Color Therapy

On my 22th birthday last year, one of my really good friend bought me a coloring book with a set of Faber Castell color pencils. I was really excited when I received it because I love coloring since young, and I am always excited to go for my art and craft lessons in my lower secondary school days.

So in the recent days, I saw many of these coloring books on sale in Kinokuniya, Popular, Typo, and whatever book stores you name it. It really excites me on how coloring is no longer just catered for children, but are also catered for adults. 

Although these coloring books look way more complicated than children coloring book, but trust me, I had fun mixing and matching the colors! So as I picked up coloring again, I went on to read about coloring and found out that there were many benefits associated to it, especially for the adults. 

More than just aesthetically pleasing and feeling achieved after completing a page with beautifully chosen colors, coloring has benefits way beyond what we ever thought of. Adult coloring especially, was first founded as an alternative to meditation for disturbed and/or stressful people. It actually helps them to find their inner child in the days of purity and innocence, and it also helps adults soothes their mind by distracting them away from the negativities in life. 

Instilled with my personal experiences, here are some of the benefits that have been tested and proven in my life. 

Healthy Past Time Activity 

Research shows that boredom and stress can result in some of the negative triggers, especially for people with depression, OCD, anxiety problems, anger and eating disorders. Coloring can help them to stay focus and shift them away from negative thoughts. 

I mean, duh, we only color when we have the free time to. But sometimes when we're bored, it tends to trigger some of the negative thoughts that we have. However, coloring really makes me shift my focus away from the negativity as it helps me to focus on the colors, and it increases my productivity level. This was especially evident when I was going through a really dry season in life when I question about everything and anything. #quarterlifecrisis. Thanks to my friend, I picked up coloring again and it helps me to feel rested and calm, as it redirects me to think logically and positively. 

Improves your Mental Health

Research shows that coloring uses both the left and right brain when we think about the choice of colors and how to balance them. This utilizes our brain to work on problem solving and improve fine motor skills.

Not only does it allow our brain to communicate and coordinate with our eyes and fingers, coloring helps us to organize our thoughts, de-clutter our minds and reduce stress and anxiety. I can clearly see how well coloring helps to calm me down when I was stressed out during the exam period, and helps me to better concentrate on my studies after a 2 hours break with coloring. 

Helps express one's Emotions 

Some people say "we choose the colors of our clothes according to the emotions that we feel at the moment". Sometimes we dress up in dull colors when we feel weak and sad, and we dress up in bright colors on days when we feel refreshed and great. Sometimes I dress up in pajamas style to work when I'm feeling drained, but I tend to dress up in dresses and bright colors when I feel motivated. Our feelings might be sub-conscious at times, but our actions, gestures and choices do tell a lot about our emotions. 

Most importantly, coloring allows me to be myself. Because this coloring book belongs to me, I can be very honest with myself and in my choice of colors. Nobody will care if I have a pink tree, and that is the same for children. We let their imaginations run wild as we express it out through coloring - this ignited my creativity as I get to choose the colors that I want, accompanied by the effect that I want to portray from the type of pencil strokes and shadings. I tend to have a pre-imaginary image of how I want that drawing to look like, facilitating me in choosing the right colors for the expected outcome.

If you have the time to try coloring, why not? Just go to the nearest book store and pick up a coloring book of your choice and start this journey. You will be amazed at how coloring benefits you, especially when you needed to find solemnity in the midst of your crazy schedule. Not only for the ladies out there, but guys can do so to!