Using mindfulness to create a perfect reading space can boost your wellbeing. Wellbeing is perhaps one of the most important concepts for our lives. It encompasses so much: physical health, mental health, balance, energy to live with purpose and intention are among the important aspects of wellbeing. Wellbeing is the ability to create, maintain, and enjoy a quality life according to your values and definition of such a life. Positive psychologists call this life worth living.
We can all use mindfulness to create a quality life of wellness. It starts small, in mindful moments, and from there gently and naturally ripples outward. It starts by taking deliberate purposeful action to make great moments in your day, every single day.
One way to do this is to know your passions, those things that both energize and calm, that shift anxious, stressed, and other negative thoughts away from rumination and onto what brings you happiness. One of my own passions is reading. When I get lost in a story, my daily aggravations melt into the background. Reading enhances wellbeing.
Use Mindfulness for Reading and Wellbeing
Sometimes the human brain doesn’t cooperate well when we’d like to tame our thoughts and concentrate on something like a good book. Mindfulness is a mental health and wellbeing tool that lets you take purposeful action to shift the focus of your thoughts. No longer do you have to fight with thoughts that keep running back to your stresses and challenges.
With mindfulness, you use all of your senses to turn your thoughts back to where you are right now, in this moment. Mindfulness lets you show up for your life, and of course for your reading breaks. It’s a way to get into books and stories more than ever.
Mindfulness means using your senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and sometimes taste) to connect with the moment. Using this idea to create your dream reading space is a fun way to enhance your reading experience and live fully in each reading moment you make.
I was recently asked to participate in something fun. I was invited to create a vision for my perfect reading room because Reading is an amazing way to unwind and relax. When you have a love for literature, you spend so much time curled up with a good book, which calls for the perfect reading space!
What a great way to capture the essence of reading! I couldn’t agree more. I’ve enjoyed putting this post together. It’s a way of sharing reading love with all of the bookworms out there who are also interested in mindfully enhancing their wellbeing. (Of course reading enhances wellbeing. Adding mindfulness and an enjoyable, relaxing setting makes it even better.)
My Ideal Reading Room: A Mindfully Bookish Experience
I want my reading space to be cozy, comfortable, and inviting. I also want it to be pleasing and enjoyable to me, so when I was thinking about my vision for my ideal reading room, I didn’t worry about creating a staged room that would look beautiful in a magazine. The room, after all, is for me rather than magazine readers. This concept is important in all that we do. Whether you’re creating a relaxing reading space or picking out your next book to read, do what brings you joy.
Sights to Take in Mindfully
My perfect reading place is visually appealing. The look of it is calming, and there are many things I can be visually mindful of when I’m here.
- Books on the shelves, in drawers—on display and readily available to read
- Plants
- Light and airy space – natural light by day, pendant light (pictured above) and candles by night
Attending to the Sense of Touch
An ideal reading space for me is also comfortable and pleasant to be in. Everything in the room encourages me to use my sense of touch to ground me in the moment:
- A chaise lounge to stretch out on with fabric that is pleasing to touch
- A beanbag to sink into when I want to change positions
- Blankets for warmth and comfort
- Piles of pillows to arrange under me, around me, and on top of me to support my book as I read
Stimulating the Senses of Smell, Sound, and Taste Deepen the Mindful Reading Experience
In mindfulness, our sense of smell is important, too. My reading room contains a scented oil diffuser to fill the room with scents that support physical and mental health. Inhaling them as I read enhances the entire reading room experience.
Sound is important in grounding us for stress relief, too. What better way to get it in a reading room than with the books themselves. One of my favorite sounds is the sound of book pages. Have you ever held a book up to your ear and listened as you thumbed the pages, letting them rub against your thumb? It’s a neat sound, part amusing, part soothing, and part comforting knowing that you’re truly connected to books.
I also want to use my sense of taste to keep me rooted in my reading experience. Tea does the trick nicely!
The only downside to my ideal cozy reading room is that it could be hard to leave. Relaxing, reading, and being mindful of my moments would be wonderful. What about you? What is your vision for the perfect space to tuck into and read? Having a reading space is one part of making great moments in your day.
