Reading For Stress Relief – Ideas and Insights

Today we will talk about a subject called reading for stress relief. When we are stressed reading could be the one thing that can help us to manage and release the stress that we are feeling.

Nowadays we feel a lot of stress and anxiety that comes seemingly from everywhere we look and we need ways to manage it and deal with it. Otherwise, stress can overtake our lives and impact our health, relationships, and well-being.

Before this post, I have already written about the benefits of reading and how it can reduce stress, and anxiety and make you feel better. Today we are going to talk about reading fiction and how it is related to stress relief.

Reading is a real way to reduce stress and offers so much more benefits. Let’s explore more how reading reduces stress and makes our lives better.

Reading For Stress Relief: Ideas and Insight

I have always done reading especially when I was much younger. I love books and those usually were like an escape from me from the everyday world that seemed a bit boring at times.

Honestly saying reading books helped me to feel calmer and reduce stress. At that time I was not thinking that reading books can really help in reducing stress, I was just enjoying reading a lot. I miss those times these days. 

Books were like best friends when real people failed, like a door to another world and it was not perfect, but it was enjoyable and somehow free. 

1. Reading Like Talking With a Friend

Growing up I didn’t have real friends, except my brother who was close to my age and we have done everything together. Other than that I was a loner and books were like my friends who brought me into new and exciting worlds. 

2. Escape From Reality

It is not like my childhood and school-age were terrible, it was not like that.

But there were things that I didn’t like and I have never fit in. I would better spend my time alone than in a company that I am not feeling comfortable in.

There were always a lot of books that let me escape this reality and wonder about different worlds and times. Honestly, I have no idea how I would have survived those times without books.

Mostly I have enjoyed novels with strong narratives and characters that let readers fully engage in a story and feel like they are “living the story” and not only reading it.

3. Reduce Stress and Anxiety

There is even a study that shows reading reduces stress by 68%, before I didn’t know anything about this study or anything related to it. It was like my own way of dealing with stress and not knowing any kind of studies and research.

It was a different kind of knowing and understanding, a feeling. So this is why it is essential to go with your own feelings and figure out what helps with stress or anxiety for yourself.

I got to find out that fact about the study when I published my first article about the benefits of reading, especially relieving stress.

I think reading lets you forget about stress at least for a time when you reading and are immersed in a different reality. Of course, they are mostly fiction, novels.  

There is also no stress in choosing when to read and what. It is up to you, can be the middle of the day, early morning, or before bed. Having that kind of choice is what reduces and relieves any kind of stress in the first place.

Tips on How to Use Reading for Stress Relief

1. Find a Place and Time. It is always important to have chosen the best place to read so you can enjoy the story that you reading and escape this world and its problems.

2. Choose Your Adventure. There are thousands of books in the world that you can choose from.

As you know we are all different, with various interests and perceptions so not all books you will like.

You need to choose the one you would enjoy and that would take you into a new world to explore. That way you can leave this life with all the stress behind and travel into its amazing world.

3. Focus. It means spending time only reading and not listening to music at the same time or watching TV. Honestly, when we try to do many things together we don’t even do one properly. Right? At least that is what I have experienced. What about you?

Make reading the only thing you do at the time and this way you will escape to a different world and away from your everyday stress. Surely, you will feel better and less stressed for sure.

4. Reflect. I believe that after reading a book or story, it is important to think about and let what you read sink. Novels or different kinds of books – all are teaching as something. Some can just let you improve your vocabulary and others show great characters and examples.

You can also better understand your own feelings and find a way to deal with them. Reading books has many benefits and, of course, here we focus on stress, and anxiety relief and how books can help us with that.

Conclusion

Reading for stress relief is one of the best ways to manage your stress and it is so enjoyable for people who love to read. 

Stress can really impact our lives in the worst ways and make us unhappy. That is why it is important to look for ways to reduce and manage your stress. Reading is just another way to deal with stress.

What do you think about this post? Do you like reading? How much do you read? Do you experience how reading reduces stress? What kind of books do you read for stress relief? Please let me know in the comment section below.

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If you want to know more about reading as a way to reduce stress, CLICK HERE or HERE for more information.

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Thanks!

Have a nice day! Until next time! 

Linda Mo

Founder and Owner of How To Reduce Stress Naturally