This year I've grounded myself a bit more with my lifestyle and brain. One of my particular proud habits I've gotten into is that I've been very consistent with not just reading, but leaving my apartment in the morning, getting coffee, and heading to the library to read and work. I've gotten through a handful of books this year! I aim to read only about 20-30 mins per day, and I miss many days, but if I'm super sucked into a book I'll go past it and read as much as I want. It's very fulfilling to have a proper "good" habit. On days when I feel off, anxious, stressed, etc. if the next day I'm able to wake up, get tim hortons, and go to the library, I can ground myself back into a bit of normalcy.

I do recommend everyone to have a non-work/productivity related habit that requires you to leave your house. Specifically I think you need to live my life, and go to your local library more! YOU reading this! And I think you should read! The way I've been looking at it as I read more and more, I think it's like an entire medium that people miss out on. It's like if you're talking to a friend and they don't listen to albums, or even music at all. You would think they are a psychopath. Or if you had a friend that didn't watch TV shows. I don't think reading is some nerd emoji glasses dweeb activity, and I don't think it's *enriching* simply due to it being a book and growing up you've been told that reading makes you smart. I think you should read the same reason why I think people who don't play video games should play them, I think it's a medium that expresses itself in it's unique way, and you shouldn't be missing out on an entire medium if you want to be a creative person!

While reading itself isn't too novel (heh..) I think one thing that sticks in my mind about it is the *pacing* of the actual activity of reading. If your dopamine receptors in your brain has become fried from twitter, video games, or tiktok (instagram reels, youtube shorts, pick ur poison) I think sitting down and reading a book can be a bit frustrating. I've found myself to enjoy reading (or at least found it much less frustrating) once I lessened the thought in my mind that I should read a book front to back, in the least amount of time as possible. If my mind wandered and I had to re-read a page I would be annoyed at myself for getting distracted and be annoyed that I had to re-read something! Feels like my progress over the past few minutes were just lost because I got distracted! But I've become less resistant to re-reading pages or even entire chapters, and taking my time as needed with books, I'd say it's an intended mechanic of reading. You read at the speed of your brain and it needs to stay active to take in what you're reading. If you're used to being able to scroll away or alt-tab the millisecond that you get slightly bored of something online, I think reading is a good detox from functioning that way, like being your own science experiment about the effects of delayed gratification.

And I simply do not fw audio books! Shame on you!

Have a good weekend yall too crazy!