“I’m extremely exhausted and burned out!”

“Everything seems so overwhelming!”

“I’m not able to focus on anything, not even the activities I enjoy doing!”

“Anxiety haunts me every night, and it just doesn’t seem to go away.”

“Urghhh! How can I stop overthinking?

Does any of this relate to you? Do you feel that you’re continuously burned out, overwhelmed, anxious, and/or overthinking? Well, it’s time for you to try a new hobby – COLOURING.

Colouring isn’t really a new activity, but for many adults, it might be. We all coloured at some point in our childhood, but as we grew up, we started to focus more on the technical and other aspects of life. Many of us are now disconnected from our inner child and have buried the creativity that we once possessed when we were kids. But isn’t colouring childish? The answer is – NO.

It might seem childish to many adults who have been brainwashed by the norms of “society” that colouring is an activity for children.

But in reality, our brain loves to colour!

Children’s colouring books first came into existence in the 1880s, when the McLoughlin Brothers produced The Little Folks’ Painting Book in collaboration with Kate Greenaway. But adult colouring books didn’t explode until 2012, and they began increasing in popularity in 2015. Since then, the adult colouring book market has come to a steady balance, but it is still quite popular. And no, adult colouring doesn’t mean that you have to be 18 or older to do this stuff. Adult colouring books are a little more complicated than those for children. Children might see the number of lines and shapes in an adult colouring book and get overwhelmed by it. But you can also choose to use children’s colouring books. It is as fun as the adult version!

Some might say, “Okay, but I don’t have time for all this stuff.”

And that is when you need this the most! We all have enough time, yet we say we don’t have time. It is because we don’t prioritise hobbies as much as we prioritise our job or career. It is important to note that having hobbies keeps you fresh, concentrated, and happy and relieves anxiety and stress. Hobbies like colouring have a lot of benefits and are one of the best acts of self-love and self-expression.

Again, you might ask, “I’m anyways not good at art and stuff; how will it help me? It will only demotivate me!”

The good part about having hobbies is that you don’t have to be perfect at what you do! It is a hobby for a reason; it is not a career or job where you have to improve your skills on a daily basis and excel at what you do. It is just meant to express yourself creatively and let out your repressed emotions! Let’s talk about how colouring can benefit you.

Benefits of Colouring for Adults

1. Mindfulness

Consider that you are filling all those mandala designs, patterns, or line drawings with colours, and you are trying to focus on filling inside the lines. It is humane to do so, and that requires your full attention. So, if you are overthinking about some situation in your current life, stressing and worrying about your future, or getting depressed about your past traumas, then the act of colouring brings all your concentration into one activity. That is called being mindful – Being present in the moment.

Hence, colouring helps you to become more mindful and distract your mind in a good and healthy way. It helps you to align and sort your thoughts, which leads to the second benefit of colouring – Improving Concentration.

2. Improves concentration

As mentioned in the above point, colouring helps you direct your attention to one activity. The act of colouring is joyful, and it doesn’t get boring very soon. So, it helps you increase your ability to focus for a longer time. With daily practise of colouring (even if it is for a few minutes), your concentration levels will increase, which in turn will benefit your career and other aspects of life!

3. Patience

With concentration comes patience. It goes side by side. Think yourself! When you focus on what you’re doing, you also get more patient because you not only start to enjoy the process but also wait for the result! When you start colouring and filling out those shapes and designs, you do want to see how they turn out, right? If you are someone who is very impatient, well, this hobby might just do wonders for you. You might not even realise the time you have spent doing this activity because you were so immensely engulfed in it.

4. Confidence and self-accomplishment

And voila! When you have completed colouring a page, you can sure feel the big, fat smile on that face! That is the sense of self-accomplishment you are feeling. Colouring is a very small yet effective activity. If you are having feelings of low confidence and self-doubt and are not able to do other tasks effectively, it is quite common to feel low and not value your other accomplishments in life. You might not even feel proud of yourself. But when you finish a page, you feel pride in yourself, and you regain that confidence that you can achieve things in life just like you did to complete that one page.

5. Improves sleep

Many people already know the harmful effects of blue rays from digital screens like mobile phones, TVs, laptops, etc. when used at night and just before sleep. And yet many of them are not able to break that habit (including me!). It is not easy, but it is possible by creating an alternative night routine that doesn’t require using screens. Colouring is one of those activities that you can do before bedtime. As mentioned earlier, it relaxes your mind, which helps with better sleep. As it reduces stress and overthinking, the quality of sleep is also improved.

6. Relaxation and anxiety relief

Well, one can only try colouring and see how it helps them relax their minds and relieve anxiety and stress. Colouring gives a sense of peace and de-stresses our minds.

Another thing to note is that you don’t have to be perfect. IT IS ABSOLUTELY OKAY TO COLOUR OUTSIDE THE LINES! It is your pleasure, and it doesn’t have to follow any rules. You can be as neat as you want or as messy as you want; it is totally up to your choice! It is not an exam. So, if your aim is to increase focus or your personality demands perfection, go ahead and fill in those lines. But if you like being messy, then splash colours, colour outside lines, or do whatever you wish to!

P.S. – ADULT COLOURING MIGHT NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE. Some might argue that they don’t like colouring, and articles such as these only increase their anxiety because they don’t want to do stuff that other people like doing. IT IS COMPLETELY OKAY IF YOU DON’T ENJOY COLOURING! It doesn’t relax everyone. If you didn’t enjoy colouring as a kid, you probably won’t enjoy it as an adult – like Sheldon Cooper from Young Sheldon! But our preferences, hobbies, and interests change over time, and you can only find out if you enjoy colouring or not by actually doing it! So, go buy an inexpensive colouring book and try it yourself!

I’ll definitely do a series of articles on Adult Colouring like my experience, steps to start, different approaches to adult colouring, reviewing some of the colouring books on the market, and who knows, maybe making one of my own! So, stay tuned for more and keep creating until then!

Note: This blog post contains affiliate links for purchasing the products. It means that if you buy a product using that link, I will receive a small commission. This does not affect the price that you pay. It helps me have a small side income, and your support is very much appreciated! Thank you!

Products I use for Adult Colouring –