I have an adult colouring book, as do Bex and my aunty. As a child I always loved colouring and doodling but as you grow up the available colouring books just become, quite obviously, childish. So it's been really nice to see that someone somewhere realised that the joy of colouring does not diminish as we grow older. That adults actually want to sit down and lose themselves into the absorption of colouring exactly as we did when we were children.
So what is it about colouring. Why do we still feel the need to colour. Surely we should have outgrown this by now. I know that I certainly haven't. I love my colouring books and I have a few friends who also do. I've always enjoyed drawing and doodling, colouring in and painting. A pastime that I was able to continue with Ben and Bex whilst they were younger, that I continued as a grade two teacher but once all that stopped I felt I couldn't continue without a specific reason. What adult just sits and doodles. I was so wrong though; I was forgetting that my artistic side needed an outlet, that I should have allowed myself to continue drawing and doodling. I let my sensible head take over and gradually without even realising it, let myself down.
'According to clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis, colouring is a stress-free activity that relaxes the amygdala — the fear center of the brain — and allows your mind to get the rest it needs.'
The more we allow our fear centre to relax the more relaxed we will become over all. Therefore it's actually a very important stress reliever. Think back to the reasons why we encouraged our children to colour in or draw. The obvious reason is that it kept them occupied and gave them something to do when we needed some valuable 'me time' or in fact needed them occupied so we could focus on something else. A built in baby sitter of sorts. So the first benefit of adult colouring is that it forces us to focus on something. We get involved in the scene before us, trying to stay within the lines and carefully choosing our colours. In a world that is constantly changing and stimulating it's important that we move away from our tablets, smart phones, tv's, that we allow our, often over-stressed brains to just stop. Even five minutes a day will help you to relax and focus on something other than the madding world that surrounds us. Psychologists have been prescribing colouring as a form of treatment for years.
'Clinical counsellor Leslie Marshall notes that the activity "opens up the frontal lobe of the brain — the home of organising and problem solving — and focuses the mind" by allowing colorers to forget their worries.'
And in this day and age this is massively important. I've read that some people have colouring parties. Friends are invited round, wine is poured, chat is light and people can just be themselves. Who cares that you've coloured your cat blue and your grass is pink. It's your colouring book and if those colours are where your artist side has taken you then you have every right to do that with no repercussions. Not sure I'm ready for colouring parties but I do thoroughly enjoy sitting down with my colouring book and a glass of wine. To the extent that I've actually deleted games off my iPad and iPhone. And that's a good thing.
And one of the other reasons that I encouraged Ben and Bex to colour wasn't just to encourage them to be able to focus on something and put them into a happy place, it was to encourage their manual dexterity and fine motor skills. To be able to manipulate a crayon and stay within the lines was an important start to their education. At some point they would need to be able to hold a pencil at school. Nowadays I find that my hand writing is so much messier than it used to be. I type everything. Even my notes are on my phone, not on a notepad. I still use a pen but not on a daily basis. I rarely need to. I even send more ecards than paper cards. So my hand and pen skills are lax and lazy. And I've found that I actually enjoying having a crayon in my hand again. I feel a freedom within my hand and eye coordination again, and that makes me happy.
So maybe as we live within our high energy world and more people than ever are suffering from anxiety and stress related illness, it's time we learnt from our own childhoods, from how we brought up our own children. That it's ok to daydream and say no, that it's ok to just stop and pick up our crayons. Let your inner child out, they never went away we just stopped believing in the simple things in life. And who knows, maybe one day, you'll have enough pages in your colouring book to decorate a wall.
So what is it about colouring. Why do we still feel the need to colour. Surely we should have outgrown this by now. I know that I certainly haven't. I love my colouring books and I have a few friends who also do. I've always enjoyed drawing and doodling, colouring in and painting. A pastime that I was able to continue with Ben and Bex whilst they were younger, that I continued as a grade two teacher but once all that stopped I felt I couldn't continue without a specific reason. What adult just sits and doodles. I was so wrong though; I was forgetting that my artistic side needed an outlet, that I should have allowed myself to continue drawing and doodling. I let my sensible head take over and gradually without even realising it, let myself down.
'According to clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis, colouring is a stress-free activity that relaxes the amygdala — the fear center of the brain — and allows your mind to get the rest it needs.'
The more we allow our fear centre to relax the more relaxed we will become over all. Therefore it's actually a very important stress reliever. Think back to the reasons why we encouraged our children to colour in or draw. The obvious reason is that it kept them occupied and gave them something to do when we needed some valuable 'me time' or in fact needed them occupied so we could focus on something else. A built in baby sitter of sorts. So the first benefit of adult colouring is that it forces us to focus on something. We get involved in the scene before us, trying to stay within the lines and carefully choosing our colours. In a world that is constantly changing and stimulating it's important that we move away from our tablets, smart phones, tv's, that we allow our, often over-stressed brains to just stop. Even five minutes a day will help you to relax and focus on something other than the madding world that surrounds us. Psychologists have been prescribing colouring as a form of treatment for years.
'Clinical counsellor Leslie Marshall notes that the activity "opens up the frontal lobe of the brain — the home of organising and problem solving — and focuses the mind" by allowing colorers to forget their worries.'
And in this day and age this is massively important. I've read that some people have colouring parties. Friends are invited round, wine is poured, chat is light and people can just be themselves. Who cares that you've coloured your cat blue and your grass is pink. It's your colouring book and if those colours are where your artist side has taken you then you have every right to do that with no repercussions. Not sure I'm ready for colouring parties but I do thoroughly enjoy sitting down with my colouring book and a glass of wine. To the extent that I've actually deleted games off my iPad and iPhone. And that's a good thing.
And one of the other reasons that I encouraged Ben and Bex to colour wasn't just to encourage them to be able to focus on something and put them into a happy place, it was to encourage their manual dexterity and fine motor skills. To be able to manipulate a crayon and stay within the lines was an important start to their education. At some point they would need to be able to hold a pencil at school. Nowadays I find that my hand writing is so much messier than it used to be. I type everything. Even my notes are on my phone, not on a notepad. I still use a pen but not on a daily basis. I rarely need to. I even send more ecards than paper cards. So my hand and pen skills are lax and lazy. And I've found that I actually enjoying having a crayon in my hand again. I feel a freedom within my hand and eye coordination again, and that makes me happy.
So maybe as we live within our high energy world and more people than ever are suffering from anxiety and stress related illness, it's time we learnt from our own childhoods, from how we brought up our own children. That it's ok to daydream and say no, that it's ok to just stop and pick up our crayons. Let your inner child out, they never went away we just stopped believing in the simple things in life. And who knows, maybe one day, you'll have enough pages in your colouring book to decorate a wall.