How to be happy: 'Reading books'

The top image is a 'Lupine'.
Its flower language is 'imagination'.
I was able to encounter them at Huis Ten Bosch last month.

Lupine flowers grow straight toward the sky,
blooming with many small flowers stacked on top of each other.
It is as if,

every time you read a book,
new scenery piles up in your mind.
Reading has

a blank space that videos cannot fill.
Filling that blank space

with your own imagination.
That,

I believe, is one of the joys of reading.
When we read a book,

we are only looking at letters.
But in our minds,

cityscapes are built,
voices echo,
expressions are born,
and we even feel the air and temperature.
Even when reading the same book,

the scenery each person imagines is different.
That is because

reading is not just an experience of 'receiving',
but an experience of creating a world within yourself.
Anime and movies

show us completed visuals.
The music,

the colors,
the expressions,
and the movements
are all delivered to us with care.
That is precisely why

they often stir our emotions strongly.
Of course,

this is not to say that anime is bad.
I myself

have been saved by visual works.
However,

reading has a different role.
'To imagine for yourself what is not visible'

The time spent using that power

is, for both the brain
and the heart,
I believe, important.
Recently,

I have heard that reading habits have a positive effect on maintaining cognitive function.
Following the text,
thinking about the meaning,

imagining the scene,
and connecting it to past experiences.
Reading is
an act that naturally uses various parts of the brain.

Therefore,
it is likely a habit that keeps the mind itself active,

rather than just increasing knowledge.
However,
I do not think the value of reading

is just 'becoming smarter'.
A single book
can teach you emotions you never knew before.

It can
gently give a name to worries you couldn't tell anyone.

It can also
let you experience a life different from your own.

That is why reading
might be an act of increasing the resolution of life,

rather than just knowledge.
In our busy days,
videos are easier.

You just have to receive
the information as it flows.

But reading
is a little more active.

Turning the page,
pausing,

thinking,
and imagining.
I believe that small accumulation
nurtures the 'ability to think for yourself'.

Happiness
does not last long

if it is only something given to you.
You need the power to feel it for yourself
and find meaning for yourself.

Reading will surely
nurture that power.

It is hard to read every day, but
why not put down your smartphone for a little while

and try reading?
I believe that through reading, as the worlds you didn't know before increase within you,
you will be able to get closer to happiness.

Books that influenced me in writing this article

'Momo' by Michael Ende

It is a book that reminds modern people, who use their time only for efficiency,
of the importance of 'imagining'
and 'listening slowly to someone's story'.
It teaches you the richness of reading
through the story itself.

I have also summarized other 'ways to be happy' flowers
at the link below.
Please take as many as you need 🍀

Thank you for reading until the end.
I hope to see you in another article.
🍀 May you be happy 🍀