or she is reading.

Likewise, we get to lose ourselves in the world we become absorbed in, creating landscapes of varying kinds inside of our minds and escaping our regular world, or advancing the way we interact with our regular world.

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” – Oscar Wilde.

Reading allows a person to expose their mental framework to different ideas, thoughts, and learn new things, that you yourself may have never stumbled upon or pondered about without the text. This allows an individual to learn quicker, to grow, and to develop experiences that otherwise would have never manifested in the person’s life.

“Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood.”John Green.

Reading also allows an individual to learn how to express themselves in a more enhanced way. While reading, you are having to focus on the task at hand. This also helps when it comes time to focus on other tasks because you have already trained your mind to zone in and focus. A great reader will be able to self-learn quite well because a lot of texts, manuals, and how-tos are delivered in read-only format. Sometimes, there are no images provided, therefore, a person who has experience with imagination is better equipped to develop a mental representation of the text to use for their own necessity and purposes.

Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.”Vera Nazarian.

Whenever you read a book you extract knowledge, information and perspective and that helps you to make improvement in your thought process even when you forget the content of the book the thought process remains with you, you can always make little notes or summary while reading the book so you can read the summary in future which will help you to remember the concepts and content of book for relatively long period of time. Books shape your mentality and personality, the best way to learn something is reading about it and taking action on basis of what you read. Great people always state the importance of books in their lives and how the books have shaped them throughout their life.

“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”Ralph Waldo Emerson.

To have mastery in any field one should have proper knowledge and experience related to the field and the best way to gain knowledge and insights of a field is to read books related to it. Elon Musk the billionaire entrepreneur used to read 10 hours a day during his younger days and believes that his knowledge of the different industry he now works in i.e., Automobile, Energy and Space comes from reading books and interacting with experts of that field.

Bill Gates who once said – “Early on, Paul Allen and I set the goal of a computer on every desk and in every home” and dedicated his life for completion of this goal states the importance of books by this quote “My children, of course, will have a computer, but first they will get books”, the person who lived his whole life making computer available for all wanted his children to get access to books first then a computer. Bill Gates regularly advises on his favourite books and continues to read, illuminate himself and study life through his reading.

Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”Mason Cooley.

Reading is also a great past-time because it allows the individual to have unlimited access to whatever content that they choose to pursue. No matter if you are into self-help, drama, romance, fiction, non-fiction, there is always content that you can find depending on your tastes. Being able to travel into another world, another individual’s mind, another experience, and have all of that useful insight without actually having been there yourself is truly amazing and can help individuals progress in their lives in a manner that they wouldn’t have been able to without the ability to read.

You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.”Paul Sweeney.

All of us have to deal with various stress and strain in our daily life, books help us to not only utilize our time in learning but also provides a route to escape from all the worries and tensions of our life. One 2009 study by Sussex University researchers showed that reading may reduce stress by as much as 68 percent. The mental peace and calmness reading provide is unmatchable.

For me though, as a trainer within the field of hypnosis and hypnotherapy, it is important to read about my subject and related subjects. Here are a couple of articles I have written on that very subject in fact….

a) My Top Ten Hypnotherapy Book Recommendations.
b) One Thing I Always Look For In A Good Quality Hypnotherapy Book.

I expect my students to read around the subjects too and be able to evidence a depth of knowledge that only comes from reading more. Likewise, the best hypnotherapists I encounter are those who are well read in a variety of subjects, who draw upon a rich diversity of knowledge and understanding and who commit themselves greatly to ongoing development. You never now when you’ll be referencing an incredibly useful snippet that you recall from a recent book.

You are not just learning to read better as a result of more reading, you learn more about life.

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Have some of themes here resonated with you? Then have a read of these pages:

1. Do you need help or support in a particular area of your life?
Coaching with Adam Eason Or Hypnotherapy with Adam Eason
2. Would you like a satisfying and meaningful career as a hypnotherapist helping others? Are you a hypnotherapist looking for stimulating and career enhancing continued professional development and advanced studies?
Adam Eason’s Anglo European training college.
3. Are you a hypnotherapist looking to fulfil your ambitions or advance your career?
Hypnotherapist Mentoring with Adam Eason.

Likewise, if you’d like to learn more about self-hypnosis, understand the evidence based principles of it from a scientific perspective and learn how to apply it to many areas of your life while having fun and in a safe environment and have the opportunity to test everything you learn, then come and join me for my one day seminar which does all that and more, have a read here: The Science of Self-Hypnosis Seminar. Alternatively, go grab a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book.