Compassion Journal

The book, and even the simple act of reading, sometimes seems under threat of extinction. After a study in 2006 revealed that people “reading” text on the Internet only actually read about 20 percent of the content — (they skimmed the content in an F-shape, looking at the beginning of each line and then checking for important words) — it’s been yelled from the rooftops: Reading is over! We’ve forgotten how to do it! Tablets are killing our ability to digest text! All books will soon be recycled into packaging for our new iWatches! But science remains resolute, pointing out the many different ways in which reading still influences our lives — and our brains. And there are many: from stress reduction to brain evolution to memory and empathy, reading is a pretty powerful tool. Careful where you point that novel.

We absorb text in huge amounts every day, and are only gradually discovering just how much its packaging affects how we understand it. Studies have shown, amongst other things, that red text makes us read and understand far slower (it makes us anxious), and that being exposed to fast food logos quickens our reading speed. Everything from font to placement on the page affects us. It’s not just a one-way transmission of information from page to brain; instead, we’re perpetually negotiating and shifting in how we react and what we retain.

Rest assured that reading is still a profoundly simple (and, it turns out, calming) act. Here’s a list of just seven of the amazing things that science has figured out about reading and the brain.

1. Reading reduces stress even more than music.

Your library is great for your mental health. In 2009, the University of Sussex did a study that showed that half an hour of dedicated reading is better for your stress levels than several other more traditional methods of relaxation, like having a cup of tea or listening to music. It reduced stress levels by up to 68 percent, which is pretty significant.

Scientists think the reason is partially escapism, partially physical focus: complete immersion in a book means the body is less focussed on its own tense muscles, and relaxes.

2. You don’t read more slowly on paper than you do on a screen — but you might remember more.

Before 1992, studies seemed to show that books were on the way out: readers looked as if they were comprehending text more slowly on a physical page than they did on a screen. Since then, however, studies have been a bit more diverse — largely because we’ve got so much more text and so many more types of screens — and scientists aren’t sure that’s actually the case.

You may, however, retain less information from the story if you’re reading a tablet than if you’re reading a physical book. Annoying for Kindle owners.

3. Reading might have evolved our brains.

The theory is still debated — but either way,Stanislas Dehaene, in Reading In The Brain, points out how completely ridiculous it is that our brains, which first existed simply to survive on an African savannah, can now happily comprehend Shakespeare.

4. We actually react physically to metaphors in books.

The results? On hearing the texture metaphor, the part of the brain that activates when we actually touch something lit up. We’re genuinely feeling the metaphors we read.

5. Reading fiction improves our ethical and empathetic skills

Reading fiction — immersing yourself in the life of another and seeing the world through their eyes —  has always anecdotally been good for broadening one’s outlook. But now there’s hard science to say it actually makes us more empathetic.

To be fair, the study (done, again, at Emory, who are doing a lot of work on books and their interaction with the brain) focussed entirely on the kind of fiction that’s explicitly about character, from Anna Karenina to the steam-of-consciousness modernists like Virginia Woolf. But the results were pretty unequivocal: after reading them, subjects were more empathetic and emotionally intelligent, able to “feel” the movements of the characters in the movement areas of their own brains.

6. Reading intricate characters prompts the brain to ‘write’ them.

The brain has numerous ways of interpreting and remembering letter symbols; it develops a symbolic language to help it. But one of the most fascinating ways in which it copes happens when it’s reading something particularly complicated and unfamiliar, like kanji or calligraphy. It turns out that the brain actually “writes” the letter; the part of the brain associated with physically making text lights up, as if it’s physically moving a pen over the lines of the symbol.

7. Poetry boosts our memory.

Poetry, it turns out, stimulates our brains in much the same way that music does: it links to the right half of the brain, which regulates emotion. It’s also prone to send us into a self-reflective, memory-boosting state, particularly when reading well-known poems we love. Poetry also lights up the areas of the brain that concern memory and switch on when we’re relaxing. Call it the “poetry trance.”

J.R. Thorpe is a writer for bustle.com, where the article was originally published.

One of the most renowned and influential voices of our time passed away on May 28, 2014. Maya Angelou was a poet, dancer, actress, singer, and writer most famous for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Her profound ideas live on—here are Maya Angelou’s inspiring words on love, compassion, and self-compassion.

Maya Angelou on Love and Compassion

 “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”

 “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet.”

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” 

 “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.” 

“To those who have given up on love, I say, ‘Trust life a little bit.'”

 “If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning ‘Good morning’ at total strangers.” 

“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.” I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

Maya Angelou on Self-compassion

“If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?”

“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” 

“The question is not how to survive, but how to thrive with passion, compassion, humor and style.”

“I don’t know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, ‘Well, if I’d known better I’d have done better,’ that’s all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then you say to yourself, ‘I’m sorry.’ If we all hold on to the mistake, we can’t see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can’t see what we’re capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that’s rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.” 

Elizabeth Pyjov is the Editor-in-chief of Compassion Journal. She currently teaches Compassion Cultivation Training at Columbia University to graduate students and faculty, as well as to the general public at the renowned Tibet House in New York City. She has taught workshops about compassion at Columbia, NYU, Tibet House, and the Harvard Club of New York, where she leads a special-interest group about compassion.