Be still and know that I am God... Psalm 46:10a

Wellness may well start with a good book, or two.... A deeper understanding of oneself and the world around us, including greater empathy for others, are fundamental to our capacity to cope with the challenges and twists and turns of life. Like could be said of our capacity to get off the treadmill and slow down, to relax and ponder, and allow our imagination to subconsciously interrogate the demands and trials around us. Reading stimulates mental, emotional and spiritual resilience.

Psychologists believe that as the mind concentrates when reading, the resultant distraction within a literary world eases the tensions of muscles and the heart. Study volunteers were first subject to some exercises and tests to raise stress levels and heart rate. Next they were exposed to a variety of well-known methods of relaxation. Listening to music reduced the levels by 61 per cent, having a cup of tea or coffee lowered them by 54 per cent and taking a walk by 42 per cent. However, reading came out on top with 68 per cent.

University of Sussex Neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis, commented: Subjects only needed to read, silently, for six minutes to slow down the heart rate and ease tension in the muscles, he found. In fact it got subjects to stress levels lower than before they started… Losing yourself in a book is the ultimate relaxation. Other research has, not surprisingly, reported on other related benefits derived from the stillness of reading:

Reading for pleasure can help alleviate conditions such as stress, depression and dementia.
Reading can offer richer, broader and more complex models of experience, which enable people to view their own lives and its challenges from a refreshed perspective and with renewed understanding.
People who read books regularly are on average more satisfied with life, and more likely to feel that the things they do in life are worthwhile.
Despite reading being a solitary experience, research shows that reading improves empathy and increases social support.
Finally, stillness facilitates the knowledge of God (Psalm 46:10), and in this we find the wellness that glorifies Him, ...I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! (Psalm 46:10b)