Enjoy Some Stories Over the Summer

Photo by Perfecto Capucine on Unsplash

It’s here! It’s finally here!

Summer is in full swing, and the nice weather encourages people to get out and have some fun. Whether you’re headed on vacation to a distant destination or staying around town, you’re sure to find adventure and excitement.

Summer may bring with it a lot of freedom—and you should enjoy it to the utmost—but it’s also a good time to immerse yourself in some stories.

Reading is the easiest way to transport yourself to another time and place, and there are tons of “beach reads” available, but it’s not the only way to invest in stories.

Audiobooks are a great option if you’re driving long distances. You can focus on the road and be entertained along the way. Audiobooks are also a good choice when you’re cleaning the house or are at a child’s sporting event. When listening to a story, you can get things done and learn something new.

In addition to reading or listening to stories, you can also create your own. There’s nothing better than tapping into your own imagination and creating characters and worlds that make you happy. Writing is also a great way to keep your language skills sharp and explore new places that you may never have the chance to see in real life.

The Benefits of Engaging with Stories

Whether you’re reading, listening, or writing, there are tons of benefits when it comes to engaging with stories over the summer. In addition to being entertained and having fun, some of the other benefits include the following:

Increase Your Vocabulary

If you’re looking for a way to learn new words and expand your vocabulary, then you need to engage with stories. You’ll be exposed to words you’ve never seen or heard before, which can help you perform better in other areas in your life where communication is essential, including at your job.

Plus, you can impress your friends and family with the fancy words you’ve learned.

Improve Your Memory

If you’re like most people in the world, you have become dependent on technology to help you remember the important aspects of your life, including phone numbers and your daily schedule. While technology is incredibly beneficial, it can also fail. If your phone dies while you’re stretched out on the beach or hiking a mountain trail, you may not recall what you had planned for the rest of the day.

When you engage with stories, you can improve your memory. That means you can use your brain as a back-up system.

Improve Listening Skills

In addition to improving your memory with stories, you can also boost your listening skills—especially if you listen to audiobooks. To truly understand what’s going on in the story, you’ll have to pay some attention and store what you heard in your brain. You can then use those new-found listening skills to help when it comes to engaging others in conversation.

Increase Empathy

Being empathetic means you have the capacity to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and relate to what they’re going through. Engaging with stories helps you hone this skill because you have to connect and care about the characters to become immersed in the story. You’re also exposed to situations, people, and cultures that you may not be able to experience in real life.

You can than take your increased empathy and apply it to the real people in your life. You may find that you’re more understanding and sympathetic to what they’re going through, and this can drastically improve relationships.

Engage Your Imagination

When it comes to keeping your brain healthy and happy, you need to engage your imagination. Allowing your mind to play gives it a break from the stressors of daily life and gives you an escape—if only for a brief moment. Engaging your imagination could help you be better prepared for when life gets tough, as well as expand your coping abilities.

Find a Favorite Story

You may have a lot going on this summer, but we hope you’ll find the time to enjoy some stories as well. Again, you don’t have to plop yourself into a chair and read for hours on end (although you can if you really want to), there are other ways to engage with stories.

No matter how you choose to indulge, we hope you discover some amazing narratives that make your life a little bit brighter.