Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to use literature to expand your horizons, especially
Speaker 1: if you are in a phase of life where your
Speaker 1: opportunities for bigger adventures are limited. Books can be a
Speaker 1: portal to other experiences and can make life feel fuller
Speaker 1: no matter what else is going on. Today's tip comes
Speaker 1: from Shigahiro Oishi. He's a psychology professor at the University
Speaker 1: of Chicago who studies well being, and he's the author
Speaker 1: of the book Life in Three Dimensions, How curiosity, exploration,
Speaker 1: and experience make a fuller, better Life. Recently, on the
Speaker 1: Happiness Lab podcast, she described a bookseller who said that
Speaker 1: he had read four thousand books, so he had led
Speaker 1: four thousand lives. I love that when we step inside
Speaker 1: a book, or for that matter, watch a really good
Speaker 1: movie or a play, we can be transported to another
Speaker 1: person's experiences, thoughts, and feelings for a while. We live
Speaker 1: where they live. What happens to them happens to us.
Speaker 1: We step inside their experiences and share their emotions. Whatever
Speaker 1: the specifics of your daily life, you can add what
Speaker 1: ois she calls psychological richness by reading. As he puts it,
Speaker 1: this lets you broaden your life by proxy. Your life
Speaker 1: is not only as big as the experiences you yourself have.
Speaker 1: Your life expands to encompass the experiences you read about two.
Speaker 1: I find this a comforting thought, particularly as I ponder
Speaker 1: how much to the world and how many experiences most
Speaker 1: of us will never have. I will never be a
Speaker 1: professional ballerina or opera singer or basketball player. But I
Speaker 1: can read the memoirs of people who have had these
Speaker 1: careers and see what their lives are like. Perhaps I'll
Speaker 1: live abroad someday, but I lived in say, Paris for
Speaker 1: a year. That means I probably wouldn't be living in
Speaker 1: Tuscany for a year as well, or Norway for a year,
Speaker 1: or near Yellowstone National Park for a year. But I
Speaker 1: can read novels set in these places, or read the
Speaker 1: biographies of people who have had those experiences. I know
Speaker 1: for sure I will never live among the aristocracy in
Speaker 1: nineteenth century Russia, but I can read Tolstoy and see
Speaker 1: what that life is like. Even the longest books tend
Speaker 1: not to take more than a few hours to read. Okay,
Speaker 1: War in Peace might be more like thirty hours, but
Speaker 1: even that would be doable in an hour a day
Speaker 1: over a month. The six hours it takes to read
Speaker 1: a novel set in Paris is less time than it
Speaker 1: would even take to fly to Paris from the east
Speaker 1: coast of the US, to say nothing of the cost. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, I want people to travel to lots of places,
Speaker 1: but during many phases of life that might be less possible.
Speaker 1: Money might be tight. Maybe you have lots of little kids,
Speaker 1: Maybe you are caring for a family member with complex
Speaker 1: medical needs. Sometimes these situations can even prevent you from
Speaker 1: meeting lots of different people with different points of view
Speaker 1: and experiences. But that doesn't mean life has to be
Speaker 1: completely limited. After all, four thousand books can give you
Speaker 1: a glimpse at four thousand lives. That's a lot of adventure,
Speaker 1: even if other sorts of adventures aren't possible. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.