Adult coloring is popular for several reasons, but you might be wondering whether it can benefit you. This is something you may have dismissed as you grew older, but there are several reasons you might want to revisit the activity.
Coloring is good for adults because it allows their brains to take a break from day-to-day life. The act of coloring improves mental health by reducing stress and anxiety, and this leads to physical benefits like improved sleep and motor control. On top of this, coloring is something you can do everywhere, so these benefits are easy to access on the go.
The eight positive benefits of coloring are:
- Coloring relieves stress and anxiety.
- Coloring improves sleep quality.
- Coloring kicks out negativity.
- Coloring mimics a meditative state.
- Coloring helps you focus on the moment.
- Coloring provides technology-free time.
- Coloring improves motor skills.
- Coloring can travel with you.
Adults may see coloring as a childish activity, but evidence supports that by spending some time coloring, you can improve your overall quality of life. Even if you can only afford to spend a half-hour a day on coloring, you are bound to see a difference. Read on to learn the many benefits of coloring for adults.
Coloring Relieves Stress and Reduces Anxiety
When you color, you put focus on the activity, meaning your brain has to take attention away from places of thought that might cause you stress or anxiety. When you are working on an activity that is both simple and multifaceted, you have little room to think about life or negative thoughts and emotions.
In addition, the repetition involved in coloring helps your brain to relax. While you might love excitement, your brain appreciates moments of predictability because it does not need to be looking for the outcome.
As you relax, your brain can lower the activity in your amygdala. The amygdala is the part of the brain that is responsible for your fight or flight instinct, and while it is important, there are times when decreasing the activity is beneficial to you. Our brains are not great at managing stress, so taking time to implement activities that do so is important to our mental health.
Coloring Improves Sleep Quality
Stress in our lives can lead to several sleep disorders, including insomnia, sleep apnea, and restless leg syndrome. In turn, a lack of quality sleep adds to the stress in our lives. The cycle just continues, deepening to waking issues like:
- Depression
- Weight gain
- Increased blood pressure
The only solution is to intercept the cycle, and coloring can help here. When you have removed a great deal of stress, you automatically open up a pathway towards a better sleep experience. Stress triggers our fight-or-flight responses, increasing hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. While these hormones are essential to detecting danger, they are not something you want peaking right at bedtime.
When you destress, you lower these hormones and allow your body to enter a true restful state. You will be able to fall asleep faster and enter the correct depth of sleep necessary for true rest, which will hopefully prepare you for the next day and decrease stress overall.
Coloring Kicks Out Negativity
When you color, you tap into your inner child. This is the part of you that knows how to search for the positive aspects of life. If you are not convinced, think of how you feel when you watch a television show from your childhood. These things just naturally bring out positivity and peace within us.
Coloring requires quite a bit of brain activity when you are doing things like:
- Recognizing shapes, forms, and lines
- Picking colors
- Deciding on designs
This leaves little energy for your brain to spend trying to process negative aspects in your mind. You can dig deeper into this benefit by looking for coloring books that focus on positivity, like affirmations or motivational coloring books.
Coloring Mimics a Meditative State
Coloring does not replace meditation by any means, but there are similarities between the two. Both focus on repetition that leads to a calming and enlightened state of mind, and this is achieved by bringing about change in your heart rate and brainwaves. You can see this best when your coloring subject is something repetitive, like a pattern or a mandala.
Coloring is a great option for someone who would love to meditate but finds themselves unable to focus for an extended period. You might just find that coloring improved your ability to focus enough that, in time, you will be able to meditate.
Coloring Helps You Focus on the Moment
When you are taking the time to the color, you are putting all your attention into that. Because there are multiple aspects you need to focus on, your brain gets practice honing in on the task at hand, and this can transfer to other instances when you might need to focus.
This happens because coloring opens up your frontal lobe so you can set aside other thoughts and focus. This is the same thing that happens when you are performing tasks like cutting your grass or driving. You end up immersed in the activity, and it almost becomes second nature.
This means that coloring can be a great activity to get into if you find yourself needing to get out of your head. Regular coloring helps to exercise the parts of your brain needed for focus, so coloring can also train you to improve focus in other areas of your life.
Coloring Provides Technology-Free Time
If you plan on only coloring on a screen, this one is not quite for you, but it is worth pointing out. When you take time to color on paper, you are giving yourself a break from technology. Of course, you might have a television on in the background or your phone right next to you, but you still benefit from a drastic reduction in screen time.
This can also be a great time for bonding with friends or family because it requires you all to turn away from your screens. While it still is not the same as a face-to-face conversation, coloring together lets you busy your minds enough to decrease pressure on the interaction without consuming all of your attention.
Many people choose to color right before bedtime because it is an effective way to unwind after a long day. On top of this, we have learned that the blue light emitted from phones and other screens decreases melatonin, a hormone needed to get us to sleep. Looking at paper instead allows melatonin production to occur uninhibited.
Coloring Improves Motor Skills
When you are coloring, you need to activate and connect both sides of your brain at the same time. Your brain is telling your hands how to move to stay in the lines, what colors to pick, and how you should be moving to shade the image.
There is a reason coloring is a favorite activity for childcare professionals, and it is not just because kids love it. The connections formed between the brain and body are important to build up and maintain.
Coloring also requires you to use logic and creativity at the same time, two skills that do not always go hand in hand. The combination exercises a larger portion of our nervous system in an unfamiliar way, improving vision along with motor skills.
Check out other benefits of coloring HERE.
Coloring can Travel with You
Coloring is a great hobby because it is so easy to pack up and travel with. You can choose any medium you like, but the most common for travel is colored pencils. They do not melt in the heat, and they are easier to keep track of than markers because they do not require lids.
You can buy travel tins for coloring or create your own using a binder and a pencil bag. There are even pocket-sized coloring books that can travel much easier than a full-sized book.
Beyond this, digital coloring makes coloring an extremely versatile hobby. While most apps focus on the drop and fill, some will have a free coloring option. Paired with a stylus, you can easily emulate the coloring experience without having to tote around books and pencils.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be an artist to benefit from coloring?
No, coloring is a great choice because there are options for every level of expertise. It is worth pointing out that beginners may want to choose images with fewer details, so they do not get overwhelmed, but that is entirely up to you.
Which styles of adult coloring are most beneficial?
While the most beneficial style of adult coloring is what appeals to you, there is a science that indicates that coloring mandalas are especially useful for relieving stress because of the focus on repetition. Coloring pages with affirmations can also help you implement them in your day-to-day life.
Does coloring replace art therapy?
While coloring shares some benefits with art therapy, it is nowhere near a replacement. Art therapy involves creating a relationship with your therapist, and this relationship is essential for your growth and improvement. Beyond that, coloring on your own does not provide the same insight that a therapist could share.
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