Books and Happiness – two astoundingly connected words. While this, let's call it symbiosis, may seem peculiar at first, it actually makes a lot of sense as you dig deeper into this theme. Luckily, You won't do that alone. Did you think I would let you do that? Well, my friend, I am not a writer for no reason!
As you continue to read my article, you will meet some of the most important researches that are known for a thing you are reading about. And if you have any comments, don't bother to scroll a bit further and share your point of view about this.
What do you think about bringing some psychology into this? This idea may not seem perfect for everyone, but, believe me, you will love it!
Bibliotherapy – what is it?
Did you know there is a thing called „Bibliotherapy“? I am going to call myself an expert in that since I use it on myself all the time. While some of you can tell its definition just by quickly analyzing the word itself, it represents a creative arts therapy that involves storytelling or the reading of specific texts. It also uses a relationship of an individual to the content of the books, poetry, etc. Bibliotherapy can be the name of a separate article, based on its comprehensiveness, but I'm going to let you know the basics.
As you may have heard, there are many psychoanalytic theorists, like Sigmund Freud, who believe that a behavior is just a surface characteristic, and for them to fully understand the behavior they must look at the symbolic meaning and the inner workings of a person's mind.
Paul Pearsal, an American neuropsychologist, and author, additionally states that psychoanalysis is a way to treat mental disorders by seeing into the intercommunication between the conscious and the unconscious parts of the mind delivering fears and anxieties to the surface. Out of this theory, countless therapies have been derived. Part of these therapies is bibliotherapy.
The operation of bibliotherapy concludes that discussing the readings permits the counselor to ask questions and lead the client through identification, which entails identifying with a character, event, and thoughts presented in the story. After identification is catharsis, where the client becomes emotionally alive in the story and is skilled to roll out pent-up emotions.
This results in, what I call, a burst of emotions, where happiness and feeling of satisfaction lead.
It Can Put You In A Trance
According to the famous New Yorker, reading has been shown to put our brains into a pleasurable trance-like state, similar to meditation, and it brings the same health benefits of deep relaxation and inner calm.
Reading Can Open Your Mind
Yup, I can surely confirm this. After my daily reading, I feel astonished! I gain an enormous happiness boost and enough motivation to get me throughout the whole day. I also become more tolerant, as well as less prejudiced. This comment of mine shows the truth of a study in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
Try reading every day, set it as your new goal! You need to do that from time to time to make your everyday life as interesting as possible – this seems like an excellent opportunity.
It Increases Empathy
Surely said, imagining things actually assists in activating the regions of your brain responsible for greater understanding of other people and looking at the world from a new perspective! I'm not going to lie, this sounds very beneficial.
„And knowing you'd all be talking and feeling and commiserating, I knew we should say something about it, lest our silence says something we didn't mean to say or not say. So I'll say this: In some way, we will see Glenn, some version of Glenn, or parts of Glenn again, either in flashback or in the current story, to help complete the story.“
The psychologist Raymond Mar analyzed 86 fMRI studies and he saw solid overlap in the brain networks used to comprehend stories and the networks utilized to navigate interactions with other individuals.
“…In particular, interactions in which we're trying to figure out the thoughts and feelings of others. Scientists call this capacity of the brain to construct a map of other people's intentions ‘theory of mind.’ Narratives offer a unique opportunity to engage this capacity, as we identify with characters’ longings and frustrations, guess at their hidden motives, and track their encounters with friends and enemies, neighbors and lovers.”
If you love reading, this article was certainly for you! Know that you are not alone in this since reading makes thousands of people happier every day! Try bibliotherapy, try redirecting your thoughts to something else – for example, a good book. There is always a book waiting for its perfect reader – it may be you, it may be someone else, but surely it will give you much empathy, vocabulary, and of course, happiness.
I hope you enjoyed our first article in English! Make sure to read the others, even if it requires you to use Google Translate – don't be shy. Our analysts can't wait to see the numbers rapidly grow from now on.
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#Move on!
*An Article was prepared and written by Balša Kićović, Textual Content Creator