I am practising Mindful Reading this year! ✨🧘🏻‍♀️

I was very much obsessed about my reading goal in 2022 and I found myself reaching out for short books so that I could hit my 80 books goal.

While having a target made me read more, it subconsciously made me rush through my #books. Instead of fully understanding or experiencing the story, sometimes I skimmed through the books so that I could move on to the next one.

This year, I decided to read differently by practising mindful reading. Here are some things I have been doing:

🧘🏻‍♀️ Writing a summary and my overall thoughts in a book journal

I use #notion to record the books I read. I include:

▪️a summary of the book

▪️what I liked about it

▪️what I disliked about it, and

▪️how it made me feel

This practice helps me retain more information and also allows me to reflect on my thoughts/emotions as I read.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Taking notes while reading

I find taking notes help me remember the story and my thoughts better, especially when I’m reading a long book. Since I’m doing a book journal, I will also refer back to my noted when writing a summary.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Savour every word in the book and look up unfamiliar words

When I was reading to hit my goal, I had a habit of skimming through long & descriptive sentences (i.e. Stephen King’s books). Nowadays, I made sure to savour every word and truly experienced everything the author wrote.

I also look up unfamiliar words to improve my vocabulary and thanks to #kindle & #kobo, this can be done so easily via the built-in dictionary.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Set aside time to fully read

Instead of reading before bed until I fall asleep, I now set aside blocks of 15-30 minutes to focus on my book. It reduces distraction and I become aware that I’m reading because I have set this time to read.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Choose a book carefully

Before I read a book, I asks myself ‘why?’

I can’t finish all the books in the world in my lifetime, so I’m asking myself why to make sure that I’m using the limited time that I have for books that I have a reason to read.

Having said that, mindful reading doesn’t mean I’m reading lesser books. I have read 63 books this year and it’s been a very rewarding experience!

I hope you try it out & let me know your own experience. 🧡😊

#Lemon8SG #MyLemon8Diary #lemon8recommendations #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booktok