Or colored pencils, or markers.
Were you one of those kids who could spend hours with a coloring book? Why was that? Perhaps coloring (inside or outside of the lines) was a very soothing activity. It makes sense!
Why does “coloring” work? It’s de-stressing because the drawing, the MENTAL part, is already done for you. You don’t get caught up in whether or not your “work of art” will look like a work of art when you are done.
Coloring also allows you to become purely immersed into the physical/physiological benefits. When you engage in an activity that involves your reflexive motor skills in a fairly low-stress environment, your brain starts releasing dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is highly associated with reward centers in the brain.
Here’s the best benefit to coloring: CREATIVITY! I know, that doesn’t seem to make sense. How are you becoming more creative when you are simply adding color to something that another person actually created?
Research on creativity shows that there are three critical factors to increasing activity in the creativity centers of the brain. The first is physical involvement in a reflexive, non-thinking type of activity (shower, driving, and oh, yes, coloring). The second is the presence of dopamine in the brain. And the third is DISTRACTION. Coloring creates a minor distraction—the minor decision making about which color to use and where to apply it. This low-level distraction allows what researchers call “incubation” to happen in the brain.
The dopamine and distraction essentially mellow out the critical, judgmental area of the brain, which allows the innovative and creative areas to flow UNHINDERED. Basically, new ideas are allowed to develop without being shut down too quickly by your inner critic.
If you want to give your creativity a boost, or if you have a problem to solve, try breaking out the crayons! There are plenty of “coloring pages” available on line, even for adults. Here’s a freebie for you.
Print it out and get busy coloring! You will certainly de-stress, and you might get an AH-HA moment out of it too!
When is the last time you colored?
