Why Reading is the Best Form of Self-care

Photo by Seven Shooter on Unsplash

The past two years have been incredibly difficult on us. Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic: the wildfires in Australia and the United States; the major protests in India, Poland, and the United States; the explosion in Beirut; the locust outbreak in east Africa; and much more has left us staggering without a chance to catch our breath..

With all the struggles from these events, self-care has never felt more important and what better way to take care of yourself than with a book? 

It calms us down

Unlike listening to music, or watching a show, reading needs our undivided attention. We have to be actively engaged in the story, which stops our minds from worrying and stressing over other demands. According to a study at the University of Sussex, reading for just six minutes decreased stress levels by 68% (Reading 'can help reduce stress' (telegraph.co.uk) ).

It helps us sleep better

Sleep is an important part of taking care of ourselves. Reading just 20 minutes before bed signals to our brain that we are slowing down our pace. It’s a better alternative than browsing through your cellphone, your TV or any other activities that might stimulate our brains too much, and decrease our quality of sleep.

It expands our imagination

Books push us to visualize and experience the world we’re immersed in. Our imaginations aren’t constrained by the boxes and rules of our reality. Magic, aliens, monsters, myths are all possible; and creativity has a chance to grow and thrive. 

The benefits extend to our reality as well. An increase in creativity can lead to innovative ideas in our careers or passions.

It can be done anywhere

Reading can be done anytime and anywhere we want. In high school, I loved reading during my lunch hour, in class, in the halls, and any chance I got. When I’m on my break at work, I’ll take time to recharge by reading something engaging.

Even without the physical copy of a book, we have the possibility of accessing stories on our phones, computers, laptops, tablets, Kindles, and Kobos. We can read while sitting, standing, or lying down. All you need is something to read.

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Celine is a second-year Professional Writing student at Algonquin College. She loves to read, write, and daydream. Despite her wandering mind, she wants to grow as a writer, and make it her career.

Authors from Around the World: Spain

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Pio Baroja

1872-1956

Death visits the paupers` house by Johannes Stradanus (Jan Van Der Straet) (1523-1605, Belgium)

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The Spanish novelist and essayist Pío Baroja y Nessi is considered one of the signifIcant writers of the Spanish Literary movement: The Generation of 1898. His works consistently explore self-criticism with pessimistic views of life.

Portrait by Joaquin Sorolla (1914)

Pío was born in San Sebastián, Spain on Dec. 28, 1872. In 1879 his family moved to Madrid, where at 15, he studied medicine. Receiving his doctorate in medicine at the University of Madrid in 1893, he spent the next year as a country doctor in Cestona. Dismayed by the hardships and petty intrigues of country life, Baroja renounced his medical post in 1895. The shock of the Spanish-American War in 1898 provoked in him, as in many of his contemporaries, resentment against Spain's social abuses and the influence of the post-Inquisition Catholic Church. By 1898, he began contributing articles to the journal Revista Nueva and made the first of many trips to Paris. Baroja grouped most of his novels into cycles or trilogies. By 1902, Baroja devoted himself entirely to writing, turning out two or more books almost every year until his death, having published more than 100 books, including over 60 novels as well as volumes of memoirs, collections of short stories, essays, and poems.

His techniques to depict action in his novels include sacrificing structure to a practically haphazard flow of people, places, plots, and subplots, with style marked by short, choppy paragraphs. Baroja enjoyed considerable fame within Spain and abroad, and many of his novels were translated into English. In 1935 he was admitted to the Spanish Royal Academy. His works influenced many younger writers, notably Ernest Hemingway, who visited Baroja in Madrid in 1956 to declare his debt to him. Baroja died that same year on Oct. 30, 1956, at the age of 83.

Hemingway visits Baroja, 1956

"Allow me to pay this small tribute to you who taught so much to those of us who wanted to be writers when we were young. I deplore the fact that you have not yet received a Nobel Prize, especially when it was given to so many who deserved it less, like me, who am only an adventurer."

- Ernest Hemingway, 1956.

Characters of a reprehensible nature; the likes of which include vagabonds, adventurers, prostitutes, and anarchists, whose cynicism and rebellious spirit symbolized the author's ideal of a life of action, are regular features of a Baroja protagonist. His characters are committed only to a life of action, who, lacking constructive purpose, find themselves condemned to final ruin. He believed that only action has any positive value in a hostile and absurd world. Personal failure is the dominant theme of a typical Baroja novel.

Literary Spotlight: The Quest (1904)

JOSÉ APARICIO INGLADA - El Hambre en Madrid (Museo Municipal de Madrid, c. 1818) - Madrid's Year of Hunger

The Quest, the first of the La Lucha Por la Vida (The Struggle for Life) trilogy, presents a gritty, often brutal picture of urban life in working-class Madrid, as the protagonist, Manuel Alcazar, is pummelled by socio-economic forces beyond his control. While the novel concentrates on the social contrasts and difficulties of working-class life in Madrid, vital clues show the larger context in which Baroja, who became deeply influenced by the shock of the Spanish-American War, wrote. The war demoralized Spain, leaving in its wake the self-image of a weak and backward nation; for many Spaniards, their country’s perceived stagnation and backwardness was a dramatic contrast to America’s forward-looking energy and drive.

The period’s politics are less prominent in The Quest’s content than Baroja’s graphic elicitation of the sights, sounds, and smells of daily life in Madrid. Evocatively capturing the changes of the nineteenth century as urban populations, not just in Madrid but other cities rose considerably. Like Manuel, peasants flocked to urban centers, hoping for economic opportunity but often found only slums, hardships, and petty intrigues instead. The Quest is a worthwhile starter for anyone looking to explore one of Spain’s most celebrated writers.

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Danya C. Rockwell

Danya is a professional writing student at Algonquin College and writer for Spine Online’s Bookstore page. Also, the writer of weird mysteries when not writing for marks or income.