Colouring: A Stress-Relief Technique

Coloring books are no longer just for the kids. On the contrary, adult coloring books are the in thing right now, placing them on more and more bestsellers’ lists throughout the world.

Researchers have acknowledged the therapeutic qualities of art for years, and many grown-ups find sitting down with crayons or coloured pencils a way to unwind. Colouring has therapeutic qualities that can help to reduce anxiety, create focus or bring about more mindfulness. Like meditation, colouring allows the brain to switch off other thoughts and focus on the moment.

Personally, I've always liked colouring. Since I was a little girl I remember treasuring all my colouring books that I just loved to fill in with my coloured pencils. This continued through my high school years and university, where I would always add doodles and colour on my notes and books. Even now, every note and diary has colour in it. And of course since I started my bullet journal, this has escalated a bit! You only need to take a look at my Instagram account :)

So, colouring has always been in my life. Lately though, I've discovered (a bit late, I know!) the adult colouring books, and this has opened up a whole new world for me!

Some of these books are more detailed than others, and they have some amazingly intricate designs that you can spend hours colouring! One of my favourite ones that I bought recently is the Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford. I really like her style and I'm planning to get next the Lost Ocean as well as the Secret Garden.

I can literally get lost for hours, when I start colouring with these books. My favourite coloured pencils to use with them are the Pelikan soft coloured pencils and the Staedtler ones.

You don't have to be an expert to start colouring. You just add different colours as you go, and then see the whole picture transform. Of course, if you want you can take it to the next level and experiment a bit with shading that will definitely bring the picture to life!

You can find loads of colouring books online. Some of the ones that I've added to my wish list are:

Left  //  Right

Left  //  Right

Left  //  Right

There is also a box created by Crayola specifically for adults that's called 'Color Escapes' that looks interesting.

If you don't want to buy any books, but you're still interested to see if you would like to start colouring, then you can find loads of adult colouring pages online that are free to download. I really like these ones:

Zen and Anti-Stress Colouring Pages for Adults
Printable Coloured Pages for Adults - 15 free designs
Free Adult Colouring Pages
Free Colouring Pages for Adults

Of course you can also try and create your own designs and get creative! I had a lot of fun drawing this owl colouring page. To create it I used an HB pencil to draw the design, and then I used my Sakura Micron pens in 01, 03 and 05 (depending how thick I wanted the lines each time) to draw the outline

You can click here to download it for FREE! For best results when printing, choose black and white in the settings. Hope you like it :)

So, grab your coloured pencils and let's get lost in the amazing world of colour :) Which are your favourite colouring books?