Is Reading Always Stressful?
Yes. And no.
In school, we read textbooks, difficult English literature books, Korean books, essays, and more. Obviously, reading for school is not an easy task as we are often graded on how much we understand of the reading.
This week, I consistently exercised but I did not read as much. I ended up feeling pressured to make up for 1 hour and 30 minutes of reading on the last day. As I said before, reading has always seemed like homework since I only read for my English grades. I used to really enjoy reading for leisure in middle school but once I came to high school, it seemed like I was always “too busy” to spend time reading. However, there is always time to read if we don’t spend time on apps like Instagram and Youtube. I would always deny this and say that doing Instagram and Youtube is my de-stressing time, but that can easily be replaced with something more productive like reading or exercising. Many people think reading is just adding more workload since it requires a lot of brain energy to concentrate, understand, and visualize what the author is saying. However, it was much better to read in-between work than sit on my desk and scroll through Instagram.
In conclusion, I think there are many students like me who see reading as just another homework assignment. I wanted to spread the idea that reading can be a great way to relax and take your mind off studying. It all depends on your perspective of reading. If you're thinking "I HAVE to read and understand EVERYTHING for school" it's obviously stressful, but if you think "I should read to relax my brain from studying" then reading can be seen as a time for self-care. Yes, social media is very entertaining but it can disconnect your productivity flow and make you spend more time on your phone than you intended. Reading, on the other hand, is great for keeping your brain working without the stress.
Also, I would just like to mention that I quit Instagram and Youtube by blocking them on my phone and laptop (but becoming more attached to Facebook suddenly). I will write more about that in the next reflection!
