Becoming a reader again after a 10 year absence
The three cornerstones of my new way of living are well publicised by me.
- Writing (a journal) daily
- Walking daily
- Reading every single day
Journalling clearly has therapeutic values – I jot down thoughts and plans at the beginning of the day, during the day and before bed. These scribblings form an indelible record of how I felt and I can look back over three of them now and think about events, my reactions and personal growth. These are private of course, smudged and coffee-stained, but still an important aspect of the path I’m on.
Walking has similar therapeutic values. I do it on my own and with friends. I mix the flat urban landscapes of Manchester with solo and joint treks in the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales and Snowdonia. Hathersage, last week, reignited sixth form memories of camping there at 17, when I walked past the campsite en route to Stanage Edge:
Walking has long been associated with faith – philosophy and pilgrimages. For me, it’s an integral part of daily life as you mix nature with human contact; conversation when with a walking mate to reflection, like last week, on the 10 mile circular in Hathersage.
Finally, reading forms the third Trinity of the self-improvement journey and to this end, I invested in a Kindle Paperwhite which has been revelatory. You see, I could read e-books on a Kindle app on iPhone or iPad, but these devices are filled with other distractions – WhatsApp messages, emails, social media noise – and the Kindle device is purely for reading.
It may seem alien to admit that as an English teacher, Head of English, from 1987 to 2015, that reading had become an alien habit. But it had.
Since buying books on stoicism, confucian and Taoist philosophies, I realised my habit was becoming addictive and expensive so Kindle Unlimited is my new Spotify, my new Netflix.
The first book I downloaded and read over a week was “East of Eden”. I’ve taught Steinbeck’s novels like “Of Mice and Men” and “The Pearl”, read “The Grapes of Wrath” but always been put off by “East of Eden” by its sheer volume.
Yet, having read it, cried at parts of it, and marvelled at the narrative, characters and setting, it rates now as one of my all-time favourite novels. It focuses on several families in the Salinas Valley – with prose redolent of the shorter “Of Mice and Men”, yet has far more depth and emotional power than that 6 chapter novella.
My point is?
I think when we’re caught up in life, when we are working to make ends meet, when life is throwing emotional curveballs at us, it can be easy, as I did for years, to develop unhealthy habits – doom scrolling online, drinking to excess, seeking the dopamine hits of social media – that we forget that we have one life. One stint on earth.
Walking, writing and reading have become exaggerated aspects of my new way of living.
I still shoehorn in web design, copywriting and social media marketing for clients – but the Trinity of WWR comes first these days as I lead my best life.
