Choose a colour, zone in enough to stay within the lines and zone out on everyday stress. Grown-up colouring books are catching on like wildfire, (orange, red and touch of yellow), and there are some great reasons why.
It’s about flow. Methodically filling in the leaves on the vines surrounding my hidden garden door in my Secret Garden colouring book hones my focus in a meditative way. My mind is distracted with the rhythm of the pencil moving back and forth and voila, I’m firmly in the moment and there is no thinking room left for nagging worries.
The image is there on the page and it’s beautifully outlined. No intimidating blank canvas staring up at you to stress over and ruin your chi. The art that’s left for the “colourist” is doable and the results can be really satisfying. Simply selecting a colour from the box is a pretty low-key way to get a hit of satisfying control missing in the chaos of day-to-day life. Even the act of mixing and matching colours activates the creativity centres of our brains.
There is some nostalgia involved too. Colouring brings you back to a simpler time. Remember when a big huge new box of Crayola’s was a buzz? It’s fun to go back to an activity enjoyed as a kid and blow your old self out of the water. Grown-up motor control makes you able to colour like a boss and you should see the amazing boxes of coloured pencils out there that won’t break the bank.
Once anything takes hold today, the scientists are on it and their studies are revealing that heart rates lower and brain waves smooth out. Concentrating on the colouring task at hand helps replace negative thoughts and images with pleasant ones.
All this newfound creativity might just surprise you and spill out into other aspects of your life. Adults who have embraced this new hobby say they have become great at picking out colours for their clothes and homes and have had breakthroughs at the office.
I have replaced electronics with a tin box of 24 watercolour pencils and a quality colouring book with nice thick pages as a wind-down activity before bed. For a double dose of calm, I add Saje Stress Release to my aromaOm diffuser and spend a few minutes in my flow colouring zone.