Your Coloring Book Holds A Key To Happiness
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Health and Wellness

Your Coloring Book Holds A Key To Happiness

Art has the potential to reduce stress and anxiety in children and adults alike. That is important now more than ever.

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Your Coloring Book Holds A Key To Happiness
Prostor

Mankind has always been artistic. In fact, humans mastered creativity before our species grasped civilization or society. The oldest known cave painting is nearly 40,000 years old, while our first cities were created a mere 6,000 years ago. This point stands to show that some aspect of art has always been attractive to us, and that for some reason we used it to demonstrate our feelings, plans and desires.

Humanity's love for the arts, including music, movement, visual pieces and writing, has always been tied closely to our need for self expression. Countless thinkers and creators have expressed their love, frustration and excitement through those various mediums. For example, people who view paintings from Pablo Picasso's "Blue Period" are overwhelmed by the cold and lonely feelings communicated by his color scheme. His paintings gave his viewers a window into understanding his emotional turmoil and intense feelings of loss. Art made expressing these things much easier.

Picasso is only one artist out of many millions whose pain, glory or wonder found a way to be shared with the world through creation.

So what does all this have to do with coloring books?

In recent studies at the University of London, researchers found that viewing and participating in the arts causes an increase in dopamine release in the brain. This means that being part of art culture in some way causes you to feel happier and more romantic. Additionally, the arts spur activity in the frontal cortex of the brain which is responsible for thinking through decisions, maintaining your personality and understanding others. Coloring books can provide people a quick and easy window into this psychological phenomenon.

Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has given this experience a name: "flow."

"Flow" can refer to any state of heightened concentration, and people can experience its effects from a number of mediums. However, Csikszentmihalyi found that humans are more likely to be completely absorbed in an activity if it is based in creativity.

The flow experienced while coloring is mentally very similar to that which you experience during a yoga or meditation session. Coloring gives people a change to be mindful, meditate and relax. Coloring books, especially ones that have patterns to fill in, have been shown to reduce the feelings and effects of stress and anxiety.

This should come as no shock, of course, because humans have been creating things to help ease our day to day stress for thousands of years. Picasso used this same technique to come to terms with the struggle he felt during the "Blue Period," and the cavemen used it to communicate, document and understand the world they lived in. Now, it is possible for every adult to harness the effects of art, even if they aren't drawn to every aspect of it. Coloring books can be for everyone.

With so much data emerging on this topic, and more discussion on the psychological benefits of playtime for adults, I think it's important to set aside time from our busy lives and investigate back to the roots of our creative past.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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