I have discovered something that I’m sure some of you already know about. Coloring for adults is here! Coloring was something a lot of us did as children, when we were learning fine motor skills and being creative. It was fun, relaxing and was a great way to pass the time, but it used to be for children only.
Good news, now as adults we can do our own coloring. Not the blocky childish pictures to color in that children have, but a wide variety of different types of things to color in. From the easy to the fine detailed and difficult. These can help you refocus your mind to take it off of a stressful situation, leaving you calmer and better able to think when you are done. They help you exercise your fine motor skills. It also helps train your brain to focus better as well.
Coloring helps your brain. A great benefit is that coloring has been shown to relax the amygdala, which controls your flight or fight response in your brain. This ultimately relaxes you,and reduces your anxiety levels. It also helps your brain because coloring requires both the left and right side of your brain to work together. You have to focus to stay in the lines, match colors together, and combine that with your creative side of your brain.
Coloring can give you free decorations for your house if you like. If you do enough that you love what your results are, frame it, put it up on your refrigerator, put one on your mirror daily to give you something beautiful to look at.
Coloring can be both a solo activity or a social one. Coloring groups are popping up all over the country for adults to get together, do some coloring and sometimes even have a glass of wine. You can head over to Meetup.com and find one near you! http://coloring.meetup.com/
Best of all coloring is an expression of you. It is your coloring book, you can color things exactly how you want, regardless of reality. Want a purple cow, or a striped tree? Go for it, it’s all about what speaks to you.
I’ve been doing this myself for just a few weeks now. I have to say it’s become extremely addictive. I bring my book and colored pencils to the doctors office to do while waiting, I work on it when I have a free moment in the evening. I color when I can’t sleep and it helps relax me. One day I was having major anxiety and a half hour of coloring took away the majority of the anxiety for me, without having to resort to any medication. It was also relatively inexpensive. I purchased 2 different packages of colored pencils to get a variety, plus a 72 page coloring book from the bookstore. Total price spent was around $14.
Here are some of my attempts at coloring. They are all butterflies since the butterfly is the Thyroid symbol!
Coloring from book Vive Le Color! Butterflies published by Abrams, coloring color by Britney!
follow Britney on Twitter at @BttrflyBritney or @Warriorbtrflies or online at http://www.WarriorButterflies.com
Warrior Butterfly Britney 