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When I was a child, I loved to color. As long as I had some crayons or markers and a coloring book, I was happy. As I grew up, I turned away from coloring because it was for “kids”, and I wasn’t a kid anymore. In the last couple of years, however, I have rekindled my love for coloring and found that, no, coloring isn’t just for kids! There are adult coloring books that you can buy literally everywhere, but there’s also simply no shame in picking up a Spongebob coloring book from the Dollar Tree either. Keep reading to find out more about why you should start coloring again, and how coloring can be a valuable hobby for practicing mindfulness.
Coloring for Mindfulness
Mindful coloring is a type of mindfulness practice that asks people to rid their environments of distractions and focus on coloring. Specifically, focus on how you are using color. When you feel your thoughts wandering, you can ground yourself by refocusing on the task at hand. For example, you’re picking up a red marker to color in a rose. Another part of this practice is to let go of judgment, like whether or not what you have colored looks good or not. If you accidentally color a little bit outside of the lines, just keep going; it’s nothing to get upset about or worry over. Personally, I love this form of mindfulness. I tend to pick coloring pages where I don’t have to make a ton of choices in regards to the colors I’m using so that I don’t end up thinking about whether or not what I’m doing is going to look good. For example, I’ll print out coloring pages of my favorite Disney characters, because I already know what they look like and what colors I want to use.
Printable Coloring Pages
In order to get started, there’s a bunch of different online websites that let you print out coloring pages for free. Some of my favorites include Crayola, Super Coloring, Printable Free Coloring, Top Coloring Pages, and Get Coloring Pages. Or, if you have something specific in mind that you want to color, you can simply do a Google image search for that topic/character and add ‘coloring page’ after it. Plus, if you don’t have a printer at home or just don’t want to waste your printer’s ink, you can visit your local library to print out some coloring pages.
Coloring Books
If you really want to take it back to your childhood, consider picking up a physical coloring book the next time that you’re at the store. There’s something so satisfying about fully completing a coloring book, so I definitely have a soft spot for collecting physical coloring books. You can find a ton of options on Amazon, at Walmart, Target, Five Below, and Dollar Tree. If you feel like trying out an adult coloring book (which simply means that the designs are more intricate and complicated), you can also check out these same places in addition to checking out Barnes and Noble and Zentangle.
Remember, there are a bunch of different ways to practice mindfulness. While some methods work for some people, for others, they don’t. Keep trying new things until you find something that works for you!
Let me know in the comments below if you’ve ever tried mindful coloring and how it went. Did you enjoy it? Would you do it again?