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Read for a Change





Today I was reading an article about how to prevent cognitive decay in your brain and increase your emotional intelligence. After all, who doesn’t want that? One of the best ways is by reading!  A Yale team of scientists asked: What is it about reading books that boost our brain power whereas reading newspapers and magazines doesn’t? Researchers believe that reading a book forces your brain to think critically and make connections to the book and the world around you.  Creating these connections forces new pathways in all regions of the brain.  Over time, with continued reading, these new networks assist in creating quicker thinking which may fight against cognitive decay as we age. 

However, what was more interesting to me is what the Yale researchers found about the benefits of increased empathy and emotional intelligence. The researchers found that readers who read a chapter of a fiction book showed increased empathy over those who only read a newspaper or magazine.  Developing empathy and emotional intelligence is important to us all.  The more emotional intelligence we have the more likely we are to have positive human interactions.  Building empathy leads to the desire to help others.  Being able to see events from another person’s perspective plays an important role in our society. Exercise your brain today, read.  It does everybody good.








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