Do you find sometimes that you are just too wired up or too emotional to sit down and meditate in the “traditional” sense? Can I let you in on a secret? Even though I have been meditating for coming up ten years now there are still days when my standard go to’s for meditation; sitting in stillness actively listening, breath work or using a mantra just won’t work. On the days when I find myself really wound up and anxious or hyper emotional and overwhelmed I need a much more dynamic form of meditation to bring myself into balance.
What is one of my favourite ways to meditate? Colouring. Yes, that’s right. I love to colour.
Not just for kids, colouring is for anyone!! For adults who need stress relief (and who doesn’t need more of that!!) colouring offers a dynamic form of active meditation that engages all your senses. It is a total myth that you have to meditate by sitting totally still with your eyes closed. There are many more ways to meditate, without “meditating” per say. (For more ideas click here 11 ways to meditate, without meditating.) Colouring and using colouring books is one of those tools. Adult colouring books are fast becoming best-sellers worldwide as more and more people discover the benefits.
When you colour it activates the left and right hemisphere’s of your brain and it changes your brain activity by slowing your brainwaves from a beta state to alpha. The act of colouring helps you create balance and calm. When I am wound up if I sit down and colour for an hour, I find that it helps me to therapeutically channel the excess emotional energy onto the page. Often whatever problem I am processing, or feeling I am feeling is gone by the time I finish. It’s very common to that as a colour I find deep insights and wisdom drop in to my mind spontaneously, with the solutions to the very problems that were stressing me out before I started!
Colouring is not only a form of powerful stress relief, it is actually really fun. Often for many people the last time they coloured was back in childhood, so by starting again it connects you with your inner child. Helping to reclaim playfulness, imagination and joy. If you have kids, why not colour beside them? Why should they get all the benefits and not you??
There are lots of really beautiful adult colouring books available on the market, and the range continues to grow. In France colouring books are selling more than cook books. Johanna Basford’s “Secret Garden”, arguably the most famous adult colouring book has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide.
The O’Mara Books range is gorgeous.
However the colouring book that I am LOVING the most at the moment is a gorgeous Mandala specific colouring book complied by Sarah Wilder from The Fifth Element Life with 111 beautifully designed mandala stencils to colour to your heart’s content. I adore it! As it is an e-book you can print out whatever design your drawn to on the day (and can print the same one multiple times!) and then create away. I actually prefer this to the physical colouring books as sometimes depending on what markers and paint you use, they can bleed through to the other pages. With Sarah’s book you don’t need to worry about that!
Sarah has generously offered any of my space in between followers 5% off the purchase of this e-book. When purchasing just enter in the discount code of SPACEINBETWEEN to get the 5% off. You can purchase the book here. Sarah is such a beautiful soul and will be donating $2 of every sale to Headspace – An Australian National Youth Mental Health Organisation.
http://www.thefifthelementlife.com/products/111mmm
Do you use colouring books as a form of stress release and meditation? Have you been inspired to start colouring again after reading this post? I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
x Sara