When it comes to describing your love for reading, I am sure most avid readers will resonate with my words: finding a quiet corner of the house, grabbing a book, crawling to the couch, and bingo! Start your bookish adventure! What more, if it’s raining outside, you are served a hot cup of tea or coffee, and you choose your favorite song playing on your phone kept beside – ahh, this is definitely the heavenly combination for all readers.

However, in today’s race and rush to finish the deadlines, we rarely find these type of moments when we can spend hours after hours with our favorite books and forget about the world.

Sad but true, we are slowly losing our reading habits. Many people now prefer to listen to audiobooks while going to the office or doing the house chores. Even when we get some time to grab the book, we rush to finish reading it as soon as possible – because we don’t have time to slow down.

This way, we are forgetting the art of reading with present-moment awareness – the art of mindful reading. Most of the time we set a target to finish ‘n’ number of books within one month or one year, and thus, we try to read as much as possible to reach the target.

But within this all, slowly, we forget to give the book the time it deserves. Reading is not only a good habit for your brain muscles and personality development, but also an easy yet effective way to pause and ponder upon life. Most importantly, it’s a beautiful way to give yourself some moments of self-care and nurturing self-compassion.

And all this happens only when you slow down to read mindfully. Come, let’s remind ourselves of the long-lost art of reading with all our senses present in this moment so we can appreciate our momentary escape from the outer world with our bookish love.

What is Mindful Reading:

Mindful reading is all about adding consciousness to your reading ritual. It is a nice way to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life with an easy and simple practice, and something you love – reading.

In mindful reading, you read the book with all your senses present – you smell the book, focus on each word written, see the colors and fonts of the words, appreciate everything beautiful, and most importantly, you slow down to read between the lines.

Basically, it’s a reflection process, and conscious reading is the foundation of the mindful reading habit. It involves three aspects of being mindful: awareness, attentiveness, and introspection.

Benefits of Mindful Reading:

When it comes to counting the benefits of mindful reading, it combines the benefits of two mindful activities together: reading and mindful meditation.

Here is how reading mindfully can enrich your experience to a greater extent and give you peace after finishing your reading ritual.

Bringing your attention to inward:

Reading mindfully gives you a scope to introspect. While you slow down to read more attentively, it helps you bring your entire focus to the words you are reading.

As a result, slowly, the outer world’s distractions become vague and instead, you start contemplating the matter that you read at the present moment. Gradually, you become calmer as the outer factors make you stressed and anxious.

But when you are spending time with mindful reading, those stressors are not with you, thus offering you some moments of peace to spend with yourself. And in between this process, you pause to journey inward.

Offering a deeper understanding of what you are reading:

While talking about mindful reading, I have mentioned the phrase: reading between the lines. Now, I want to ask you, dear reader, how long it has been you have paused while reading a book, slowing down to absorb the words in your soul, and taking yourself to the imagery written by the author?

If you do it frequently, then it’s a good sign that you are a mindful reader. You pause between lines and go deeper to the depth of the words written on pages.

When you read mindfully, you are aware of the chapter, you are attentive to what is written there and what you are reading. Therefore, it impacts your mind to cherish the power of acceptance and understand everything in a broader aspect.

Helping you relax and de-stress:

Reading mindfully significantly lowers your blood pressure and helps de-stress. As you slow down and read attentively, you forget about the worries and triggers for your stress.

Although it is only for some moments or hours, this habit immensely helps you to reduce your stress level. As a result, it helps improve your well-being by taking care of your stress level and blood pressure.

Enriching your reading ritual:

Mindful reading improves your emotional quotient. As you read more attentively, your senses are aware of the reading material and thus, you know what you are reading.

With your read of the day, you feel all kinds of emotions deeply. As a result, mindful reading helps you get a more profound experience where you feel the joy of turning each page with utmost curiosity and enthusiasm.

This way, the child in you will fall in love with books once again, and like your childhood, you will feel the joy of reading more and more with every new book you read. And it reminds me of the fact that you often forget: reading unlocks the door to a whole new world to learn, know, and explore!

How to read mindfully:

Practicing mindful reading is easy if you can appreciate the art of slowing down. This may sound tough for the ones who have a hectic schedule.

However, I would like to insist you take a break from your daily routine to devote your time to mindful reading so you can pause and breathe.

You may choose to schedule your mindful reading ritual at the end of the day, before going to sleep, or you can choose any preferred time whenever you find some moments to nurture your passion for reading by cherishing bookish love.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Find a quiet corner
2. Make yourself comfortable
3. Pick your read of the day
4. Sit in silence and quiet your mind for some moments
5. Eliminate all kinds of distractions (Preferably, log out of your social media handles and silence your phone)
6. Now, start reading the book, slowly
7. Touch the page, smell the paper, observe the fonts and colors
8. Imagine in your mind palette the imagery given by the author
9. Think about the colors of the objects written in the lines (For instance, if it’s written a girl wearing a red frock and a boy wearing a yellow T-shirt are playing badminton, think about the white badminton racket, green badminton court, and small green bushes around the place.)
10. As you proceed in your reading ritual, savor each word
11. Observe your emotions and accept them as they are
12. Pause between two passages
13. Learn the new words with their meanings and usage
14. You may underline the quotes you like
15. If you love something that you read, savor the feeling and take time to go with the flow of emotions
16. You can also read some lines aloud to make the reading ritual more profound one

So, this way, you can practice mindful reading and have a peaceful time to devote yourself to the bliss of books.

Final Thoughts:

You are an avid reader, and that’s why, you love to read whenever you find some time. Then, why bother yourself with a world that’s always in a hurry to reach somewhere?

Your reading ritual must be a treat to your quiet time and a chance to celebrate yourself in a bookish way. Therefore, practice mindful reading to savor your reading spree and give yourself the peace and joy of mindful reading.

(This post is part of the Bookish League blog hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile)