Can you get lost in a book, oblivious to the outside world, immersed in a world between the pages? Is your Kindle always near at hand? Reading is more than a pleasure.
Reading is good for you. Fiction is even better! It stimulates the brain in a specific way, changing how we act and react in real life. So says Annie Paul in TheNew York Times.  Brain scans reveal how different parts of the brain fire up when we focus and use our imagination to enter into a story’s descriptive paragraphs, metaphors and action between characters.  It’s more intense and effective than watching a TV soap – huge areas of the brain get involved making the experience you get with reading vivid, emotional and personal.
‘Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…’  magic words  which were the prelude to BBC Radio 4’s childrens’ storytime when I was a child.
Getting lost in a story is a delightful hypnotic experience that we have been hard-wired to enjoy. Â Long before the written word, since cave time communities gathered around camp fires to share stories.
Vibrant, absorbing and timeless tales taught vital social and survival skills, useful enough to pass down through the generations. Children love stories, often the same one, repeated faithfully, the mundane or dramatic happenings of favourite characters shaping their own responses to life challenges.
Major brands use stories to develop awareness and loyalty. Â Monty the Penguin brings a warm glow to John Lewis’ Christmas advert, while Sainsbury uses that epic WW1 truce football game to engage our emotions.
Why are books special?
It’s as if you are living the story, getting inside a character’s skin, able to view life from a different perspective. Mindfulness hypnotherapy recruits the same brain pathways to help you learn new behaviours and helpful, healthy attitudes. You get to try it on for size in the safety and comfort of your own imaginarium.  Have you noticed how disappointing a movie adaptation of a favourite book often is?
Keith Oatley ~ Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Toronto ~  explains his remarkable findings as ‘vivid simulations of reality run on the mind, just like computer simulations run on computers’. (Oatley, 2006)
From planning work meetings to dinner menus you automatically imagine it all in your head first. before making decisions about timings, people or ingredients.
The full story
Discovering new perspectives frees you up to explore your range of resourceful behaviour, and perfect your personal ‘Theory of the Mind,’ as scientists describe our ability to read other people. This is our internal mapping system that predicts. and plots. the behaviour of other people.
Just 10 minutes of reading a day helps boost memory. staving off Alzheimers. A good book takes you out of yourself to experience other lives, challenges and cultures – Â it can teach, amaze or amuse you. Â Readers develop excellent vocabularies and improve their writing skills.
People who read are better adapters, better at understanding and empathising with other folk.
Reading books is time well spent. It doesn’t have to be War &Peace, any book will do!
