When Fantasy Frees the Mind: A Reset Button for High-Achieving Women

During graduate school, I stumbled across an unexpected truth: fantasy fiction can reset your brain.

I was alone in my North Carolina rental—drafty, woodsy, and sweltering in summer—with the power out and nothing to do. Scanning my roommate’s shelf, I picked up a random volume of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. Two pages in, I was hooked. I found book one, and days later, I’d devoured it. Fully. Not skimmed. Read.

I moved on, classes resumed—but the story stayed with me.

Months later, I hit a mental wall writing a twenty-page paper. I’d tried everything—coffee, walks, prayer—and nothing worked. On a whim, I opened book two. Just thirty minutes of reading later, my brain snapped back online. I finished the paper that day—five hours, top-tier writing, solid A.

Lesson learned: when I need to unstick my thoughts, I read fantasy.

✨ Fantasy Isn’t Just Escapism—It’s Expansion

Some people reach for spreadsheets. Some for self-help. Me? I reach for elves, fae, and sword-wielding heroines in leather boots. And it turns out, science is on my side:

• Reading fiction improves empathy and perspective-taking—key skills for leadership and collaboration.
• Fantasy fiction enhances divergent thinking—the brain’s ability to generate multiple, novel solutions.
• Sci-fi and fantasy promote flexible, creative cognition, helping us approach complex problems with fresh eyes.

Translation? If you're leading teams, launching startups, mapping your next pivot, or parenting on fumes—a chapter of fantasy might be the unlock your brain’s been craving.

📚 Why It Works for Women Who Think (a Lot)

High-achieving women are often trained to live in logic. We’re expert task-jugglers, planners, analyzers. But true insight? That tends to sneak in sideways—through metaphor, dreams, archetypes. That’s where fantasy lives.

Fantasy gives you permission to:

• Get out of linear thought
• Feel your way through a problem
• Stretch your emotional and imaginative bandwidth
• Connect to symbols and inner truths that don’t always fit on a spreadsheet

It’s a cognitive vacation—one that comes back with souvenirs.

🧠 Try This: A Mental Reset with Magic

You don’t need a full weekend retreat. Here’s how to slip a little wonder into your routine:

• Keep a fantasy novel on hand during your most intense seasons.
• Read actively—jot down surprising ideas or “a-ha” moments, even if they seem random.
• Let the story stir you—what scene lingers? What character would you be?
• Treat it like play—you’re not escaping your mind. You’re rebooting it.

🖤 Book Recs for Brilliant Women

Want to dive in? Here are three different flavors of mind-opening fiction:

• Ashes of Chastity by Annalise Monét — Sacred identity, sensual longing, and supernatural awakening. (Yes, that’s me.)
• Dawn by Octavia Butler — For something fierce, reflective, and chillingly relevant.
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer — Say what you want, but it’s great for switching off stress and turning on your feels.

Final Thought

So the next time you're stuck, overwhelmed, or burned out, don’t fight it. Try a chapter of fantasy. Not because you’re checking out—but because you’re checking in with the parts of your mind that still believe in magic.

Sometimes, the smartest thing a high-achieving woman can do is read a story that sets her free.

Annalise Monét | Urban Fantasy Author | Genre-bending author of Ashes of Chastity and other works where desire, divinity, and transformation collide. I write urban fantasy with spiritual depth, emotional truth, and women at the center of the magic.