Reading between the lines
Do you remember when you were at school and the teachers kept on talking about reading and how important it was? Reading seemed to be a huge part of our schooldays, from learning our letters and sounding out words through to reading longer and longer books as we progressed through the years. Eventually, it was drummed into us to “make sure we read the question properly” in our exams in order to write the correct answers and do as well as we possibly could.
As parents and carers, we see the cycle start again as we teach our children their letters and sounds and encourage them to discover the joy of the written word for themselves. We are constantly being reminded to read aloud to our children and to sit and listen as they read to us so they can build vocabulary. We move them from one book to another, ensuring the challenge increases, assessing their comprehension skills and reading age and focusing on speed and accuracy.
While these are immensely important skills to master, there is the other side of reading that we often tend to forget about in our mission to get our children to increase their literacy skills. That is, introducing them to the love of reading for its own sake. After all, when we ourselves were young, our teachers hoped that showing us how to read would instil a love of books into us as adults – and those of us who did develop a passion for reading were fortunate indeed.
It is only when we get lost in the words of a compelling story ourselves that we are reminded of the biological and emotional benefits of reading for pleasure. I remember the feeling I had as a child, reading a book and dreaming of being a character in the story. I used to put myself front and centre of the story and wonder how my life would turn out as that character. Books sparked my imagination and introduced me to worlds and thoughts and ideas that I would never have had the opportunity to explore without them.
Reading to me was, and still is, a reward; a treat. It gives me time that I can spend just being me, focussing on the present and exploring new ways of thinking that challenge my world views. Books can bring me joy and tears in equal measures and constantly remind me of the story of hope, the battle between good and evil and the challenges we can overcome if we just push ourselves a little harder.
What’s more, while we are building all these amazing literacy skills, we are also experiencing and digesting other people’s experiences, opinions and wisdom. We are learning from them how they think, and process information – and finding out how this can be quite different to how we do it. We are increasing our vocabulary and our knowledge. Once we master the art of reading, we can lose ourselves in the words of a page. According to research around positive psychology, this willing abandonment of ourselves into the contents of a book can lead us to experience what is known as a ‘flow state’[1]. This is when we are said to get ‘in the zone’ and be more receptive to positive spirals of creativity, clarity and emotional resilience.
That is an interesting one, actually – emotional resilience. Reading is not just about using the mind to interpret and react to the words on the page. As we read, we experience happy and sad emotions depending on what we are reading about. We notice these emotions and reflect on them. We process them and build our capacity to feel strong reactions without the need to fear or suppress them. Our bodies also ‘journey’ through the story with us and react physically to emotions raised, for example by shedding tears at a sad point or feeling flutters in the stomach if something exciting is about to happen.
While we understand rationally that the story that we are reading isn’t actually happening to us, our bodies feel every bump in the emotional rollercoaster. As we get to the end of the book and the good guys win and the hero overcomes, we too experience a feeling of success, connection, intimacy, achievement, relief, joy and happiness. When we read, we are training ourselves to live a life of wonder and joy. We are teaching our internal systems that even though we can experience negative experiences and emotions , they will pass just as surely as the passage of time passes.
Life goes on after pain and tragedy and there is so much to learn and understand about this amazing world. As Einstein is so famously quoted for saying “the more I learn, the more I realise how much I don’t know”. Our life’s own journey is created by our actions and reactions to them, not inner wishes that remain unexpressed. A book that is never opened can never be read – and that is a tragedy in itself.
This is why reading is important. It opens you to a world far bigger than any one person can experience without reading. It helps you feel and understand emotions. Finally, it teaches you about emotional resilience and the fact that every chapter will come to an end and it is up to you whether you read on to find out what happens next.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding Flow, The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life (First Edition : 1997 ed.). NY: Basic Books.
To find more blogs on Loving your Life
Loving Your Life: Higher Expression
Loving Your Life: The art of excellence-ing
Loving Your Life: Connecting the dots
Loving Your Life: Nobody’s Perfect
Loving Your Life: Go with the flow
Loving Your Life: And they all lived happily ever after
Loving Your Life: Embracing the joy
To read on other topics including mBraining, Mental Health and Leadership head over to the Blog
