With an investment of 3 breaths and 1 thought most people will find that they can read faster and remember more of what they have read.

With an investment of 3 breaths and 1 thought

most people will find that they can read faster and remember more of what they have read.

In order to offer my reading tip there needs to be a little preparation.

Firstly I have ensured that the 3 font’s used take up the same amount of space on the line.

I have taken the material from, The Back of Beyond, a book written in the 1930’s

by S. L. Bensusan and printed by Blandford Press Ltd and illustrated by Joan Rickarby.

I chose these passages because the language is slightly different 

and the subject familiar to most readers.

Please use the stopwatch function on your mobile/cell phone or whatever

and time how long it takes you to read the passages.

This is not a race; as when race-reading you may glaze over the words and not actually ‘read.’

The point is to observe your reading process

and the emotions you experience when reading these passages.

Now please read this first passage before reading further.

SPRING 37 –Frost in April.

Round me are the fruit farmers, no sons of the soil, but for the most part men with money who have taken to the work because it is a comparatively new industry in a well-adapted area. Fruit seems to thrive here when conditions are good. But three times in as many years the best lade hopes of those who spare no pains and no outlay in the cultivation of their land have suffered partial wreck. A fine promising spring has justified every optimistic estimate and then the fruit farmers have recalled the Master’s familiar lines: “To-day he put forth The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms – The third day comes a frost, a killing frost And – nips the root.” I have a neighbour who is a fruit farmer in the truest sense of the term; he has studied his job and he works on his smallholding from early morning to late afternoon doing all that may be done. It is impossible not to admire his industry, even though I believe that modern orcharding which is based upon the free use of poisonous materials is wrong and must in the long run be harmful to Mother Earth whose reprisals will prove hard to bear. But I went past this neighbour’s fields on a Saturday afternoon and he was quite content. His land was clean and in excellent heart, the long rows of Cox’s Orange were heavy in bud, the strawberries showed promise of abundant fruit, the cherries were like a shower of snow with the sun on it. “We’re three or four weeks earlier than last year,” he said. “Now we have to hope that we shan’t have late frosts, or that if they come they won’t be severe.” The week-end mornings and afternoons were radiant, the nights clear and with an ever deepening cold. On a Sunday night the thermometer registered twelve degrees of frost. Monday morning showed the strawberry plants on my own land bright and shining and the black currant clusters touched with a crimson stain. The apple blossom looked to be un-touched, but if you opened one there was a deep discolouration within the stigma. On Tuesday I passed my neighbour busy with his cultivator and asked him, a little nervously, how he had fared. “Like everyone else round here,” he replied. “More than half the crop gone.” And then, because he is that sort of man, he began to talk of the plight of the big local growers who would be so hard put to find work for their staff and of the village women who earn good money through the summer months picking each crop. I had been told of gales in Worcestershire and frosts in Cambridge, each doing serious damage to blossoming fruit, but trouble afar can never be so real to you as it is in your own and neighbour’s fields e may have sympathy, but we lack imagination. 491 words.

Having completed this timed passage, please note how easy it was

to consistently leave the last word on the line and find the first word on the line below.

If you had to go back over words in order to understand what had been read

–or remember going back on words if this is a common occurrence for you.

This is your mechanical response to reading justified line 

with the Word document font: Tempus Sans ITC at size 10.5

Make a note of how long did it took you to read the passage,

your emotional response to the material

and later try and recount what you can remember.

This font is Calibri (body) at size 11

””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””

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Now to read the following passage

but this time before you time your reading.

Set The Intention that you’ll remember what you read in a relaxed manner.

Before you start reading take three breaths - in this way.

First deep breath in and when you breathe out say the word: Relax

Second breath in and when you breathe out softly say the word: Soften

Third gentle breath in and when you breathe out whisper the word: Flow

Now read>>>>>>>

Our own fruit has paid a heavy penalty

but we grow only for the house and rely in part upon glass.

There again we have a south slope with a wood behind it and there is some protection here.

Just a few growers can put up a smoke barrage against frost

but the cost is said to work out nearly twenty pounds an acre over a term of years,

a notable addition to the cost of production,

and the result of burning crude oil that invades neighbouring houses and gardens

is so un-pleasant that in Kent some growers have been restrained by law;

the Public Health Act of 1936 would appear to offer a much-needed protection.

