Each year is an opportunity to chase, learn, and live without fear. Ask the universe what you want without doubting a single cell of your body. Not letting anything stop you from your dreams. You never needed permission to breathe, so you don’t need permission to dream big.

Dream as big as possible; keep no limitations on your dreams. Do not fear people who are gatekeeping your curiosities. That is why I love the internet—to look up things that catch my gaze and have the freedom to learn and to look at information with the capacity to read in between the lines.

How to read in between the lines?

I remember clicking on my first research paper online on Chrome back in 2018 and not understanding what anything meant. Words like "qualitative" and "quantitative" felt foreign. Having a dictionary on your phone is handy, and once you look up unfamiliar words two to three times, write them down once on a list of new words in a small notebook.

Simple technique to remember foreign words

I promise you, you will never forget what these foreign words mean. By the time I was finishing my final year in college with a BSc Nursing degree, I could open any research paper and understand every word. Four years of looking up all possible unfamiliar words—from psychology to physiology, anatomy, sociology, nutrition, psychiatry, and gynecology—I touched all subjects with curiosity.

My ears were sharp when professors said, “This is important.” I looked up everything. Looking up everything you have never heard of allows you to understand what is missing—what you would like to know.

It is a chain reaction of digging deep into a universe you do not know much about. It does not have to be in the English language; it could be any topic in any language. Once you know enough unfamiliar words, you can read and understand anything—except emotion.

How to understand the emotion behind the words?

Reading novels is one big way to understand how emotions are written through words and sentences. My first time reading a novel felt like I had opened a new door to my very vivid imagination. Every word carried emotion. I could see the story in my head as I read it, even while sitting in a setting not even a percent close to the novel.

Being a visual learner and having the ability to see a movie in my head while reading comes with pros and cons.

Our biggest enemy is our own self, because when it comes to protecting ourselves from decisions we might make in the future, we tend to play them out in our mind—causing fear, living it once in our head and then once in real life. If you are not a visual learner and do not see images when reading novels, audiobooks may give you a better understanding of the emotion behind the words.

Know the emotion before it impacts

There is a difference between knowing the emotion behind words and being impacted by the emotion behind words—two very different things. You see these emotions while reading a novel. Learning to recognize emotions eventually saves you from being manipulated in different places and situations.

Other avenues if one doesn’t like reading novels

Read as many novels as you possibly can, but if reading is not something you enjoy, watching movies, series, and documentaries in languages other than those you understand is another way to go. Just do not forget to turn on subtitles in a language you understand. You will also learn a thing or two about body language if the content you choose has good actors.

I personally lean toward Korean, French, Spanish, and Italian movies.

All novels carry a wide range of emotions; even the covers carry deep meaning. A quick search on the internet using topics that interest you and asking for novels based on them will lead you to some good options.

Why read books on psychology?

There are theories that, once you read them, will help you understand why psychology is as important as the anatomy of the human body. When you study anatomy, you look at the human body through different lenses—much like how software engineers look at posters and see code.

I see the liver, the heart, and how every part of the body depends on one another to function harmoniously. When you read and apply what you learn, you look at the world differently. You see beyond mere presence—you see scars, how people look at you, how they speak, how they pronounce words, their accents, and their presence as something deeper than simple interaction.

Reading psychology books allows you to see people as humans with flaws and trauma that we all try to escape—by overworking, overanalyzing, or sometimes giving up on life completely.

You will see different stages of this in people around you. You will also see what is happening within yourself—the scariest part of learning to read. Reading about yourself may reveal a shell of a person. This is not about fixing yourself; it is about accepting others and yourself. Reading has always gone beyond words—it is about reading in between the lines.

Having your own opinion based on what you read and understand

Our opinions are always biased unless laws state otherwise. That is why we have laws and rules. They should not dictate your perception of beauty or self-image. Over the years, I struggled with societal perceptions of how a female body should look. Magazines showcasing extremely thin bodies and entertainment media played a huge role in shaping this narrative.

Over time, people have begun to understand that obesity is not simply the result of excess food consumption. Judging people who are already struggling has long been common. My opinions often clashed with what I saw on television, but thanks to the internet, I gained access to knowledge that allowed me to form my own opinions—beyond those of the people around me.

I intend to look at the bigger pool

Look around, then type what you observe into a search bar. What appears may tell you whether you are right, wrong, or somewhere in between. I would rather have a percentage than rely on a small pool of observation. Something may be true in one area but not true globally. Learning to look at the bigger picture is what I gained.

When looking at facts, maintaining an objective mind instead of relying on emotions also has its benefits.

Why reflection over digital media matters

A common sentiment is that women are bad drivers. Every time I see women driving, I smile, knowing it took a long time for women to earn the right to vote. I encourage you to look up whether women are actually bad drivers—but do so through research papers, and pay attention to who conducted the research. Where information comes from matters.

In the above paragraph, you can see my emotion where I state the history of women’s suppression and how it still occurs in thirty- to sixty-second videos—not saying that outright, but implying it.

We are forgetting the fact that people of all ages are watching this narrative, young kids as well. Even before they get their license, they see this narrative on social media. What do you think that does to our brain?

Simply scrolling through social media and blindly believing people you follow without fact-checking is ignorance.

A simple answer to “how to read?”

Open the book and read. This article goes beyond that. It is about not being manipulated by emotions behind words—while reading or otherwise. Read as many books as possible across different genres. I would recommend books, but I believe that journey should be based on individual preference.

References

Granié, M.-A., Devif, J., Moreau, N., & Delannoy, S. (2025). Gender differences in drivers’ road risks and gender equality policies: A gender paradox? Comparative analysis of 39 countries. IATSS Research, 49(3), 291–304.
Medranda-Morales, N., Palacios Mieles, V. D., & Villalba Guevara, M. (2023). Reading comprehension: An essential process for the development of critical thinking. Education Sciences, 13(11), Article 1068.
Yu, L., & Tong, X. (2024). Emotional intelligence and reading comprehension: Examining mediating roles of word reading, vocabulary, and working memory. Learning and Individual Differences, 116, Article 102574.
Gordon, C. S., Ferber, K., Notley, T., Rodgers, R. F., Bradshaw, E., Basarkod, G., Anderson, J., McLean, S. A., Mizzi, S., Jarman, H. K., Dickson, J., Sanders, T., Slater, A., & Pearson, E. (2025). The relationship between media literacy and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 7, Article 100441.