What Are The Benefits Of Reading While Traveling?
Reading while traveling is more than a pleasure, it is a necessity. It’s resting your head on the window of a metro, train or bus to immerse yourself in other worlds. Other lives. These oceans of letters allow us to shorten the distances. To move away from noise and routine. To make sense of time. And thus begin our working days with a renewed spirit.
Ray Bradbury said in one of his books that in this world you have to write and read compulsively so that reality does not destroy you. It must be said, however, that it is not necessary to reach such an extreme. It would only be a question of giving substance to an idea. Which would undoubtedly allow us to create a much better world. More empathetic. More sensitive. And more educated.
Anyone who uses public transport frequently and is also a good observer will have noticed a reality that has been around for years. Users of these means are divided into three types. There are those who are content to abstract their gaze into infinity (and therefore in their thoughts) while awaiting their stop.
On the other hand, there are those who, almost without blinking, immerse themselves in the infinite universe of their cell phone. Finally, there are those admirable and tireless readers who, either with their electronic devices or with the traditional paper book, take advantage of the time of the journey to read a few pages, a chapter if they can, standing or seated, if they are lucky.
The benefits of this practice, of this reading fidelity, are immense. Let’s take a look at them below.
Reading while traveling: the time for health, wisdom and quality
The above table was produced by Augustus Leopold Egg. He was an artist with a short trajectory due to his untimely death, but this work gained remarkable fame: The Traveling Companions (1862). A close friend of Charles Dickens, he left this symbolic and fascinating painting to the world that evokes the past and the future through two young women traveling in a train.
The one on the left, asleep, hands intertwined and set in a seascape, represents the most outmoded Victorian middle class. In front of her, the other young woman is holding a book. She is immersed in her reading and next to her we see a mountainous landscape where an urban core is appreciated. Likewise, this young girl is located in harmony with the direction of the train (the other backwards) representing the other Victorian middle class where women are awakening and occupying positions of greater social importance.
Few images are undoubtedly so symbolic of what reading can offer us. This can be summed up in a few words and also in certain means of transport: progress, advance, conquer new horizons …
Reading while traveling, another form of immersion
Reading is portable. You don’t have to be in bed or on your couch to enjoy a book. Reading while traveling is a sensational way to make the most of time, to make those intervals of inactivity moments of great activation for our brain.
In fact, studies like the one conducted by Maja Djikic, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, find that reading allows us to press a single pause button to train and strengthen our brains. Thus, spending time reading is investing in the health of our brain to improve our executive functions, reduce stress and acquire new knowledge to strengthen our cognitive reserve.
Content has more impact
Reading while traveling adds a unique context to the reading itself. Many people take a specific set of books with them when they travel to certain destinations. Few things are as enjoyable as lifting your head and sometimes finding yourself in the same countries, settings or contexts where the plot of the book is found.
Although it is not necessary to visit the exact places of our novels to experience the sensations that the author transmits to us, often being outside the walls of our house brings new ingredients to reading: sounds, lights, faces, sensations… These experiences make reading much more interesting.
It improves our ability to concentrate
It is certain that not all people are able to concentrate on their reading while traveling. Often, neither the metro nor the buses are distinguished precisely by enclosing the calm that one breathes, for example, in a library. Our urban world is a noisy creature, often boring, and incredibly diverse in terms of the types of sounds.
It is therefore interesting to know that those who have become accustomed to this exercise have developed the ability to adapt, concentrate and focus. The sophisticated ability to read, understand, and transcend one’s own reading – to visualize these worlds and intrigues – is a value that can be applied to any other realm.
To conclude, it is worth highlighting a point on which experts warn us: it is not advisable to read when there is excessive movement in this mode of transport in which we find ourselves. Such a thing is not good for our eyes. Beyond this detail, there is never any harm in carrying a book with you when you go to work. Or when you’re about to take a trip.
It’s a sensational way to enjoy the trip. To have another type of ticket in a richer means of transport. More exciting. And more productive. The only possible danger is to miss our stop. Otherwise, everything else is just pure pleasure.
Our thoughts Discover the magical effect of reading on our brain from a scientific point of view. What effect can a novel have on the neural level …
