The ‘Reading Effect’ That Truly Changes You — From Brain Density to Athletic Ability

Hello, this is Shinbidays 🙂
Today, I’d like to write something helpful for everyone.

I consciously make time to read books.
And I exercise almost every day, too.

If exercise is a time to awaken the body,
then reading feels more like a time to awaken the mind and thoughts.

Honestly, I don’t read for any grand reason.
No one tells me to, and I don’t set huge goals for it either.

When I simply open a book as part of my daily rhythm,
my mind clears a bit and my heart calms down.

And strangely enough, as I consistently read, my perspective on the world slowly changes.

A sentence I would have simply passed over before might one day stay with me for a long time,
and a story I dismissed without much thought might suddenly make me reflect on my own life.

I’ve always felt that way.

Books are, the quietest exercise for the mind.

When you read, you start to see your life differently.

Sometimes, when you’re reading, you have those moments.

“Ah, this person lived like this too.”
“There were people who lived much harder lives than me.”
“Come to think of it, I’ve been quite happy.”

Thoughts like these quietly surface sometimes.

It’s strange, but it brings comfort.
My struggles don’t disappear, but my perspective on them shifts a little.

I realize I’m not the only one walking this path.
Someone else has gone through tougher times, and even then, learned and left something behind.

Knowing that makes my heart a little softer.

Books don’t always solve my problems directly,
but they help me look at my problems differently.

And that difference is bigger than you might think.

Even living the same day,
it becomes an entirely different day depending on how I choose to look at it.

Your understanding of people gradually expands too.

As you read, your perception of people changes too.

“Ah, this is why people think this way.”
“Behind such a choice, there must have been this kind of background.”
“You can’t know everything just by what appears on the surface.”

I often find myself thinking these thoughts.

It’s true when reading novels, essays, or non-fiction.
As you slowly follow someone’s life, you begin to understand a little why they said certain things or made certain choices.

Of course, reading one book doesn’t suddenly make you understand everyone.

But at least, judgment seems to diminish a bit.
Instead of “Why are they like that?”
your thoughts shift once more to “What circumstances might that person have been facing?”

I think that’s a huge gift that reading offers.

Understanding people more deeply.
And becoming a little softer towards yourself too.

Your perspective on content changes too.

Lately, I’ve been reading a book called 『YouTube, The Birth of an Empire』.

There was a part that really surprised me while reading.
YouTube didn’t start as the massive video platform it is today from the very beginning.

Apparently, it was initially an idea closer to a service for uploading dating videos.
Thinking about the YouTube we know now, it was both a little funny and fascinating.

“Even massive platforms had clumsy beginnings.”

That thought stayed with me for quite a while.

We usually only see the finished results, don’t we?
Channels that have already grown, services that have already succeeded, brands that are already established.

But as I read books, I start to see the trial and error behind them.
They were clumsy at first, changed directions, and sometimes even made attempts that looked like failures.

Knowing that gives me a little courage.

It’s okay if the articles, videos, blogs, and brands I’m creating now
aren’t perfect from the start.

What’s important isn’t getting it right from the beginning,
but continuously creating, observing, and gradually finding your way.

Books provide that kind of realistic courage.

Not vague hope, but
the simple courage that says, “Ah, this is how everyone starts.”

Your brain actually changes too.

And when you read, it’s not just your mood that improves; your brain actually becomes actively engaged.

While reading, our brain does several things simultaneously.
It understands sentences, imagines scenes, retrieves memories, feels emotions, and connects contexts.

You might be sitting quietly, turning pages,
but a lot is happening inside your head.

I often compare this to exercise.

Just as muscles harden by lifting weights,
the brain seems to gradually widen its paths of thought by reading.

It feels like, just as frequently used paths widen,
more paths are created in the minds of those who read and think often.

The more time I spend meditating and reading, the more often I feel my mind expanding.
It’s as if thoughts that were once tangled and suffocating can now breathe a little.

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How to Peacefully Transform Painful Memories: The Technique of ‘Quantum Reflection’

Surprisingly, it also helps with athletic ability.

It might be a little unexpected, but I feel that reading also helps with exercise.

Exercise is ultimately a battle of how well you can control your body.
Weight is important, but control is even more crucial.

That control comes from concentration, from the nervous system, and from how clearly you can visualize your body in your mind.

The time spent reading is also a time to follow a sentence, not lose the flow, and visualize scenes in your mind.

So, a person who reads is effectively doing concentration training, even while sitting still.

I feel that this quiet concentration carries over to exercise.
The strength I use to focus on a line at my desk can become the steady posture I maintain during a workout.

That’s why I don’t see reading and exercise as separate things.

If exercise makes the body strong,
reading seems to strengthen the person who controls that body.

Your mind gets organized too.

I recently did some house cleaning 😀

Literally, I completely tidied up my house.
And strangely, I felt my stress significantly decrease.

It wasn’t just that my room got clean,
it felt like my mind got organized along with it.

Out of curiosity, I looked it up and found that this feeling is quite a natural response from an evolutionary psychology perspective.
When your surroundings are tidy, your brain feels less tense and more secure.

Come to think of it, books are similar.

If cleaning is about sweeping away dust in a room,
then reading feels like slowly clearing away the dust in your mind.

As you live through the day, dust accumulates in your mind, doesn’t it?
Anxiety, comparison, minor hurts, words that bother you for no reason.

But when you open a book and follow line by line,
the noisy thoughts in your head gradually quiet down.

It feels like tangled thoughts get organized layer by layer as you follow the text.

That’s why I think of reading as cleaning for the mind.

Oh, and now that I’ve said that, it feels like I should suddenly reveal my house.
If I ever get the chance, I’ll give you a sneak peek of my room.

For now, though, I’ll keep a bit more of my mystique 🤣🤣
It would be a waste to reveal my clean room too quickly 🙂
(To be honest, I haven’t finished cleaning everything yet haha)

How should you read?

This is how I read.

• I read physical books if possible. The tactile feel gives a focus that screens don’t.
• Reading before bed improves sleep quality and leads to vivid dreams.
• Read slowly and deeply.
  Taking time to pause and think about a single sentence is important.

It’s okay to let go of the pressure to read a lot.

What’s important is returning to your own center through books.

Slowly, deeply, little by little.

That’s enough.

How about a book tonight, everyone?

From that quiet moment of turning a page, more will begin to change slowly than you might expect 🙂

Thank you for reading today.
With love.

— From Shinbidays 🐢💛