TeenHelp - Colouring for mindfulness

Colouring for mindfulness
By Lydia (WhisperingSilence)

Over the past few years, colouring has become a more popular pastime or a hobby for many adults around the world. Colouring is usually an activity associated with young children, and there are benefits such as children finding it calming and relaxing and teaches youngsters about colouring and improving hand-eye coordination while also allowing a freedom of expression and building on their imagination.

These benefits are also the same for adults, but in a different way. Our lives are busy: work, college, keeping up with school work, and conforming to the way the media expects adults to behave, plus the everyday stresses of life. When we are stressed we are usually told to engage in mindfulness activities such as meditation; this however doesn't always work for everyone because let's admit it not all of us want to lay down or sit in a chair and listen to a voice that is supposed to calm us only to find that we finish this activity feeling just the same and questioning what was the point in that?

Do you remember as a child feeling upset or angry and finding it was the little things that helped calm you down; how often as a child did you colour when overwhelmed and felt calmer afterwards? It works for adults too, and before you even ask but won't people think that it's childish or silly to colour as an adult? The answer is no. (And it's not expensive either.)

Many stores now have numerous different colouring books aimed directly at adults and you can get these rather inexpensively too.Dollar/£1 stores sell pens and pencils, and you can get quite a few different books quite cheaply (even charity shops sometimes sell them). Of course there are lots of different designs by different companies, artists etc out there on the shelves.

Colouring as a mindfulness activity can calm us in this hectic worldand offer us an escape from our busy, overwhelmed, stressful and exhausting lives. And the best bit? There's no right or wrong way of colouring in! You want to colour that dog purple? Colour it purple, let your mind switch off and choose what colours you feel drawn to. It does not matter if you go over the lines either, it's your picture, your work of art, as long as you are enjoying it and it is making you feel calmer and relaxed it's good.

I really enjoy colouring and find it a calming activity, also I find on the days where my mental health is bad one of the things that has helped is colouring. It takes me away from the thoughts in my mind, gives me a break and also makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

Of course if you really want to get into this colouring thing and create works of art or just want tips on shading and blending, there's lots of videos online and groups on social media to join where people share their creations, ideas, tips and advice.