I fell in love with books at a very young age. In fact, one of the girls in my grade 1 class and I both read 367 books in our first year of school. Impressive right? That’s about a book a day for the entire year. While we don’t see each other often, we are still friends today.
Needless to say, books became my place of escape, my happy place and a place where I could live myself into whoever I wanted to be. Even though I don’t often read books to escape as much any more, I do read in order to learn, grow and widen my thinking and horizons.
You see, books hold the power to reshape our perspectives, reduce stress, and inspire positive change. I’ll share a story of a lady who read a book by Dr Caroline Leaf whose life radically changed by applying the principles she found between the pages of a book.
Grace was a woman facing an incredibly challenging time in her life. She was dealing with a stressful job, a struggling relationship, and an overwhelming sense of being stuck in a rut. Sound familiar?
One day, feeling at wit's end and desperately needing a mental break, she went to her local coffee shop. As she waited in line to order, a book on a charity bookshelf caught her eye. She paid and wandered over to the shelf. She had passed by it countless times and had never even glanced over the shelf ever. The Book cover read: "Switch on Your Brain" by Dr. Caroline Leaf. Little did she know that this book was about to change her life in a way she could only dream of.
She immediately delved into the book, while sipping her coffee and discovered a whole new way of thinking. The book emphasised the incredible power of our thoughts and how they shape our lives. It taught her that she had the ability to rewire her brain and change her perspective on any situation. That was a mind-blowing revelation for her! For the first time, in a long time, she felt like there was light at the end of the tunnel.
She poured over the pages of that book, day and night, rereading sections, underlining and highlighting paragraphs and phrases until that they took root in her life. She started implementing the techniques and strategies described and learned to identify negative thought patterns and replaced them with positive, affirming ones.
Instead of dwelling on her problems, she focused on solutions and possibilities. Slowly but surely, her mindset began to shift, and with it, her life. It wasn’t overnight. It took weeks, months if not an entire year of consistency, but she finally got to a place where she realised that what had held her back before, was no longer an issue in her life.
Grace realised that she had the power to take control of her own happiness and create the life she desired. She started making changes, both big and small, and aligned her actions with her new thought patterns.
She stepped out of her comfort zone and pursued a new career opportunity that brought her joy, and prioritised self-care and personal growth. Her husband, over time, seeing the change in her, started doing the same, and while the road to recovery for them was long and hard, they are now happy and working together on their relationship as a team rather than against each other as they first had.
Grace discovered a strength within herself that she never knew existed, all because of a book she randomly picked up on a charity bookshelf at a coffee shop. With the help of a book, she was able to rewrite her own life’s story and embrace a life filled with purpose and gratitude.
This is just one example of the incredible impact reading can have on our mental wellbeing. So, let's keep exploring the pages of those beautiful, life-changing books. Let's open our minds, expand our perspectives, and find inspiration within the stories we read. Who knows? Maybe the next book you pick up will be the one that transforms your life, just like it did for Grace.
I’d love to hear from you if your life has been touched and changed by a book you’ve read and I’d love to share it with the readers here. So use the ‘contact us form’ and send me a quick message - who knows, maybe I’ll be sharing your story next!
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