Coping With Stress with Coloring Books and Apps
Are we able to diffuse the stress in our lives through coloring? Do coloring books relieve stress for adults and kids? The answer is yes, but to understand why, we’ll need to take a closer looks.
You live in a world that is more hectic and stressful than ever. With all the tension in the world, you are under stress even when you can’t realize it. We even don’t have the time to take ourselves to a place where we can deal with our hectic and stressful lives and find relief in our minds.
When you see any busy child enjoying their activities, you might feel that your time of relaxation has passed. Do you ever think of spending your time coloring books like you did when you were young? If so, you can do it even though you are an adult! This article will help you find several benefits of coloring adult books and apps, no matter how old you are. When was the last time you colored your book? Were you a child? Now is the time to pick all the colored pencils and reduce your stress by doing colors.
Why Coloring By Numbers Is Good For Kids
Kids feel enthusiastic while coloring numbers. It’s fun and is helpful for the development of fine motor skills, which aids them in writing and reading. It also helps them develop their talent and enhances their focus on a subject.1 When they have to match a number from key to picture and color only those numbers, it enhances their ability to focus their minds and think out of the box that these numbers are not only used for counting.
Do Coloring Books Relieve Stress for Adults?
Children’s coloring books are usually designed to teach children to color between the lines while still being creative. Adult coloring books, on the other hand, tend to be focused on health and wellness. Adult coloring books help them reduce stress.2 Many psychiatrists believe that coloring helps deal with stress.
Today everyone is connected through multimedia and social platforms. Still, they don’t realize that they’re not comforting themselves: they’re making their lives more stressful. In this stressful life, everyone is rushed toward work if they don’t get any attention. Their morale and passion for work fall, and they develop anxiety and depression. Under these circumstances, coloring books can alleviate all of your present stress.2 Stress can be decreased if we live only in our present and forget our past and future. Coloring accomplishes this as our mind is busy tackling the different shades between lines and doesn’t focus on what has happened or what will happen in the future.
Therapeutic Benefits of Coloring Books
- Coloring helps you deal with many health issues like anxiety and depression.3 Many people get consultations from psychiatrists and receive medication. Still, coloring books help them deal with stress and anxiety, as it gives comfort to their mind and body. This can help enhance sleep and lead a healthy life.
- Coloring is one of the activities that works your entire brain. Life can be dull without creative activities. When you use your mind while coloring between the lines, brain neurons get activated and work with other neurons that earlier were not activated. Through this, you engage both hemispheres of the brain, which enhances your fine motor skills and problem-solving skills.1,4,5
- Coloring helps you to get to know yourself. Protecting your time and focusing on coloring allows you to also focus on yourself. You are able to get to know yourself better as you tackle designs that appear complex and challenging.6
- Coloring books put your negative emotions behind while you focus on something important. They allow your mind to accept that this work is more important than the worries which you had in your mind before.2
Coloring Apps To Reduce Stress
The modern world is full of scientific and technological wonders. Over the past few decades, technology has revolutionized our lives in the form of apps on our mobile, tablets, and computers. Now we don’t need to carry color pencils and books with us to enjoy coloring. Apps have all the same functions and patterns to color within them.7 All we need to do is to set aside time: they can turn a dull or stressful life into a moment free of worries.
Summary
Do coloring books relieve stress for adults and for kids? Coloring on books and apps can bring back childhood memories and help reduce stress in your busy life. It requires all your attention and enables you to focus on complex patterns and putting correct shading between lines, reducing your anxiety by making you forget all your worries. It sharpens your mind and increases your problem-solving skills.
This article is sponsored by Mega Color – Paint by Number. Use hundreds of colors to relax by coloring fun and challenging pictures. Available on iOS today!
References
1. Fitrianingsih, N. et al. THE INFLUENCE OF PICTURE COLORING ON FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN AGED 4-5 YEARS. Journal of Science Innovare 2, 19–22 (2019).
2. Taylor, H. Are Coloring Books Really Just for Kids? Investigating Possible Effects of Specific Pattern Coloring on Conceptual, Physiological and Behavioral Aspects of Anxiety. Scripps Senior Theses (2016).
3. Ashlock, L. E., Miller-Perrin, C. & Krumrei-Mancuso, E. The Effectiveness of Structured Coloring Activities for Anxiety Reduction. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2018.1540823 (2019) doi:10.1080/07421656.2018.1540823.
4. Hattori, H., Hattori, C., Hokao, C., Mizushima, K. & Mase, T. Controlled study on the cognitive and psychological effect of coloring and drawing in mild Alzheimer’s disease patients. Geriatrics and Gerontology International 11, 431–437 (2011).
5. Wang, Q.-Y. & Li, D.-M. Advances in art therapy for patients with dementia. Chinese Nursing Research 3, 105–108 (2016).
6. Wilkinson, R. The Benets of Coloring Why Adult Coloring Is So Popular.7. Blackburn, H. & Chamley, C. Color Me Calm: Adult Coloring and the University Library. Criss Library Faculty Proceedings & Presentations (2016).