PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY MOLLY SIMPSON / SPUTNIK PHOTOGRAPHY

When I was growing up, reading was a huge passion of mine. I was the kid who always had a book and would prefer being nose deep in Harry Potter to going outside to play. Unfortunately, now, with a busy schedule and commitments that take up all of my time, I find it harder and harder to find time to sit down with a good book and enjoy it. There is also the factor that a lot of the reading I do has now been linked to school or work and after a day of class readings and taking notes the last thing I want to do is read some more. 

I have felt the negative effects of not making time to read. It is becoming harder for me to focus and when I used to finish a book in a day this almost seemed impossible. I also do not turn towards a book as a form of relaxation as I once used too. My priorities have now changed and geared towards Netflix or Tik Tok. 

This is why I think reintroducing reading into your life is something that everyone should do. With that, it is something that I am beginning to do slowly throughout this year. One way that I have begun to do this is with the news and referring to articles rather than broadcasts to learn my daily news. It is a good place to start because I am retraining my brain in a way to understand and focus on reading, but I am only doing this with short passages at a time. 

I have also been depending on Libby and other online book formats to read. Buying hard copies of books has become unaffordable and I think that is what was turning me away from reading for such a long time. With the online formats I can use my iPad to read and eliminate the costs and I can also have any book I would want at easy access. 

Another way I have reintroduced reading is by playing with nostalgia and reading the books I know I loved as a child or a teen. Harry Potter is a series I turn to on multiple occasions only because I find comfort in the story and I can progress through it at a quicker pace. This has also made me feel as if I can read at the speed that I used to before and restore my confidence in my reading skills as well. 

After spending some time working on re-introducing reading into my life I feel as if I have fallen back in love with this passion of mine. I am now working on my schedule and carving out time before bed to make sure that I read instead of going on my phone. It has definitely made an enormous impact on my life and it is something that I will now continue to do and adapt as time goes on.