From The Mindfulness Coloring Book: Stress-Free Art Therapy for Busy People
I get the greatest kick out of coloring. Yes, coloring. I have a set of 24 colored pencils — full spectrum of the rainbow. I have magic markers, metallic pens, and, yes, a box of Crayola lies atop my home office desk. No, I am not in a kindergarten class. I am a 37-year-old creative guy.
Adult coloring books are popping up everywhere, from craft stores to indie bookshops to big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and OfficeMax. Often they are positioned at the checkout line as impulse buys. They’re doing a booming business. And no, they’re not adult as in pornography.
Nielsen Bookscan estimates that 12 million adult coloring books were sold in 2015, a drastic uptick from the one million sold the previous year.
Amazon has quite a variety of adult coloring books. They can be whimsical like Doug the Pug, risqué like F*cking Adorable and Make Life Your Bitch, nature-themed like Magical Forest and Lost Ocean, or biblical, like Proverbs in Color or Colorful Blessings. You can even find adult coloring books that are Star Wars or Harry Potter-themed.
In a way, coloring is the new YA (Young Adult). Those adults who were reading Twilight or The Hunger Games a few years ago are now devouring coloring books. Like a knitting circle, people are forming coloring meetup groups that meet at coffee shops and libraries.
These books are especially powerful for the mental health and addiction community. It gives us something to do with our hands. Something to focus on. A means of calming down.
From Coloring the 70s
Staring at screens all day – computer at work, phone all day, TV at home — can be taxing on the eyes as well as the brain. Coloring is an escape, both from the blue light and the mindless task of staring at a screen. It opens up your imagination. You can – for a brief period — find your moment of zen, climb beyond reality and lose yourself in the pages. For now, all that there exists is your colors and you, putting pencil to paper.
If you’re interested in trying out coloring – I recommend The Mindfulness Coloring Book as a starter. It has florals, animals, and geometric shapes. I’ve found that Staedtler pencils are the most vivid.
Then you can graduate up to more specialized books – right now I’m working on Coloring the 70s and it’s a blast – lava lamps, disco, punk, and fashion. Find your passion and color it!
