How to improve your life through self education.
All of us want the best in our life. All of us have an impossible dream that we want to make possible. The question is how do we get there? We cannot just lay down and keep on dreaming, but we have to add that sizzle that only a few give. We need to take action and get through all odds, to be where we want to be. We need to be aggressive, assertive and of course we must believe that we can make it no matter what. Affirmations daily and frequently are a great vitamin for your brain.
As for me, a better life starts with self education or what I like to call personally brain washing myself to stay positive. So we must value everything we are learning from school. It is also important that even if we’re aging, we need to keep on learning. Learning is indeed a necessity. Something we can share with others, unselfishly.
So how do we keep on learning, I may suggest that reading 15 pages of a good book a day will surely help us become well educated even if we’re not in school anymore. Additionally, 15 minutes of attentively listening to a positive audio will also be a big help for us to learn things about life and ingrain them into our subconscious.
From time to time people have wondered why reading is important. There seems to be so many other things to keep us from reading. Reading is important for a variety of reasons. We will look at some of those fundamental reasons below, but it is important to realize that struggling with vital reading skills in not a sign of low intelligence. Many highly intelligent people have struggled with reading, although when properly taught, most people can learn to read easily and quickly.
Why Is Reading Important?
1. Reading is fundamental to function in today’s society. There are many adults who cannot read well enough to understand the instructions on a medicine bottle. That is a scary thought – especially for their children. Filling out applications becomes impossible without help. Reading road or warning signs is difficult. Even following a map becomes a chore. Day-to-day activities that many people take for granted become a source of frustration, anger and fear.
2. Reading is a vital skill in finding a good job. Many well-paying jobs require reading as a part of job performance. There are reports and memos which must be read and responded to. Poor reading skills increases the amount of time it takes to absorb and react in the workplace. A person is limited in what they can accomplish without good reading and comprehension skills.
3. Reading is important because it develops the mind. The mind is a muscle. It needs exercise. Understanding the written word is one way the mind grows in its ability. Teaching young children to read helps them develop their language skills. It also helps them learn to listen. Everybody wants to talk, but few can really listen. Lack of listening skills can result in major misunderstandings which can lead to job loss, marriage breakup, and other disasters – small and great. Reading helps children [and adults] focus on what someone else is communicating.
4. Why is reading important? It is how we discover new things. Books, magazines and even the Internet are great learning tools which require the ability to read and understand what is read. A person who knows how to read can educate themselves in any area of life they are interested in. We live in an age where we overflow with information, but reading is the main way to take advantage of it.
5. Reading develops the imagination. TV and computer games have their place, but they are more like amusement. Amusement comes from two words “a” [non] and “muse” [think]. Amusement is non-thinking activities. With reading, a person can go anywhere in the world…or even out of it! They can be a king, or an adventurer, or a princess, or… The possibilities are endless. Non-readers never experience these joys to the same extent.
6. In line with the above, reading develops the creative side of people. When reading to children, stop every once in awhile and ask them what they think is going to happen next. Get them thinking about the story. When it is finished, ask if they could think of a better ending or anything that would have improved it. If they really liked the story, encourage them to illustrate it with their own drawings or to make up a different story with the same characters. Get the creative juices flowing!
7. Reading is fundamental in developing a good self image. Nonreaders or poor readers often have low opinions of themselves and their abilities. Many times they feel as if the world is against them. They feel isolated [everybody else can read – which isn’t true] and behavior problems can surface. They can perform poorly in other subjects because they cannot read and understand the material and so tend to “give up.”
8. Why is reading important? Let’s keep going… Good reading skills, especially in a phonics reading program, improve spelling. As students learn to sound out letters and words, spelling comes easier. Also, reading helps to expand the vocabulary. Reading new words puts them in their mind for later use. Seeing how words are used in different contexts can give a better understanding of the word usage and definitions than the cold facts of a dictionary.
9. There is an old saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Ideas written down have changed the destiny of men and nations for better or worse. The flow of ideas cannot be stopped. We need to read and research to build on the good ideas and expose the bad ideas before they bring destruction. Only by reading can we be armed in this never-ending, life-and-death struggle.
10. The fact of the power of written ideas communicated through reading is a foundational reason why some governments oppose free and honest communication. Illiterate people are easier to control and manipulate. They cannot do their own research and thinking. They must rely on what they are told and how their emotions are swayed. There is a good possibility that this is one of the main reasons phonics was removed from the schools about 100 years ago.
11. Finally, why is reading important? Reading is important because words – spoken and written – are the building blocks of life. You are, right now, the result of words that you have heard or read AND believed about yourself. What you become in the future will depend on the words you believe about yourself now. People, families, relationships, and even nations are built from words. Think about it.
Now, why did I suggest that listening to a positive audio is a good way to improve our lives and is also part of good education. I have red that listening to music can reduce chronic pain by up to 21 per cent and depression by up to 25 per cent, according to a paper in the latest UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing. It can also make people feel more in control of their pain and less disabled by their condition.
Researchers carried out a controlled clinical trial with sixty people, dividing them into two music groups and a control group.
They found that people who listened to music for an hour every day for a week reported improved physical and psychological symptoms compared to the control group.
The participants, who had an average age of 50, were recruited from pain and chiropractic clinics in Ohio, USA. They had been suffering from a range of painful conditions, including osteoarthritis, disc problems and rheumatoid arthritis, for an average of six and a half years.
90 per cent said the pain affected more than one part of their body and 95 per cent said it was continuous. Before the music study, participants reported that their usual pain averaged just under six on a zero to ten pain scale and their worst pain exceeded nine out of ten.
“The people who took part in the music groups listened to music on a headset for an hour a day and everyone who took part, including the control group, kept a pain diary” explains nurse researcher Dr Sandra L Siedlecki from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio.
“Forty people were assigned to the two music groups and the other 20 formed the control group.
“The first group were invited to choose their own favourite music and this included everything from pop and rock to slow and melodious tunes and nature sounds traditionally used to promote sleep or relaxation.
“The second group chose from five relaxing tapes selected by us. These featured piano, jazz, orchestra, harp and synthesizer and had been used in previous pain studies by co-author Professor Marion Good from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio.”
At the end of the trial:
* The music groups reported that their pain had fallen by between 12 and 21 per cent, when measured by two different pain measurement scales. The control group reported that pain increased by between one and two per cent.
* People in the music groups reported 19 to 25 per cent less depression than the control group.
* The music groups reported feeling nine to 18 per cent less disabled than those who hadn’t listened to music and said they had between five and eight per cent more power over their pain than the control group.
“Our results show that listening to music had a statistically significant effect on the two experimental groups, reducing pain, depression and disability and increasing feelings of power” says Dr Siedlecki.
“There were some small differences between the two music groups, but they both showed consistent improvements in each category when compared to the control group.
“Non-malignant pain remains a major health problem and sufferers continue to report high levels of unrelieved pain despite using medication. So anything that can provide relief is to be welcomed.”
“Listening to music has already been shown to promote a number of positive benefits and this research adds to the growing body of evidence that it has an important role to play in modern healthcare” adds co-author Professor Marion Good.
There is no reason for us to stop learning….if we want a better life!
To your ultimate success,
Cesar Ramirez
