Coloring For Stress And Anxiety Relief

Coloring books for adults have become tremendously popular, and they may be exactly what you need to brighten your life. According to some reputable psychologists, coloring is a stress-free activity that enables your mind to get the so much needed rest by inducing relaxation of the amygdala - the fear center in the brain. Nonetheless, there are also some other health benefits of coloring.

Even if it doesn't do any good to us from a health point of view, many adult individuals would still be coloring. Coloring is a fun activity in itself and, therefore, de-stressing, but this is only a small bonus to many of us. Coloring is simply marvelous because it is fun.

1Coloring Reduces Stress And Anxiety

Since coloring induces the relaxation of the fear center in your brain, it also makes you feel relaxed and gives your amygdala a break from time to time, which reduces your overall stress levels. Coloring is a mindful, leisure time activity you can schedule, being, therefore, ideal for making your amygdala respond to stress less abruptly. If you want, you can even use coloring events to build stronger connections with your co-workers. You should try to replace your weekly happy hours with some coloring parties. This can be a lot of fun, not to mention that there are next to zero chances that you stab each other with colored pencils.

DIY is one of the biggest trends in our modern world, but not everyone can find the time to make their own perfumed candles, soaps, and pottery. Sometimes, even painting with sprays seems a hard thing to do. However, once you've finished filling up your 100-page coloring book, you can use its pages to create any craft you want, including wall decor and decoupage. What stops you from coloring, anyway?

2Coloring Trains Your Brain To Focus

Staying inside the contours requires focused attention but not as much as to become stressful. Coloring opens up the frontal lobe of your brain, where the problem-solving centers are, making your mind focus on the task at hand and allowing you to forget your worries for a while. Being able to live in the present moment fully is a critical skill in our hectic world, and coloring trains you to set everything else aside for the time you spend on it.

Coloring requires your two brain hemispheres to communicate, the result being a strengthening of your vision and of your fine motor skills. According to psychologists, this activity is a happy mix of logic and your creativity in mixing and matching colors. As a result, this involves using the areas of the brain that are responsible for vision and fine motor skills. Just like crossword puzzles, coloring books have therapeutic value and may help prevent or delay the early symptoms of dementia in seniors.

3Coloring Gives You A Chance To Be Social

As coloring becomes a tremendously popular hobby for adults, there's no wonder it has turned from a solo activity into a social one. Adults get together to enjoy a glass of fine wine and to socialize during coloring parties. For women who don't have any drawing skills or who don't feel comfortable drawing, this is a great way to socialize by doing something that involves communicating with other people. Since coloring doesn't require too much concentration, you can always have a glass of wine and enjoy a chat while doing it.

A famous psychologist made a discovery when he started recommending to some of his patients to try coloring. He gave these psychiatric patients mandalas to color as part of their therapy; such mandalas can be found in the coloring books available today. However, regardless of what you decide to color, you'll be in line with this psychologist's recommendations as coloring enables you to socialize.

4Coloring Lets You Be You

Your coloring book is all yours. What others think of it isn't your problem. You don't even have to show it to others, should you feel that you'd rather keep it to yourself.

There's no need to let others know that you've accidentally colored your cat's tail green because you thought it was just another plant, and that's why you recolored your whole cat and turned it to black. If you want to color a goose in red, that's also fine. This is your book and your imagination, so you can color anything just the way you feel like.

If you haven't yet found a way to legitimize the cost of adult coloring books and art supplies, this article is for you. Here, you'll see all the benefits of coloring, both direct and indirect. Hopefully, the reasons listed in this article will convince you to take up some colored pencils or crayons and get to work so that you can find out all about that pleasure for yourself.