Coloring isn't just for kids - it helps adults fight stress
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous
Stressed out? Color that passes you! In a box a series of colored pastels and in a drawer an old crumpled album of animals with rounded shapes and little cars that make brum brum. Up to page 5 it is already all the bright colors of nature: the chick has turned blue and dad's car is not gray but flaming red. Well, my son did and it's great. But if I did too?
Yes, in short, if to unleash the "chrome-patterned"I was myself in some kind of Art therapy fai-da-te? Yes, because, you know, focusing on a creative activity has always had beneficial effects on the psyche, even if only for the simple fact that it manages to "distract" most of the time. Coloring, then, seems to have something magical about how antidote anti-stress, and not necessarily the pathological one with obscure lines of self-flagellation (for that, alas, it takes a bit of healthy and decidedly prolonged relaxation).
Putting color on the white of a sheet, therefore, without particular ambitions as an artist, relaxes and helps manage stress, improves concentration and productivity, relaxes the mind and reduces anxiety levels. Fantastic. If then, and I add this, you do it with your child next to him (who colors his part) in all serenity, without hysterics and without thinking about dinner, it makes you feel even a little bit satisfied and satisfied mothers. It doesn't take much.
READ also: How to manage stress and relax in 7 steps
The practice, in essence, generates well-being, tranquility and it also stimulates the brain areas related to motor skills, the senses and creativity.
“The action involves both logic, which depends on the shapes we color, and creativity, when we decide how to mix the various shades. This includes the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills [coordination needed to make small, precise movements]. The relaxation it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a key part of our brain that manages emotions ", explains the psychologist Gloria Martinez Ayala.
The coloring, therefore, has an anti-stress effect, because when we focus on a particular activity we do it on it and not on our worries. But also why takes us back to our childhood, a time when we certainly have had a lot less stress.
MANDALA - One of the first psychologists who applied coloring as one relaxation technique was Carl G. Jung in the last century and did so through i Mandala: circular designs similar to the rose windows of Gothic churches. The Mandala is native to India, but is present in all cultures with its circle shape that represents life, birth, maturity, rebirth: symbolisms which allow us to focus on ourselves and remove negative thoughts.
Read also: The colors of the mandala
DID YOU KNOW THAT Are adult coloring books real bestsellers in countries like France or the UK? The French publisher Hatchet he has one collection called Art-Therapy, with a series of anti-stress volumes that includes all kinds of designs, from butterflies to flowers, from cupcakes, to graffiti to psychedelic designs.
In the UK, the illustrator's books are popular Mel Simone Elliot, which even allows you to color celebrities such as Ryan Gosling, Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Kate Moss in its Color Me Good series.
On Amazon, then, there are an infinite number of Mandala books, but if the already are enough numerous notebooks of your little ones, ask them for permission to use one: even coloring Cinderella or the dinosaurs will surely keep you away from any source of stress!
Germana Carillo
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Crayons: 10 ideas for the creative recycling of worn colors
