Are you looking for a way to relax or destress? Or, perhaps you are you looking for a fun and unique gift? If so, an adult-targeted coloring book may be just what you are looking for.
Why a coloring book for adults?
Coloring has been with most of us since childhood, but many of us as adults can rediscover the joy this hobby has to offer.
It all started in 2011, when a British publisher asked Johanna Basford to draw a children’s coloring book. Basford suggested that she should draw a coloring book aimed at adults instead, and she managed to convince her publisher.
The publisher ordered an initial print run for thirteen thousand copies of Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book. Since its release, the book has sold over two million copies worldwide.
Currently, six of the top 20 selling books on Amazon are coloring books for adults. According to the Huffington Post, “The unlikely pastime for those of us who have successfully graduated from kindergarten has been gaining popularity of late, as an easy means to express oneself and de-stress along the way.”
The Benefits Of Coloring For Adults
For starters, The Guardian calls them “terribly therapeutic.”
“I’ve heard from so many people ranging from lawyers, financial advisers, business owners and busy mums, all say the same thing: that colouring in helps them relax. Then there’s people who are recuperating from illness or dealing with a difficult time in their lives, they too find the calming, almost meditative effects of colouring is beneficial to them.” Johanna Bradford
Coloring has been shown reduce stress because many of the books use geometric shapes and soothing patterns to relieve anxiety. Marti Faist, an art therapist, told the Baltimore Sun, “When someone is coloring, their mind and body are operating in a more integrated way. It’s almost a meditative process.”
Marti is not alone. Carl Jung was a big fan of art therapy, and he used coloring as a relaxation technique back in the early 1900s. Jung himself used to draw and color mandalas, or spiritual geometric shapes, every morning. These same mandalas are the foundation of a lot of the most popular stress-relieving coloring books today.
Coloring Books To Help You Destress
Today, there’re hundreds of coloring books for adults to choose from. The choices range from meditative Mandalas to stress-relieving options like Color Me Stress-Free. I am sure that you can find a coloring book to match your interests. Here are five of the best-selling adult-targeted coloring books to help you relax and destress.
Anti-Stress Colouring Book for Adults
This series of coloring books has a specific focus: to help you destress in a work environment. It has been so effective that several Australian companies have given this book to their employees.
The Mindfulness Coloring Book: Anti-Stress Art Therapy for Busy People
This is a fun and unique pocket-sized coloring book designed to channel stress into relaxing, creative accomplishments. Mindful coloring is a simple, yet powerful, practice that combines the proven, time-honored tradition of thoughtful meditation with the growing popularity of adult coloring. It shows that any activity, done right, can be an exercise in mindfulness.
Color Me Calm: 100 Coloring Templates for Meditation and Relaxation
Color Me Calm is a guided coloring book designed for stressed-out adults. It includes 100 coloring templates including Mandalas, water scenes, wooded scenes, geometric patterns, wildlife imagery, natural patterns, and spirituality-focussed templates — all designed to help you get coloring and get relaxed.
Color Me Stress-Free: 100 Coloring Templates to Unplug and Unwind
This is the perfect book for stressed-out adults who want to become stress-free. It provides a simple and inexpensive way to relieve stress with its soothing images.
The Big Book of Mandalas Coloring Book
The Big Book of Mandalas provides tranquility and a creative release with 200 customizable mandala illustrations. As you color in each mandala, your focus will shift, allowing you to fully relax your mind. Whether you’re new to the practice or have been using mandalas for years, The Big Book of Mandalas will bring you inner calm and maximized creativity, one coloring page at a time.
If you are looking for even more coloring books to help you relax, take a look at 17 Colouring Books That Every Grown-Up Needs, Adult Colouring Books: 17 Of Our Favourite Books, and The Best Coloring Books For Beginners. These lists will help you find the best coloring book to match your interests.
Adult coloring is a fun and creative way to decompress from the stress of your day. Buy one for yourself, or buy two and give one to a friend and color together. It’s a fun hobby, and once you start you’ll find it difficult to put your colored pencils and markers down.
Featured photo credit: Photomarathon: Patterns/Maxime De Ruyck via flickr.com
