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15 Ways of Looking at Reading and Healing

  1. Reading as Entrance into a Healing Place
  2. Reading as a Teacher—a source of information—the book itself.  Also the process of reading as a teacher.
  3. Reading as Company
  4. Reading as Solace
  5. Reading as Necessary Escape—or Respite—Reprieve
  6. Reading as Discovery
  7. Reading as a Form of Meditation—quieting the body and the mind—certain books and poems can do this I think—and it wouldn’t be the same of course for each person.
  8. Reading as Food for the Imagination
  9. Reading as a Source of Healing Images
  10. Reading as a Source of Humor—and Joy
  11. Reading as Connection
  12. Reading as a Glimpse at a New Story—pointing to new possibilities—perhaps leading to reframing one’s own story
  13. Reading as a Catalyst for Healing
  14. Reading as a Catalyst for Writing
  15. Reading as a Catalyst for a Healing Conversation
  16. Reading as Restoring Harmony—as “an aid to bringing our soul-circuit, when it has got out of tune, into order and harmony with itself.”  What Plato said about the arts.  Quoted in an excellent article in The Guardian by Blake Morrison, The Reading Cure.

You may find it of use to create your own list.  Please feel free to use my list as a kind of trampoline to jump off from.