Reading As a Stress Buster

With the first golden ray of the sun lighting our mind to the last glimmer of the moon soothing our soul, we keep reading voraciously. Reading, as the literal meaning goes encompasses a variety of subjects, official and non-official, electronic and hard-copy, informative and casual and so on. So its reading that gives us stress and again its healthy reading that can also act as a stress buster.

Reading books or articles of personal interest releases the burden on the mind. The fatigue or stress due to mundane things fades out gradually. If stress is considered a social epidemic disease degenerating the body from within then reading is that medicine to eradicate this disease. Reading is like the lemon juice to overcome the stress hangover. The mind feels as light as a feather shedding off all stress and tension. Reading can take us to the exotic snow-clad lands with clear azure skies or way back into the times of Kings and Queens or a leap into the future of the robotic world. Sometimes reading can show us the route to a nutritious healthy life or teach us a new hobby or inspire us to do better. Reading can make us roll on the ground laughing or cry our heart out. Reading can also push us into abysmal grief which subsequently might increase our stress level. So choosing a good book or article that brings us out of our stressful life is extremely important. In fact, I believe leisure reading is just the perfect antidote to stress.

From dawn till night my eyes are busy capturing the daily newspaper to the roadside signs and billboards to my official documents to advertisement leaflets to finally my favourite novel. But of all these its my novel that acts like a cooling cucumber to my eyes, squeezing out the pain and stress. When I read a novel, I start to create the characters from the novel in my surreal canvas. My odyssey with the characters continues as the novel progresses. Gradually as I move through the novel, page by page, I get engrossed in the story and more familiar with its characters. I start envisioning the scenes in my mind’s bio-scope. My room gets transformed into the story-land and all the characters come to life exchanging their dialogues and I sit glued in silence. Reading ignites the creative soul in me, free from the fetters of any load. My mind begins to loiter in the beautiful lanes of imagination. My brain becomes calm and my irritation due to stress takes a back seat. Eventually reality is disowned and stress is buried deep when my date with my novel begins. This gives me a good night sleep and a hope to see a better day.

Healthy reading not just acts as a saviour from the stress ghost but also elevates our dilapidated concentration level. In our busy schedule, instead of having healthy reading as an option we can imbibe it as a habit. Stress is as true as human existence. But we can be relieved from unnecessary stress with just a turn of the page.