Apparently late frosts lay an indifferent hand upon England,

but I think the grip must needs be heaviest on our East coast.

To sense the trouble, think of the work done since the last crop was gathered,

the pruning and dressing, the feeding of the soil, ploughing and cleaning,

all the preparations to market the crop, the dovetailed arrangements for labour,

the rising tide of work,  the feverish paces of June, July, and August when the outside help pours in.

All this life and activity, all this energy and legitimate aspiration

quenched between the dusk of one perfect day and the dawning of another.

It looks as though Nature has borrowed her mood

from one of the old-time destroyers of humanity or the latter-day reincarnations.

“Ask your wife to come across with you this afternoon when you stop work

and we will talk of something else over the tea table for a change,” I suggested to my neighbour.

“A good idea,” he said. “We’ll come.”

And I asked myself very doubtfully if I could hope to be so brave in like circumstances.

The money loss doesn’t matter so much, we have all lost our money in our time

and not always through our own fault; it is the uncertainty that strikes us down

and forces us to ask cui bono? What profit shall a man have of his labour under the sun?

Perhaps he gets it out of his greater courage to endure, out of his ability to say

“My head is bloody but unbowed.”

I know that when I talked of the trouble to my neighbour over beyond the wood

I was talking to a plucky man.

On the farm, troubles come gradually if at all.

Should the train spoil the hay it will swell the roots,

should drought parch the roots, the sun will ripen the corn.

If pig prices are down, sheep may be a good market,

there is always time for recovery and readjustment,

or so it seems to me when I was farming.

But where trouble comes like a bolt from the blue, rapid as an epileptic stroke,

or a motor-car accident, only courage, and fine courage at that, avails.

One can but hope that when our own testing time comes,

we may remember and emulate.

497 words in Arial font, size 10 exactly.

Having completed this passage, please note how easy it was:

To consistently leave the last word on the line and find the first word on the line below.

As far as possible each line contained just one complete point aiding understanding and retention.

This makes the lines shorter and so is less of a strain on the eyes.

The Arial font is reported to be the easiest font for dyslexic people to read.

Is this a consideration for your business and educational publications?   Tempus Sans 10.5

Is this a consideration for your business and educational publications?      Calibi size 11

Is this a consideration for your business and educational publications?      Arial  size10

The differences are subtle but important, rather like an eye exam chart.

Unfortunately Blogspot alters the fonts and so if you wish 

you could copy and past onto a Word document and compare for yourself.

Did you have to go back over words in order to understand what had been read?

I did go back on an unfamiliar speech pattern.

No? This is because you were in a different state of mind

having more alpha brain waves mixed in with your beta waves.

This is a more focussed way of reading.

Later try and recount what you can remember.

Remember you Set The Intention that you’ll remember what you read in a relaxed manner.

This instructs your mind what to do with the material read

and because you have more alpha waves mixed with your busy,  busy chattering beta waves

your mind is freer from extraneous distractions.

Make a note of how long did it took you to read the passage, your emotional response.

With this second passage, I agree that you are more familiar with the content and style of writing

but did it ‘feel’ more comfortable to read?

Next try finding the first words in a new chapter in a book with a solid block of print

and timing 2 or 3 minutes and read this in your usual style.

When your time is up mark the last word read with a soft pencil.

Turn the book upside down and with a cocktail stick count each word

and mark on a separate piece of paper each 100 count.

Please do not estimate to save time!

Then find the first words of another chapter and

Set The Intention that you’ll remember what you read in a relaxed manner.

Then take your progressively relaxing three breaths

and read for the same amount of time.

Most people will find that they can read and remember more of what they have read.

Now, please take the time to encourage others by recounting your experience of this tip

preferably on my new FaceBook group: Advanced Reading Skills.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube
How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube
Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Advanced Reading Skills Perhaps you’d like to join my FaceBook group ?

www.facebook.com/mreenhunt

www.pinterest.com/mreenhunt

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com         gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life

www.ourinnerminds.blogspot.com               which takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others.

www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com         just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”