Could colouring help you cope with stress and anxiety?

Can colouring make you happier?

How can pens and pencils promote wellbeing?

I get asked these questions a lot.

Clearly I am no scientist, but I rather suspect it can be narrowed down to 3 things:

 

3 reasons why coloring could help reduce your stress

Nostalgia

Creativity

Digital Detox

 

Nostalgia and Colouring

Chances are the last time you coloured you weren’t worried about your mortgage or global warming. You didn’t have a bank account, a smart phone or a demanding boss. Colouring is that warm cosy hug or the familiar scent of your Grandmother’s cookies baking in the oven that takes you back to you childhood. It’s a magical portal from this (chaotic) adult world to the simpler, easier days of being a carefree kid.

Mad at a spreadsheet? Go colour a daisy!

 

Creativity and Colouring

I truly believe we were all born creative. I don’t care if you think you can’t draw a stickman. When you were a kid, I bet you drew. It’s instinct. Grab a crayon and go. Expressing ourselves is part of what we humans were born to do. Tap into that primitive, creative side and you are going to unleash all sorts of natural happy. Colouring is great because you don’t need expensive kit, to attend a weekly class and you certainly don’t need to worry if a blank canvas scares you! The outlines are all there, all you need to do is bring the color.

 

The Digital Detox and Colouring

Colouring is analogue. No screens needed here! Put your phone down and pick up those pencils! Treat yourself to 15 minutes of screen free time and indulge in some colour therapy. Call it what you want: mindfulness, being in flow, a ‘creative meditation’ – all I know is that if your aren’t interrupted by the ping of an email, or the flash of a tweet and actually get to FOCUS on something, great things can happen! If your brain permission to zone out the digital chatter and focus on something simple, slow and joyful.

 

So can colouring help you deal with stress?

I honestly don’t know. I think it’s something that you simply have to try. I’ve received thousands of notes from people over the years who have told me that colouring has helped them deal with stress, anxiety, depression and host of other conditions. These people range from busy stay at home mums to 911 Call handlers to top flying CEO’s and college students. My heart tells me that if something as simple as colouring could help, it’s probably worth a try.

Keep well, Jx