Reading For Wellbeing

Last month on the blog, I wrote about how important writing is to my mental wellbeing. This month, I want to talk about the other 'side' of writing: reading. I have long known that reading is vital for me - it is the main way I cope with stress. I think it is because when I read, I am able to successfully block out the world around me to such an extent that I often don't hear the children or my husband talking to me. If I am truly engrossed in a book, then I am there in that world and not thinking about whatever is troubling me in the real world. If I can read with the dog on my knee, event better!

I know as a general rule, that unless I am reading for a purpose, the more books I get through in the course of a month, the more stressed I am and the more care I need to be taking of myself. This was really brought home to me during the Lockdown of Winter 2021. I was doing all the homeschooling so that my husband could concentrate on his job, and this meant that I was unable to do any writing at all. The short one had decided he wanted to work and I spent a lot of time creating resources to supplement what the school had provided. By the time I got to the end of a day teaching him and preparing for the next day, I had no creative energy left! Consequently, in a bid to keep myself sane, I read. A lot. I found myself setting him a task and while he was doing it, I would read the next few paragraphs of my book. Throughout that February I read 32 books! (I also ended up writing a short story called 'Who Parents The Parents' about this experience. It was published in 'The Silent Pool and Other Stories'.)

Indeed, studies have shown that reading for as little as 6 minutes a day can lower stress levels by 60%. [1] It helps to reduce heart rates, ease muscle tension and allows the reader to become more relaxed. Books have also helped 27% of readers in the UK to make positive changes to their lives [2], whether physical or emotional. A quick search on the internet throws up lots of articles, self-help guides and reading schemes that are aimed at reading well for mental health. And this doesn't include the millions of self-help books which are out there; this is just about the benefits of reading in a more general sense.

However, through my reading I have learnt that it's not just mental health that reading can help with. A few years ago I read an excellent book by Laura Freeman called, 'The Reading Cure: How Books Restored My Appetite'. In it, Freeman charts her struggle with anorexia and how she learnt to enjoy food again through reading about meals and feasts in classic literature. As someone who suffered with anorexia as a teenager and who has learnt much of what I know from fiction books, I could absolutely see how, for the right kind of person, this would be something that would work.

Bibliotherapy is something that seems to be gaining in popularity as well - the idea of reading as a form of therapy. Through books, and the characters within them, people are able to explore their own emotions and reactions to particular situations and perhaps navigate a better way forwards in the future. In fact, at the Dragon's Nest we have a book that offers suggestions for things that people can read in order to examine how they want to respond to things that are happening in their lives. It's there for anyone to consult should they need it.

For me, books are an outlet where I can let my emotions run free without feeling the need to worry about it. If I need to cry, there are books I can read that are guaranteed to produce tears, but allow me to process the emotion at a reasonable distance. If I am unhappy, there are books I know are guaranteed to cheer me up. One of my closest friendships came about through a shared love of books, where we exchanged them throughout Covid and chatted online about them.

That's why when we started Pens & Dragons, I knew I wanted to offer a book group for children. I want to pass on that joy of falling into a book and becoming completely absorbed by it and for them to experience the pleasure of discussing the book with friends and perhaps thinking about it in a different way. Talking about books is one of my favourite things to do, as any of my friends will tell you, so to be able to do it with children, who offer such a unique perspective on the world, is an absolute joy.

Cinder's Society of Readers runs every 4th Tuesday for Year Groups 3-5 at The Dragon's Nest 3:30-4:15pm. Our next meeting is Tuesday 10th March and our current book is The Land of Roar by Jenny McLachlan.

[1] University of Sussex study, 2009

[2] Univerisity of Liverpool study, 2016