Colouring books as a kind of therapy for adults are becoming increasingly popular. My parents were huge fans of colouring books when I was little. They had limited amount of funds, and there wasn’t the range of Children’s activity books that you now see available in the shops or online. I can remember asking every birthday and Christmas for a new set of “Felt-tipped” markers, as they had run out of ink.
Back in the 1970’s there was only a very limited range of them on the market, here where I lived my childhood life in a small town of about 1800 people in New Zealand. I can’t remember the title of the books I colored as it was 50 years ago, but I do know that it was a real treat to save up my pocket money and put it towards the latest coloring book that was available in the local Bookshop and Stationier just doors down the Main Street from my parents hardware shop (We lived in accommodation at the back of the shop). There was no chain stores, Two dollar shops or Amazon, so things weren’t all that cheap to buy and my parents didn’t have a lot of discretionary cash.
Anyway, fast forward 50 years after these times, I now find myself enjoying coloring books as a mature adult. So much so, that I have published several coloring anb picture books this year. But more about that later. So I now find myself sitting at the dining room table with a rather large collection of colouring pencils and a packet of markers, concentrating fiercely on turning monochrome designs into all the colours under the sun. When I was a child, we didn’t have neon pencils, or metallic pencils, alcohol based markers, water based markers. The choice is now endless.
The Healing Power of Art
Art may not be able to cure disease, but it can surely make coping with it a lot better. Researchers have acknowledged the therapeutic qualities of art for years, and today, art therapy is used to help people express themselves when what they’re feeling is too difficult to put into words, such as when they’re faced with a cancer diagnosis.
Research shows this form of therapy often has tangible results. One study, for example, found that mindfulness art therapy for women with cancer helped to significantly decrease symptoms of physical and emotional distress during treatment. Another study from the same year concluded that after only one hour of art therapy, adult cancer patients of all ages “overwhelmingly expressed comfort” and a desire to continue with the therapy.
“People with cancer very often feel like their body has been taken over by the cancer. They feel overwhelmed,” Joke Bradt, a music therapist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, told Reuters. “To be able to engage in a creative process… that stands in a very stark contrast to sort of passively submitting oneself to cancer treatments.”
It’s not just those with cancer that can benefit from the visual arts, either. Art therapy is also helpful among people dealing with a variety of other conditions, such as depression, dementia, anxiety, and PTSD.
On a recent shopping trip, I saw colouring books prominently displayed in most of the bookshops I visited. You could colour in detailed images of mandalas and other abstract patterns, houses and gardens, or birds and butterflies The monochrome pictures were intricate and detailed, not like the simple pictures in children’s books. And just looking at them made me want to grab some colouring pencils and markers and start colouring. Some designs had had a considerable amount of thought put into their designs. There was no AI back when I was a child.
How Can Coloring Improve your Health?
1. Relieving Stress
Colouring is a healthy way to relieve stress. It calms the brain and helps your body relax. This can improve sleep and fatigue while decreasing body aches, heart rate, respiration, and feelings of depression and anxiety.
Although coloring isn’t the ultimate cure for stress and anxiety, sitting down for a long coloring session holds great value. As you colour, pay attention to your breathing rhythm, ensuring steady, full breaths from your diaphragm, and tune into your heart rate periodically if you can.
2. Promoting Mindfulness
Coloring can help you be more mindful. Mindfulness is the ability to focus and stay in the moment.
For example, because you’re focusing on color choice and staying inside the lines, you’re only thinking about the present moment. You can shut off the noise around you, and give your mind the gift of focusing on the movements, sensations and emotions of your present moment.
Practice being nonjudgmental as you go through the task with no expectations — just being in the moment. If your mind wanders, which is normal, gently return to what you are experiencing right now. While coloring, you use the parts of your brain that enhance focus and concentration. It gives you the opportunity to disconnect from stressful thoughts.
3. Embracing the Imperfect
There’s no right or wrong way to color. Coloring is a noncompetitive activity, so there isn’t pressure to “level up,” win a prize or beat the clock. You can color for as long or as little time as you want. You don’t need to finish a picture in one sitting.
Try to let go of judgments or expectations and enjoy the simple beauty of coloring. It doesn’t matter if your picture is neat or messy. The only thing that matters is if you found enjoyment and relaxation while coloring.
