I thought I would start of with an apology, I'm so sorry that I didn't post a blog on Wednesday. I was feeling quite overwhelmed and stressed because I have been working myself so hard, so I took a day out to look after myself and my mental health. I felt like writing and editing a blog would push me over the edge of my anxiety which is why it wasn't posted. I have this Wednesday's blog planned so hopefully that will be up on Wednesday but for now lets get into this blog and the importance of colouring.
I wrote a blog post on what I was putting in my crisis box around April time and something I put in there has been helping me massive amounts. For those who haven't read that blog, a crisis box is a box filled with things that will de-stress you, cheer you up and help you distract from any emotional distress that you're feeling at that current moment in time. It gives you a place to go when you are having a crisis and helps you deal with it, hopefully preventing you from harming yourself or having a panic attack or whatever.
In my crisis box I put two colouring books, I hadn't coloured properly since I was in primary school. I colour with the kids at work sometimes but it's not really the same as having your own colouring book that you use to de-stress you. The first colouring book I put in was a mindfulness colouring book and then the other one was an animal one. I'll put the links of the colouring books on Amazon at the end of this blog so you can see them and purchase them if you want to. When I put them in I didn't really think I would use them at all, colouring isn't really my thing and I didn't get really excited when the hype of adult colouring books happened. I just thought they'd be in there and I would use them occasionally, and I did over the course of the last term of uni. I found myself playing with other things in my crisis box and I really only coloured one page in my mindfulness colouring book over the course of a couple of months.
However, since being home and literally being so busy I've found myself using colouring to calm myself down even more. After a long day at work, or working a 15 hour day I love cuddling up in bed with my colouring book and having a Disney film on in the background. It helps me unwind so much and allows me to feel completely stress free. I never thought it would be something that I would want to do or enjoy doing but I find it so satisfying experimenting with colour and finishing off a colouring page. I like too turn the dull white into something bright and full of colour, it's just so satisfying looking at where you started to where you came. And you literally can choose any colour you want, there is no right or wrong answer which is something I really, really love.
I really find it hard to unwind and switch off. When I'm not doing work I feel like I'm being unproductive or lazy, I feel like I have to be doing something 24/7 and so using the colouring books helped me with the ability to switch off and realise it's okay to take a break every so often.
Don't take my word for it though, there's actually been a load of research into colouring and the benefits of it in adults, not just in children so I thought I would share a few of them with you. I find this sort of stuff fascinating so thought I might as well include it. Colouring helps you brain to focus because of course, making sure you stay in the lines takes a lot of focus, but not so much that it causes stress in the brain, it allows you to forget your worries, and colouring trains you to put all the negative stuff aside and focus on just colouring for the time you spend doing it. Colouring also allows the fear part of your brain to relax, which in turn relaxes you. Colouring is almost like meditating and it can help you retrain your brain to react less harshly to stress when it does occur in your life. So there is just a few examples of why colouring can really help with de-stressing and making you less anxious in life.
I've really been focusing in on doing colouring over the last few weeks and I try to schedule at least half an hour of colouring in a day, usually in the evening after I've finished all my work. I can honestly say that it's completely helped me with my anxiety and stress levels. So if you're umming and ahhing about starting colouring and you weren't entirely sure about the benefits, just do it! Honestly, it was the best decision I ever made to incoroperate colouring into my life and I don't regret spending a couple of quid on these books and some colouring pencils. It's totally worth it when I feel so calm and clear headed.
Stay awesome.
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