Newsagents in Mittagong, NSW stocked up on the goods
Adult colouring books. They’re the latest craze to jump on the well being band wagon and I must say I’m a huge fan. The exotic outlines of palm trees and toucans transport my mind to calmer time sitting back sipping a coconut in Malaysia without a care in the world. Whether you dare shade in Harry Potter’s snow white owl Hedwig, water colour a Parisian landscape or bravely ink a happy looking elephant, there is something to suit each of our inner child’s desires. Currently, two of the top five best sellers on Amazon are adult colouring in books and every knick knack store is advertising their benefits and already stocking 2016 colouring in calendars.
Lucy Fyle’s blog, In the Midst of Madness, uniquely reviews based on their positive benefits for the artists mental health and is a member of the Mental Health Writer’s Guild. In a recent review of Jo Shiloh’s colouring book “Colour and Relax: Peaceful Patterns”, Fife found the following:
“In terms of mental health, this book is great because it contains abstract and unusual patterns which can be coloured in any colours you fancy. You don’t have to make it look realistic or natural, you can just pick up a pen or pencil and start colouring. This means that if decisions are difficult for you to make you may find this helpful” – Lucy Fife, 2015
For someone like myself who worries if the periwinkle shade of blue I’ve selected doesn’t quite compliment the apricot outline or if staying inside the lines is a source of stress, reviews and solutions for managing these tendencies is helpful.
Joel Parsons, a senior lecturer in psychology at UNSW, analysed the positive effects of colouring on the artists visual spatial attention. Typically, when attention is visually focused on a location in space the observer is more clearly able to predict ongoing behaviour (Chun & Wolfe, 2001, p. 273). He observed that:
“When colouring-in you look at the colours and spaces occupying those parts of your brain that might normally be involved in anxiety” Parsons, 2015
This increase in attention span and clarity of mind allows artist’s stress to be alleviated as competing messages aren’t vying for their attention and cluttering the mind.
“Recolor – Coloring Book for Adults” sponsored advertisement
It was perhaps not a terrible coincidence that during my research for this blog, and some distracted time spent on Facebook, an advert for a Colouring App popped up. Whilst colouring with pens and paper, distractions are minimal as focus is demanded by the intricate vine leaves climbing cottage walls in front of me. From personal experience, an app connects me to lifeline to the the world: my iPhone. Using myself as a guinea pig, I downloaded the app to notice just how long it took until I became distracted or my attention was interrupted by advertisements. Firstly, I missed the repetitive and soothing stroke of my fine tipped Crayola filling the petals of the two dimensional forget-me-nots. Secondly, after I’d exhausted the app’s ridiculously restrictive colour palette, I was prompted to “Share with friends to unlock” a greater selection of pastels. To cap off my experience, I received two snap chats, a text message and heard my email push through a few more Living Social deals. In the space of a few minutes, I’d become frazzled as my attention was pulled in various ways and my focus was out the window (and app deleted).
Tech savvy colouring with the Recolor App
While checking my phone during a lecture, I noted similar experiences of attention span and memory retention. A side ward glance at a vibrating message stole my attention from the presenters powerpoint and took me a few moments to refocus. After walking out of the lecture, the main message I took away from my hour in a cold classroom, was that lunch was happening at 12:30 at Espresso Warriors and something about France in yet another bloody war. Now I am interested in French history and I find my lecturer to be a brilliant communicator yet it was the texting back and forth to compromise a time and location that suited each of my girlfriends for lunch the next day that took up my capacity to multitask or pay continuous partial attention.
Colouring may not be for everyone. My experiences with colouring have however increased my awareness of interruption to my train of thought and the role my devices play in that. Whilst colouring my focus is golden. The invasion of communications from others or distractions of adverts isn’t present away from technology and I feel able to re-calibrate before taking on the next task.
“Animal Kingdom” by Millie Marotta
My first purchase and much loved colouring book “Animal Kingdom” by Millie Marotta may be a great place for you to begin a therapeutic afternoon of self care.
References:
Click to access VisualAttention.pdf
Sullivan, B 2013, ‘Students can’t resist distraction for two minutes..and neither can you’, NBC News, 18 May, date of access 20 September 2015, http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/students-cant-resist-distraction-two-minutes-neither-can-you-f1C9984270.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/26/adult-colouring-in-books-anxiety-stress-mindfulness
Red Canister Diaries 
Oh my goodness, I love this. But I want to know more about how exactly that golden focus of attention while colouring-in is achieved. I found it very helpful to read the explanation of how colouring-in alleviates anxiety by giving that bit of the brain something else to do, and I imagine this also applies to e.g. knitting. And I’m partially sold on the idea that just picking up a pen and beginning might also address decision-making blockages. But is it the case that colouring-in sustains attention by blocking competing messages? Is that how it works?
I wonder why this is happening now? And if it’s meeting a profound need, what will happen to that need when the craze burns out? Do we naturally cycle through ways of addressing anxiety?
(side thought: does colouring in connect neurologically to doodling? is there a difference?)
Hi Kate,
For me, the “golden focus” is achieved by blocking out all outside messages and though my mind wanders, there aren’t any distractions of phone calls or emails as distraction. The repetitive nature of the activity is also aoothing though not boring.
I’m sure that colouring is just one of the many trends. I also enjoy crochet which operates on the same calming level, though I’m more able to watch TV whilst crocheting that colouring in.
More research could be done on the neurology of colouring as it’s such an interesting area of study.
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