How colouring can help with wellbeing.

Danielle here.

Like a lot of people, I struggle with anxiety and struggled with methods to help calm down my anxiety. As a child, all of us loved colouring, don’t even deny it! But, as a adult I almost felt embarrassed to pick up a colouring book, and colour. So like many of us, I did it in secret. It was my own way to calm down, take a moment for myself and allow my inner child to have some fun. Then.. Adult colouring to the world by storm, and soon enough adult colouring books began to pop up, and became more popular. There was YouTube videos about the new craze, Amazon and Facebook ADs. I suddenly didn’t feel embarrassed anymore, especially when local shops began to sell them on their shelves, and like many of us, I took the opportunity to browse through the selection and purchased some for myself.

I proudly took them home, picked out my favourite page, and coloured away with my crayons. It really helped me in those times when everything became overwhelming, just to step away from being a adult and focussing on just one thing at a time. Choosing the page, choosing the colours, choosing how I want to colour with absolutely no rules and anybody to tell me that I was to old for this. It felt refreshing. It really helped me focus on my breathing also, as I struggle with that a lot when anxious. It has been proven that colouring is a form of stress relief for adults as calms the part of the brain which deals with feelings of stress and fear and instead stimulates the parts responsible for creativity and logic.

How does adult colouring help relax people?

• A simple act such as colouring, takes your attention away from yourself and all of the things that are causing you stress! It helps shifts your attentions onto the present-moment.
• It helps relax the brain when our thoughts are focused on such a simple activity, your brain tends to relax. You aren’t focusing on your own thoughts, instead focused on the activity at hand.
• Being creative is pleasurable. So, go ahead and colour outside the lines! The best thing about the outcome of colouring, is that there are no rules. You can be as neat or as messy as you want to be. You choose your own rules – that’s one of the relaxing perks.

The benefits of colouring for adults

• It’s a modern self-help tool.
• It helps your relax, maintain focus and can help you sleep better at night.
• Can be used as a alternative from yoga and meditation.

So, how does colouring help with my wellbeing?

In a nut shell, colouring helps reduce our stress and anxiety by relaxing our brain. Having creative freedom helps us calm our thoughts and allows us to throw all of our creativeness onto a piece of paper. Ever wondered how blue and pink blend? Lets just experiment with it today – there’s no rules! Colouring trains our brains to focus, thus helping us with everyday tasks. It also helps you switch off, letting your thoughts escape and focus on one activity.

Why not try colouring yourself? Personally, I do enjoy colouring with bambino crayons as I don’t have to deal with annoying cramp in my hand from pressing to hard, they help me relax as they are comfortable to use, and blend easily.