Remember the days of coloring books as a kid, when you would spend hours sitting on the floor with a box of crayons, shading in cartoon characters and animals? When I was a child, I used to wake up super excited every morning; my foremost thought being about coloring. Coloring was what gave me joy and took me on adventures into a whole new world. As an adult, my love of coloring books never went away. I continue to color to this very day.
Coloring books are not just for kids anymore. In the past few months, they have become an international sensation, their popularity among adults continuing to soar. As it turns out, there are immense health benefits to using coloring books for adults. Here are a few reasons why YOU should start coloring as well.
Relieves stress and anxiety
We all need a break sometimes to escape from the present world into a new world free of worry and problems. Well, coloring is your friend. Coloring calms the amygdala, a part of your brain that controls your emotions and stress. According to experts, coloring helps you de-stress and relax by allowing you to unplug and mentally escape to your childhood, a time of less stress and carefreeness. Even the simple process of choosing a page to color, which color to use, and how to use it provides a sense of calm by distracting your brain. Coloring uses another part of your brain called the “visual-spatial,” a form of visual attention that involves in directing your focus and attention to a location in space. By looking at the colors and spaces when coloring in, you occupy parts of your brain normally involved in anxiety, thus leading to relaxation. It's also a more fun, quick, and easier activity than going to the gym.
Increases your vision and motor skills
The back-and-forth movement of the crayon uses both hemispheres of the brain to communicate which uses your fine motor skills and vision. According to psychologist Gloria Martinez Ayala, this action not only uses logic( coloring shapes and forms) but, also creativity when mixing and matching different colors. This integrates areas of the cerebral cortex that are involved in vision and fine motor skills. Coloring also slows down the aging of the brain by keeping your brain and body active.
Boosts creativity
According to Jane Avila, a licensed clinical social worker and art therapist, coloring allows your motor cortex to recognize movement and cause the frontal lobe (which controls your organization and regulation of your surroundings) to relax, allowing you to lose yourself in coloring, thus boosting your creativity.
Therapeutic
Adult coloring books offer intricate sketches and designs that target your fine motor skills, soothing and relaxing your mind with different types of imagery. Joel Pearson, a senior lecturer at UNSW in the school of psychology, states that coloring books are therapeutic in the way that they offer a source of stress relief in the same way patients with anxiety or PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) use “Tetris” to calm and relax the brain. Acording to Pearson:
“When colouring you have a defined task which is challenging enough but not enough that it become problematic… It’s repetitive but you don’t become bored.”
Leads to mindfulness
Like yoga and meditation, coloring involves focusing your attention on simple tasks that are repetitive. This concentration replaces negative thoughts and emotions creating a state of complete serenity and calm. The repetitive actions of choosing colors and coloring in allows your brain to focus on the present while blocking out negative or intrusive thoughts. According to clinical psychologist Kimberly Wulfert:
"In coloring, you've got this physical sensation of the tool you're using touching on the paper. You also have the feeling in your hands and fingers holding this tool, and moving in different rhythms as you fill in the space," she says, adding that "you're being mindful, and when you move in a rhythmic fashion for an extended period of time, that becomes a meditation."
Because...it's...FUN!
Coloring books are so diverse and fun, with themes ranging from sophisticated, intricate designs to quirky comic classics. You can find just about anything. It's a haven of endless fun where your only problem is running out of color pencils or forgetting where you placed the pencil sharpener.
Need a place to start?
Check out the popular and bestsellers "Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book" by Johanna Basford and "Balance (Angie's Extreme Stress Minders Volume 1)" by Angie Grace. There are also other tons of fun and amazing coloring books for adults by Creative Haven.
Take a break and let your inner child out to play!
