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Reading Reduces Stress

It's true! Reading reduces stress! Everyone knows that reading makes you smarter. It fills the brain with knowledge, builds a better memory, improves writing skills, and increases vocabulary, but to learn that reading can also reduce our stress levels is even more exciting!

According to the University of Sussex studies, reading for just six minutes has been shown to reduce stress by 68 percent.

For avid readers this is bonus news but to those who don't read often enough or dislike reading, it might be time to think again. Reading is an excellent stress management activity that is good for your overall health!

Reading not only acts as a distraction from the outside stressors we face, it actively engages the mind and requires our full attention. When full attention is given to whatever it is we are reading, our mind cannot think about those things that are causing us stress. It works almost like taking a mini-vacation of the mind.

Choose Books You Enjoy

It doesn't matter what you read, what matters most is that you enjoy what you are reading. Everything from Science Fiction to Biographies, Self-Help books to Romance Novels, there is something for everyone!

Hard Time Reading?

• Be Patient - If you feel you have a hard time concentrating due to prolonged stress, anxiety or depression it's okay. The best thing you can do is is to be patient with yourself. When people struggle with anxiety or depression they are usually very distracted by their anxious, depressive thoughts. You want to look at your reading experience as a practice opportunity for improving your reading skills. As hard as it is to concentrate, simply keep reading. Only through practice and more reading does a person get better with speed and comprehension.

• Read Out Loud - Another great tip to help reduce stress and increase your reading skills is to read to others out loud. Whether to a child, a grandparent, or even a friend or spouse, each time you read to someone else you are engaging your mind to become a better reader with better mental focus.

• Make Special Time Each Day - Take the time each day to plan your deeper reading exercises. A great time for reading is when you are not stressed for time or pressured to get it done. Many people choose to read before bedtime and this helps induce relaxation and prepares them for sleep. So often, parents read to their children before bed too. Choosing to read before bedtime helps take the mind off any stressors that may be floating around and just brings us into a new place.

• Read Throughout The Day - Okay so this may sound difficult especially if you are busy at work or home; However, knowing that it only takes 6 minutes to make a huge difference in your stress level, why not give it a try? Taking a time out to read a short article in a magazine, or while you are waiting at the dentist for an appointment... these moments are great moments for reading!

Make Reading More Convenient

Today, technology has produced so many incredible tools. One of the best tools for reading is the Kindle 3G Wireless Reading Device This is most loved by avid readers! This tool is known for it's internet capability that allows you to download thousands of books in many different file formats. With so many file formats out there, the Kindle can read almost all of them, and if you have a file that it cannot read, Amazon.com will convert it for free! The internet offers hundreds of free e-books that you can easily download and take with you anywhere, anytime.

One Free E-book that everyone should have is As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

Additional Resources

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