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Writer's pictureSurabhi Kuthiala

Adult Coloring for Stress Relief

Adult coloring books or pages are creative drawings with different design and patterns on them. It requires the use of tools such as coloring pencils, felt tip pens or crayons for easy coloring of the printed coloring pages. Click here to get an idea of what a printable adult coloring book looks like.

Coloring page from my Adult Coloring Book: Intrikate Ink

History The McLoughlin Brothers are often credited for introducing the first coloring book, when they published Little Folks' Painting Book, in 1880s. In 1960, Seymour Reit, the famous cartoonist of Archie’s, Popeye, Gulliver’s Travels etc. wrote an article, "The Down To Earth Coloring Book" for Mad and is accredited with inspiring the faddish boom of the early adult coloring books In early 2015 coloring books for adults began increasing in popularity. In April 2015 it was 2 coloring books, which became the top sellers at Amazon. Later in the year, it was reported by Amazon Canada that the coloring books are a top wished for item with nine out of the top ten consisting of such books. In countries like the United Kingdom and France, adults coloring books are fast becoming bestsellers. Recently it has been trending in Spain as well.

Although Adult coloring books are available in print, they are also being offered digitally, via ebooks, apps, and coloring pages that can easily be downloaded or even colored online. E-coloring books are popular not only because they are de-stressing and relaxing but also because they can be saved easily and finished products shared. Writing for the Washington Post, Dominic Bulsuto proposed that the online purchase option greatly helped in the spread of the genre noting that the relative anonymous manner of the act made end users feel more secure pursuing books they would be embarrassed to buy in real life. Printable coloring pages are getting popular also because of social media channels like Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.


Do Adult Coloring have any benefit? There’s no doubt that coloring has great benefits when applied. Some have found it to help reduce stress, anxiety even anger. Although coloring will most likely be unable to cure illness; however it can make adapting to it a great deal better. According to health experts coloring is a stress-free activity that calms the fear center of the brain thereby allowing your mind to get the perfect rest it needs. Carl G. Jüng was one of the first psychologists to use coloring as a relaxation technique during the early 20th century. He was able to do this using mandalas coloring pages. A mandala is a circular design, having repetitive patterns. The mandalas have their origin from India. Researchers have recognized the restorative characteristics of arts for quite a long time, today art treatment is utilized to help individuals express what they are feeling especially, when they can’t be expressed in words, for example when used by cancer patients.

  • According to a research carried out in 2006 it was found that art coloring treatment for ladies with cancer helped to diminish side effects of physical and enthusiastic misery during treatment.

  • When focusing on a coloring a page, it has been found that the mind concentrates on the coloring activity, leaving no room for worries.

  • It also brings out imagination and helps takes one back to our childhood period, a period without lot of stress. This leads subconsciously to calmness.

  • Coloring helps to enter into a very creative and a free state of mind.

  • It can be used to understand feelings better, the choice of different colors or intensity depict our mood.

  • Taking time to perform random creative act is known to help perform better in work place.


What next? No matter how stressed or busy your schedule may be. Take out some time, use different shades of color and catch as much fun as possible. What actually happens, when we are coloring? Our brain switches off stressful thoughts and focuses only on coloring. This task has a soothing and a calming effect. If you haven’t tried it out yet you really need to There are no rules when coloring an art page. You can color inside or outside the lines; you can use one color or dozens of colors. You can create masterpieces, just be yourself. So what are you waiting for get your coloring pencils or felt tip pens or your crayons then download a printable coloring page today and start coloring.

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