11 Reasons Why You Should Totally Get A Colouring Book Right Now
This applies to everyone! Doesn't matter if you are a 71-year-old grandma, a 35-year-old working adult, or a 16-year-old teen.
By Tang Ruxyn — 22 Aug 2015, 10:02 AM
Well, even if you were colouring out of the lines a looooong time ago, you should totally consider rekindling things TODAY as an adult. Here's why:
1. There's a colouring book out there for everyone:
You could be a graffiti enthusiast...
2. NO ONE will stop you from using fancy pens, markers or even crayons to colour. Yeah, you can forget the pencils.
...like when you were the only one who brought colour pencils to class and you had to share it with your classmates...
You: Do you have colour pencils?
Your classmate: Yes.
Dramatic pause
Your classmate: At home...
...or the time you proudly walked out to receive your prize for winning a colouring contest
6. You can finally create frame-able works of art, with 50% of the work already cut out for you
Think of all the things you can do with the colouring pages that you've coloured - the possibilities are endless! You can frame it up as a decoration, send it as a gift to your friends or even compile all of them and have your own art exhibition at home.
7. It's insanely therapeutic
When coloring, we activate different areas of our two cerebral hemispheres, says psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala.
"The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress."
In simplest terms, coloring has a de-stressing effect because when we focus on a particular activity, we focus on it and not on our worries. But it also "brings out our imagination and takes us back to our childhood, a period in which we most certainly had a lot less stress."
8. You get to train your fine motor skills and vision
According to psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala, "The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors. This incorporates the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills [coordination necessary to make small, precise movements]."
9. When you're really good at it, your artwork may be featured by your favourite illustrator...
10. ...and that means new friends from miles and miles away
Just make a quick search on Instagram and you will find out that many people around the world are seriously into colouring books now.
11. You can finally schedule a new activity together with your friends. Reality check: when was the last time you did something artsy together?
Excited to get a colouring book already? You can get one from local arts and supply stores or major bookstores. Suggestions on some of the most popular adult colouring books that you might want to get:
• Secret Garden: An Inky Teasure Hunt; Coloring Book by Johanna Basford
• The Mindfulness Colouring Book: Anti-Stress Art Therapy for Busy People by Emma Farrarons
• Outside the Lines by Souris Hong-Porretta
• Colour Me Good by Mel Elliott
