Trending: Coloring to De-stress and Express

Feeling stressed with no time for a ten-day vacation in the Bahamas to beat it back and lessen its effects? Dragging through the day? Looking for a way to squeeze some creative relaxation and social time into your schedule?

Get out your coloring book and crayons. That’s right. The adult version of coloring has gone viral, not to mention that it offers both emotional and physical benefits that will help you both distress and express yourself in positive ways.

Adults everywhere are looking for ways to ease the stress in their lives. We are betting that we have all wanted to build a blanket fort and retreat at one time or another but who knew that reverting to something as simple as coloring could increase joy, reduce stress levels and inspire creativity?

Did you know that stress is a contributing factor to more medical problems than anything else? According to some research, chronic stress can cause 98% of degenerative disease. Who needs the latest research to know that stress kills? Here’s some information that you can actually put to work.

Learning how to shape a life that reduces stress will help your body to function better and create a healthier life. Natural processes like digestion within the body are adversely affected by stress. It is logical that since everything is connected in the body if stress is affecting one system, it’s affecting every system. Reducing stress levels in your life should be a major priority.

The coloring approach to stress reduction is nothing new to psychologists; they’ve been using it as a relaxation technique for years. So how exactly does coloring help to reduce stress? It’s simple really. It requires focus and concentration. We have to pay attention to the task at hand, and when we are focused on coloring, shading and staying inside the lines, we are not thinking about our problems and worries.

Additionally, coloring also activates sense memories. Just like a particular song that brings back a specific memory, the action of coloring can trigger that same nostalgic phenomenon. We are transported back in time to when we colored as stress-free children. It’s a subconscious thing, but it works.

Lastly, coloring stimulates both sides of the brain. The majority of our work-related tasks require the use of the left side of our brain, which is the logical, problem-solving side our brain. Coloring forces us to use both sides of our brain. The right side of the brain chooses the colors, but the left side controls the motion of the action keeping you inside the lines. By engaging both sides of the brain, we reduce the activity of the amygdala, the part of our brain that is responsible for emotions and feelings of stress. Stress encourages cortisol production, fight or flight, wrinkles, aging, degenerative disease nothing positive at all.

Adult coloring books are designed with an adult brain in mind and help us to push off the nagging worries of everyday life. So fight stress and promote healthy choices by stopping at Michaels Crafts on the way home for some coloring pencils and a coloring book that will treat your mind and body to some stress reduction and creative bliss.

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