66 days to learn to love reading again: ‘Ten pages in and my brain is twitching with fatigue’
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How long does it take to change a habit? It varies, but one paper suggests it takes an average of 66 days. We asked writers to change one thing in their lives within that timeframe … and tell us if it works. There was a time in my life that reading books felt as enjoyable and obvious as coffee in the morning. I lugged bags full of books across continents, read on friends’ couches, in bed, at cafes, in parks and on every sort of transport you could think of.
Then came children, social media, the smart phone and – the final death blow to my once robust bibliophilia - the pandemic. I hardly noticed it happening in real time but before I knew it my fractured attention had been spread so thin, it simply couldn’t bear the weight of even the easiest of reads in print.
This bothered me, a lot. I asked Dr Susan McLaine, creative director of Bibliotherapy Australia, how to revive my love of reading. McLaine says that if we find we’re not reading as much as we’d like to be, our first step should be to absolve ourselves of guilt and approach reading as we might our health. The best results will come by focusing on the benefits rather than the effort. McLaine says we musn’t regard reading as a chore but “as nourishment for the mind and spirit.
“Don’t judge your reading habits. Take the time to reflect on what it was that reading gave you, and consider time spent reading as a gift to yourself.”. I greet the first week of my challenge with the naive enthusiasm of a former high school footy star about to pull a hamstring playing kick to kick at a kids party. This is going to be a cake-walk! A triumphant return to form! Full of delusional optimism I draw a tome from my bookshelf and tuck myself into bed early. Ten pages in and my brain is twitching with fatigue, distraction and a looming sense that years of doom scrolling and mindless streaming have done some form of irreparable damage.
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