The fad may be over but coloring is still something worth doing and quenches your creative spirit. The $10/10 creationColoring sheets make a great gift, too. Even before coloring was the “thing to do”, therapists and psychologist knew that coloring calms your psyche, distracts you from daily stresses, and makes you feel accomplished. These are good things, yes? It seems like a hefty description for just coloring but here’s why.
Coloring requires whole-brain activity: occipital lobe for seeing; both hemispheres for analyzing; cerebellum for the fine motor skills of your hand; and the process of wanting to create and invent something different uses multiple areas of your noodle all at the same time. Being creative may not be one of the strongest drives that we have, but in fact, wanting to innovate or create something new is a very powerful part of being human. Our daily lives often prevent us from exercising this part of our nature.
Starting with a template takes the stress out of creativity. A blank piece of paper, even for creative people, can be intimidating and can cause creative-block. Coloring sheets have drawings for you to start with—a suggestion on where you might begin. Decision making is a part of your whole day and bad decisions often have irreparable consequences. But the biggest decision to make on a coloring sheet is what color to use and where to color. “Starting” is the beginning of “finishing” which brings the last benefit of coloring to light.
There is an obvious accomplishment to coloring. You press into the pencil or pen and color is put down where you choose it to be. Getting bored with an area? Just move to another. Interruption? It’ll be there when you get back. And then… it’s finished! There are no right or wrong answers. No one is there to tell you that you can’t put green and red together. Tasks, no matter how pedestrian, need to be completed. I believe depression starts with the erosion of tasks left unfinished. Seems deep, I know, but take into consideration how you felt when you couldn’t complete something either because you ran out of time, or money, or that it was just too difficult.
Use mediums that produce great coverage. I recommend stubby pencils and markers—even crayons. And if you want to color the leaves purple and the water pink, do it.