What is Coloring In For Adults About?
What is coloring in for adults about and what has it got to do with Carers Loft? If you live with stress daily, Carers Loft looks at resources to help you find strategies to cope with your life. If I find something that works for me, I share it. This is not only for the Carer, but anyone dealing with any stressful environment, even the person being cared for might just as easily benefit.
It is the same for people suffering with mental illness, for use in aged care, any illness, children and adults on the Autism Spectrum, all can benefit from coloring in. Using a simple coloring book and some pencils, this works as an enjoyable mindfulness exercise. Think of what it can achieve in terms of stress release. If you remember coloring in as a child, you already know the peace that is felt when coloring in as an activity. Now consider choosing it to help you relieve stress.
Easy Mindfulness Exercise And So Simple!
Calm The Mind – Mindfulness Exercise – Promote Being In The Here and Now
Finding the time to do coloring can be one of the most pleasant forms of relaxation. An added benefit is that it takes very little time to organise. If you have it within easy reach with an available space, there is nothing to deter you.
All you need is a coloring book, some coloring pencils and preferably a table to work on. Easy.
Mindless Or Mindful, Your Choice
You can do it as mindlessly or as mindfully as you like. Just being ‘in the moment’, because of the concentrated effort, takes time out from your stress and is what mindfulness is designed to achieve. Bringing one back to themselves, if just for a short while, forces a person to stop and do something distracting.
If you like, play music, or color in with others and chat. Mindfulness is one of the fastest ways to achieve a relaxed state in a world of turmoil. Even if you are back in the grind relatively quickly, that short sabbatical will have you feeling more energised and ready to tackle the next task.
Coloring In Is NOT Reserved Only For Children
As a child I always enjoyed coloring in. Usually fantasy themes and fairies were on the top of my list. My mother used to enjoy creating her own pictures and coloring them in. My passion for Art stems from this. As an adult, I still totally enjoy coloring in, and find it peaceful.
A Wonderful Experience of Childhood, Coloring In.
A Childhood Delight Spans Generations And Across Families
While my daughter was growing up, we colored in a lot. She was in hospital many times as a child due to having Leukaemia and the long drawn out chemotherapy treatment. I always packed coloring books and some pencils to take to the hospital. We were there for days at a time, sometimes longer. It helped pass the time, was relaxing, and gave us quality time in the chaos. She still colors now as an adult and still wants to show me the end product.
My Sister Does It!
When my sister became ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and I had her live with us to care for her, she would join in. It was great and we could be as quiet or as chatty as we liked. She also has a daughter on the Autism Spectrum and they use it as a therapy too, it can be a real sanity saver for child and parent alike. To this day, we still enjoy coloring in as a family. When she comes and visits we often take out the pencils and coloring books. Even my daughter’s friends get roped into it when visiting at times and enjoy it. I come home often to see them coloring in together, very cute.
My Granddaughter Does It!
My granddaughter is old enough now too, and she thoroughly enjoys it. She always wants to use my Derwent pencils because of the variety of colors that she can use. These are my absolute favorite pencils. She is learning how to color in within the lines, and how to outline her work to make it stand out effectively. She is turning into a very neat little artist and I love seeing her finished work.
Adult coloring books have more detail for the teenager or adult in the family, however children with patience and good fine motor skills are quite capable too
Who would’ve thought that simple child’s play could be used therapeutically and so effectively over all of these years and none of us were even aware of it’s value, except that we love it?
Beware, Coloring may cause conflict!
One of the funny things about our family coloring times is that when a new coloring book enters our home, I have to scan it before anyone can use it. This is to save arguments about who gets to color in which picture. If there is one picture that a couple of people want to do, then this way I can print out a copy and then both of them can color the same picture in.
It takes a while to scan the books, but I’d rather do that than have someone miss out on a page they dearly want to color, especially if that person was me that had to miss out. My family just hand them over now and ask me to scan them.
What Is Coloring In For Adults About?
Pencils and a Sharpener – Requirements for a good coloring in session.
It is about mindfulness, stress relief, taking time out for yourself. You may even choose to spend this time together with the person you care for to help remember a time when yours was not a frazzled and frayed relationship. Especially if they suffer mental illness, like my daughter whom I am a Carer for.
There’s A New Therapy In Town And It’s All Child’s Play
There is a new therapy trend sweeping the world in the form of adult coloring books, containing detailed and intricate designs to make it more interesting. I’d like to suggest you take advantage of them to use as another tool in your therapy, self care, mental health, fight towards a calmer life in the madness your world can become. Don’t forget to add a good quality brand of pencils to your list of priorities, Derwents don’t break easily and have thick leads, therefore don’t need to be sharpened as much either.
Benefits For Stress, Mental Illness & Aged Care
- Homely
- Reminiscent
- Bringing out the inner child
- Recaptures youth, reminder of trouble free times
- Therapeutic
- Rekindles imagination
- Sparks creativity
- Promotes lightheartedness
- Encourages design, neatness, contrast, color combinations, patience
- Slows you down
- Helps view things in different perspectives
- Repeat the same picture but using different colors or style
- Easy to set up
- Inexpensive therapy
- Sanity saver
Coloring in has a way of bringing peace and tranquility back into the home causing a calming, soothing experience for everyone participating. If the household is feeling calm, then the effect has become not just internal, but external and has created a nice, loving environment. So next time you feel you could do with some harmony in your home or life, break out the coloring books and pencils and get everyone coloring in.
It’s OK!
Please know that it is OK to do coloring as an adult. What are your thoughts about using coloring in as an adult as a form of therapy, as well as for a simple enjoyment? What is coloring in for adults about for you? Please share them with us in the comments below. Thanks for reading and I hope this gives you permission to be a child again and let loose with your imagination and creativity.
Warm Wishes
Ange
All images are from a free media source, advertiser’s site, or from my own collection of photos
Children coloring in image shared through the following license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
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