We all know people who sit in class or meetings doodling away on a spare piece of paper. If we're the trainer or speaker, we may even wonder if these people are listening to us. But it now seems that there is proof that doodling and colouring can improve our stress levels and aid our concentration.
There is even evidence which suggests doodling whilst listening can help us with recall (Andrade, 2010) so maybe those doodlers in your class will remember more of your presentation than those who seemed to be more attentive.
But colouring is not just useful when you give presentations. It has also been shown to reduce the effects of anxiety and depression (Lie, 2017) which makes it a simple and accessible activity to suggest to clients who want to reduce their stress levels.
Colouring and therapy
According to the Huffington Post, one of the first therapists to use colouring was Carl Jung. He asked his patients to create mandalas, designs of concentric circles. Psychologists now believe colouring and doodling de-stress us because:
- it triggers a range of areas in the brain: the logical part (which deals with structure and design); the emotional part (which responds to choosing and combining colours); and the cerebral cortex (which is involved in using fine motor skills and physical coordination),
- it encourages physical relaxation which lowers activity in the amygdala, which in turn has a large part to play in the stress response,
- it gives us something to think about which distracts us from our worries,
- it keeps our hands busy (one reason that for years I've suggested colouring and puzzle books to my clients who are quitting a smoking habit),
- it’s a form of play that's accessible to anyone, taking us back to childhood when we probably had fewer stresses than now,
- it’s a simple form of creativity for those who wouldn’t normally consider themselves 'artistic',
- our colour choices can both reflect and affect our mood and how we're feeling,
- the focused attention required has elements in common with mindfulness and simple meditative states, which are known to help reduce stress levels.
Will your clients want to use colouring as stress relief?
Why not? It's very popular.
Adult colouring books experienced a huge and sudden rise in popularity around 2014. Waterstones' reported a 300 per cent rise in sales year-on-year between Christmas 2013 and 2014, and Foyles' new premises allocated hugely increased shelf space to the genre.
Approximately 12 million adult colouring books were sold in the US in 2015, (it was just a million the year before). The increase boosted the sale of adult nonfiction by 6.6 per cent and caused a global coloured-pencil shortage!
Since that high point, the sales numbers have dropped significantly, but are still much higher than before the ‘colouring craze’ years. Most of those who colour are female, and in the 18-29 age group, but that shouldn’t stop you from giving any client encouragement to take up the hobby.
Adult colouring books range across all types of images so your clients should find something they like, whether that's abstract, nature or even 'adult-themed' versions.
And many sites give away easily printable colouring images for free which you could give them or point them to, to get them started.
With all this in mind, it shouldn’t be too hard to encourage your clients to pick a picture, and achieve the relaxation-based benefits of colouring.
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Article References:
https://bookriot.com/adult-coloring-books-trend/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2730665/Not-just-children-Doodling-declared-summers-favourite-stress-buster-colouring-books-outselling-cookery-tomes-FRANCE.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/13/coloring-for-stress_n_5975832.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/07/colouring-books-for-adults-stress_n_5944298.html
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/psychologists-affirm-adult-coloring-books-might-1190669
https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago667808.html
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/arts-and-health/201401/doodling-your-way-more-mindful-life
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/11413517/Adults-turn-to-colouring-books-to-fight-stress.html
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Author: Debbie Waller is an experienced hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy trainer. She is the author of The Hypnotherapist's Companion and Their Worlds, Your Words and a co-writer of the Hypnotherapy Handbook, all of which are available from Amazon.
Find out more about Debbie's services on
Yorkshire Hypnotherapy Training - multi-accredited hypnotherapy practitioner training, taster days and foundation levels.
CPD Expert - accredited CPD and other therapy training (online and workshops options), expert and qualified hypnotherapy supervision
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