Reading something is like giving food to your brain. Your brain then analyses, contemplates, and absorbs the information it deems worthy of knowing. And the best way to feed your brain is by reading books.

Those of you who have a taste for literature will vouch for the fact that a book changed their life during a dark hour or an idle point. It provided them with a sense of direction and taught them a lesson. For some, books help them articulate their thoughts and emotions and helped them find a voice.

Books, especially the good ones, have a sort of magical power. If you let them, they can change your whole life, give you an interesting outlook on things and help you grow as a person. Here are four ways in which a book can make you feel at home and simmer down your anxious minds.

1. A sense of belonging

When you slowly build up your interest in a book, you begin to connect to the words on the paper. The book you are reading could have been written decades ago or maybe it is a second-hand book and many people have read it before you. You start to feel as if you have known the characters all your life. You begin feeling connected to the previous owner of the book. While reading this book, you are having a conversation with the said author. It is like your dreams and emotions are understood by someone else too. You finally feel like you belong somewhere, you are a part of something bigger than yourself.

2. Widens your mental horizons

When you read more books, you travel to places mentally all the while exploring new places, vistas, and emotions in the fine print. You begin expanding the horizons of your mind. You learn more about the individuals and their customs, culture, traditions, and laws. All the great personalities have drawn inspiration from a character in a book at some point in time in their lives, whether it was knowingly or unknowingly.

3. Self-confidence

Reading a book challenges your mind. It makes you question everything you know. The conviction with which a carefully crafted book will shake your beliefs to your core will demand you to stand up and rethink those flabby truths in your life. Your truth will be put to trial many times, inevitably forcing you to defend it and in the process making you stronger than before.

4. Feeling of joy

If you start a book and don’t have any interest in that particular genre or that author’s writing style, you eventually keep the book down without reading it. You only prefer to keep reading a book that interests you with its plot or the delivery of its contents. This happens because you are reading a book to find pleasure. You look for a return on investment in every book you read, some sort of joy that you experience while reading it, or some sense of knowledge that you gain from it. Life is too short to read what doesn’t matter to us. So read what gives you joy and enriches you, letting it take you to new heights along with it.

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