Crayon Therapy for Adults

Good news grown ups, it’s okay to color! Evidently, coloring is good for you — almost as good as meditation! The new therapeutic tool for reducing stress is coloring books for adults. We have used crayon therapy for decades and note with pleasure that the health and wellness community agrees that coloring makes you happier. Coloring has now become so popular that the Huffington Post wrote a whole article about it.

As much as we would love to take credit for this trend, adult coloring books are not a new idea. Carl Jung asked his patients to color in mandalas. Jung was on to something. Psychologist Gloria Martinez Ayala says coloring, “involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors. This incorporates the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills.” She continues, “The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress.” You tell ’em, Gloria!

Coloring as beneficial to adults is wonderful news to us creative types who maybe can’t draw so well. We can create beauty too. Antoni Martínez explains that coloring not only brings out our creative side but also reminds us of childhood and a stress-free time in our lives. Who doesn’t like that? As long as we don’t have to go to bed at someone else’s prescribed time, we are cool reverting to childhood.

If you would like to try this latest relaxation trend, take a calming ride over to Bookmans where we have a selection of adult coloring books to choose from. Bookmans Speedway will soon host an Art Night and Coloring Circles in our store. Look for upcoming dates on our event calendar this fall for your chance to be as cool as the Huffington Post and as calm as Buddha.