Books help you to be happy

I've always said that reading is one of the healthiest mental habits a person can have. For starters, it's a highly relaxing practice. If you are ever nervous, grab a book whose story appeals to you and immerse yourself in the plot.

There are many themes that you can choose from: intrigue, terror, autobiographies, essays, ... Choose the one you like, research on the internet about which are the best books on the chosen topic and dedicate a part of your day to relaxing reading.

This video from the Cocacola Institute of Happiness talks about the books:

Recommended books

There is a person I admire, Sergio Fernández, host of the radio program «Positive Thinking». Books are recommended in all program broadcasts. They have made a compilation of all the books they recommended in the 2011-2012 season. It sure is a good guide to get started. You can see the list here.

The benefits of reading

Improve your ability to concentrate, promote empathy, prevent cognitive decline ... these are just some of the many benefits that reading brings. Reading makes you grow as a person and even it can change your life at any given moment.

The ability of a person to concentrate on a certain task can determine their success in this life. One thing I admire about children is their ability to orient their entire 5 senses in what they are doing. If you talk to them (you have to know how to talk to children, of course), you feel that they listen to you, if you give them a toy, their full attention turns to it. That absorption capacity is very good for life. Reading will help you develop that capacity for concentration.

Think that in the past there were no books and people, therefore, did not read. Hieroglyphs were the first writing (and reading) system. With the arrival of the printing press and the universalization of books, intellectual development was immense ... until today.

Reading works your left hemisphere. The eyes travel these lines and your brain encodes these symbols to make sense of them.

Neuroscientist Alexandre Castro-Caldas demonstrated in an investigation that a reader's brain is more endowed with gray matter, therefore, their ability to reason and process information is greater. But not only that. Readers have many more neurons than non-readers. Reading is the best nutrient for our brain.

If you want to further expand your knowledge about this good habit that is reading, there is a book called «Give yourself to reading» by Ángel Gabilondo who will provide you with more information about it.

Some of the best quotes about the books

"I have never had a dislike that did not pass me after an hour of reading." Montesquieu.

"On many occasions the reading of a book has made a man's fortune, deciding the course of his life." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To travel far, there is no better ship than a book." Emily Dickinson

"A home without books is like a body without a soul." Cicero

"I have sought peace everywhere, and I have only found him sitting in a secluded corner, with a book in his hands." Thomas De Kempis

"Books are sweet companions for those who suffer, and if they cannot lead us to enjoy life, at least they teach us to endure it." Oliver Goldsmith

"It is not necessary to have many books, but to have good ones." Lucio Anneo Seneca

"The lucky find of a good book can change the destiny of a soul." Marcel Prévost

"You can not live without books." Thomas jefferson