The Power of Coloring
Recently, my family and I took a 10 day vacation…well a stay-cation because we have little kids, COVID is lingering still and we live in TX, which is way too far away from a cooler locale in the summer months to consider driving. Anyway, I digress. We had an absolute BLAST! We planned tons of fun activities that we don’t normally have time for and took short trips to do things that we don’t get to often enough. We rented a golf cart and went to the beach nearly every day, even if it was just to enjoy an evening of digging in the sand. We also got to spend some much needed time at home just spending time with each other.
While spending some much needed down time with my kids, my daughter grabbed a coloring book and we started coloring together. It was a great way for us to interact while doing something so simple and so relaxing. Eventually, my daughter tired of coloring and I looked down to see that we had completed much of a very intricate coloring page. And, honestly, I have no idea how long we spent coloring- we lost track of time. It was a good thing.
This brings me to the power of coloring. Adult coloring books made a comeback several years ago, and with good reason. There are lots of proven mental health benefits associated with coloring. According to Beaumont Health and Wellness, these include:
Reduced stress and anxiety
Improved motor skills and vision
Improved sleep
Improved focus
The Cleveland Clinic adds that coloring can actually relax your brain.
All of this is fantastic news, but I’ve got more to share, so buckle up!
In addition to the above, coloring with teenagers and pre-teens actually gets them to put their phone down.
Shut the front door! Yes, you read that right. Actively participating in coloring gets teenagers, whether it’s your child, your student, your counselee, etc. to put their phone down and focus on something else.
Now, you may be wondering- if they are focused on coloring, how does this help? Aren’t they still going to just ignore what is being said? The answer is no. Coloring doesn’t take much brain power and while it requires some attention, it doesn’t require all of our attention. In fact, it requires just enough attention that teenagers will actually still be able to hold a conversation with you, and since their hands will be busy, their minds’ defenses will be down and they will be more likely to open up and talk about things they would otherwise keep bottled up.
Yes, I am really saying what you think I’m saying! So, here comes the advice…
Parents: Use coloring as a way to get your teenager to open up to you.
Counselors: have some coloring pages handy in your office so you can color with a student in crisis or a student who is frustrated and watch their frustrations melt away, watch them become more relaxed, and listen to them talk to you about other issues that are bothering them.
In case you need more evidence (or are just like me and geek out over research studies), a research study conducted in 2005 found that coloring a mandala pattern for 20 minutes had a significant calming effect on participants. The short version is that participants were given a stress/anxiety questionnaire when they first began in the experiment, then reviewed a stressful event and given the same stress/anxiety questionnaire and then colored for 20 minutes before receiving the 3rd stress/anxiety questionnaire. They found that research participants were actually more calm after coloring a mandala page for 20 minutes than they were when they first entered the study…incredible. If you want to read the full study, you can here.
So, for the teachers and school counselors out there, just remember that coloring in high school can still have huge benefits! Also, I’ve created a mandala calm down bulletin board that you can find here and use in your classroom or office! I did this as a counselor and the results were amazing.
I hope you’ve found this helpful (and find some time to color in your future). If you are looking for more information, please visit my website- Higher & Hire. If I can be of assistance to you, please reach out to me here.
Many Thanks!
Valerie Palmer - Career and College Admissions Expert
