Kindness and reading are my two hobby horses this year. I keep returning to them because I tend to turn experience into lessons. Every day, I see evidence of our need for stress relief: drivers clenching the wheel as aggressive motorists weave in and out of traffic; teenagers in my neighborhood trying to cram everything they can into a few hours of summer after a long list of scheduled activities; new mothers jogging alongside strollers while listening to yet another life-improving podcast.
I teach a multilevel class that blends mindfulness and movement to reduce stress, so I am no exception. I must acknowledge my own tendency to double my efforts to deliver high value to my clients. The good news is that I benefit, too. Teaching requires me to stay informed, seek better methods, and maintain my own practice.
That’s where kindness and reading come together for me.
Do yourself the kindness of taking time to read.
Concern about declining reading across ages and life stages is growing. Even with books available on phones, tablets, and e-readers, traditional storytelling now competes with audiobooks, graphic novels, films, television, social media, and an endless stream of digital content for our attention.
Reading for enjoyment appears to be on the wane—and with it, perhaps, another simple form of mind-body relaxation. Relaxing the mind and body helps us sleep, recover, and lower stress. That kind of relaxation is essential to health and happiness. When we are less stressed, we think more clearly, feel refreshed, and notice our surroundings. We take greater pleasure in everyday life.
Instead, we read on the run, on the fly, and sometimes even on the toilet. Are we really saving time, or are we paying for it with our health and attention?
There is intriguing evidence that reading books may offer benefits beyond entertainment. A 2017 study found that people who read books experienced a 20 percent reduction in mortality risk over a 12-year follow-up period compared with people who did not read books. The researchers also found that the survival advantage associated with books was greater than that associated with reading newspapers or magazines. Why might that be?
Today, concern about declining reading extends from writers and publishers to educators and those studying cognitive health. I’m less worried about exactly how you read than I am about what happens to our attention span, focus, and cognitive abilities when we continually divide our attention.
Reading a book takes discipline. It asks us to stay with one thing.
In a July 2026 interview with PBS News, writer Rose Horowitch made a compelling observation: our brains adapt to what we spend time doing. If we spend our days jumping rapidly from one screen, notification, headline, and short video to another, we may become increasingly practiced at distraction. If we spend time reading deeply, we are practicing sustained attention.
And this matters for the next generation, too. The value of reading is being passed down—or not passed down—to children. Only a small percentage of parents report reading to a child on any given day. A Michigan educational report in December 2025 cited 1 in 5 parents rarely or never read to babies and toddlers. At the same time, digital devices have become deeply integrated into children’s education, beginning in kindergarten and, for many children, even earlier at home.
Technology can certainly be a valuable learning tool. But are we giving equal attention to the health and developmental benefits of slowing down, concentrating, and becoming absorbed in a book?
There is another reason to give reading a try: stress reduction.
If you have always loved reading, but find that your attention wanders after a few pages, you can try to retrain your brain to stay with it a little longer. Begin with a short period of time. Research associated with the University of Sussex found that just six minutes of reading could reduce stress levels significantly—more than the study’s measures of listening to music or taking a walk. These 2009 results of timeframe are widely quoted but not corroborated. However, the stress reduction effect is well-documented.
See how long you can stay engaged.
Then try again tomorrow.
Through regular re-engagement with reading, you may find that your reading time naturally expands. More importantly, you may rediscover the pleasure of immersing yourself in a story without checking a screen, responding to a notification, or rushing on to the next task.
Give yourself permission to slow down.
Read for pleasure. Read for focus. Read as an act of kindness toward yourself.
And if lower stress, greater concentration, better sleep, and a little more pleasure in everyday life come along, it’s all to your benefit.
Who doesn’t want that?
August 2026 | www.clairemauro.com
~ Please Reference Responsibly ~
References
Bavishi, A., Slade, M. D., & Levy, B. R. “The Survival Advantage of Reading Books.” Innovation in Aging, Vol. 1, No. S1, 2017. Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, CT.
https://academic.oup.com/innovateage/article/1/suppl_1/477/3898580
Children’s Educational Alliance of Missouri (CEAM) “Why Fewer Parents Are Reading To Kids And Why It Matters.” December 17, 2025. https://www.ceamteam.org/why-fewer-parents-are-reading-to-kids-and-why-it-matters/
Horowitch, Rose. “Is theAge of Reading Is Over.” The Atlantic, July 2026. Podcast. https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/07/age-reading-over-postliterate/688013/
Horowitch, Rose. “The End of Reading is Here.” The Atlantic. August 2026 Issue.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/
International Arts + Mind Lab, Johns Hopkins Medicine. “The Mental Health Benefits of Reading,” 2022.
https://www.artsandmindlab.org/mental-health-benefits-reading/
S L Levine , SL, S Cherrier 1, A C Holding 1, R Koestner 1 For the love of reading: Recreational reading reduces psychological distress in college students and autonomous motivation is the key J Am Coll Health
. 2022 Jan;70(1):158-164. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2020.1728280. Epub 2020 Mar 9.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32150516/
Lurye, Sharon. “Not-So-Great Expectations: Students Are Reading Fewer Books in English Class.” Boston.com, September 17, 2024.
Miller, C. C., & Mervosh, S. “How Much Screen Time Is Your Child Getting at School?” The New York Times, November 12, 2025.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/upshot/teachers-survey-chromebooks-class.html
PBS Newshour. ‘Post-literate age’: Why fewer Americans are reading for pleasure. July 15, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0a2PnLzUQs
“Reading Can Help Reduce Stress.” The Telegraph, March 2009, reporting on a Mindlab study at the University of Sussex.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/5070874/Reading-can-help-reduce-stress.html
Note: The Mindlab study was commercially funded by Mars, Inc.; that funding relationship should be disclosed when citing the study.