Some of the biggest obstacles to increasing your reading speed – regression, lack of focus, poor comprehension, subvocalization – can be overcome quickly and easily by using simple relaxation techniques. Here are the reasons why stress hurts your reading speed, and some ways you can avoid stress and improve your speed reading skills:
Tension affects your brain as well as your body. If you’re tense, your muscles tighten up, including the muscles around your eyes. This means that your eyes won’t be moving as quickly, and you won’t be able to achieve the relaxed focus you need to take in words in groups or clumps. Tension also leads to the release of chemicals in your brain that contribute to anxiety, hyper-alertness, and outward focus, which prevents you from concentrating on the words in front of you. If you’re feeling tense, stop a minute and close your eyes. Place your thumbs on your eyebrows at the top of the curve, over the center of your eyes, and press gently for 60 seconds while breathing deeply. This ancient Chinese acupressure technique will relax your eyes and your mind.
If you’re nervous, you’ll fall back into bad habits. Two habits that are often formed in childhood, regression (going back to re-read what you’ve already read) and subvocalization (reading aloud either by moving the lips or merely “speaking” in your mind as you read), are hard to overcome and easy to slip back into when you’re under stress. You’ll start doubting yourself, and go back over text “just to be sure” you read everything correctly. To solve this problem, you can use another acupressure point, this one between your eyebrows. Place the tips of your index fingers on this spot and press gently for 30 seconds, release, breath, and press again for 30 seconds. This will help get rid of any anxious feelings you might have.
If that’s not enough, try using “walking meditation” to eliminate your stress. In this technique, you use the act of walking to focus entirely on your body and the movements it’s making. Walk slowly, concentrating on the feel of your foot hitting the ground, your arms swinging, your head moving slightly up and down to compensate. Keep your eyes gently focused on the area right in front of your feet as you move. Breathe in time with your footsteps; if you can, increase the length of each breath to match first one step, then two, then three. Long, slow breaths convey oxygen to the brain and help release the soothing neurotransmitter serotonin.
Anxiety about a number of things means you’re not concentrating on one thing. Keep in mind that good speed readers not only process words quickly, they also remember and retain what they read. If you’re thinking about an upcoming appointment and what you’re going to make for dinner and whether you left the light on in the garage and when you’ll have time to finish the laundry and … well, you get the picture. You’ll have so much occupying your attention that you won’t absorb any information from the text in front of you. One good way to help you set aside your other concerns is to make a list. Write down everything you’re thinking about, then put the list in a drawer and mentally put all of that out of your mind. You don’t need to worry about forgetting something, because it’s on the list, and you can then calmly focus on the reading material in front of you.
How does stress affect your reading speed, and what do you do to solve that problem?
