Colouring isn’t just for kids any more

I don’t know how many of you will have noticed, but something new and wonderful called ‘colouring therapy’ is becoming a major trend at the moment. Colouring books are no longer relegated to containing simple pictures and found only in the kids section of stores, but now contain beautiful templates for ‘grown ups’ to colour in.

My current collection of colouring books…

If I had one rule that I wish I had lived by throughout my undergraduate degree, it’s this: look after yourself. Not just eating right and sleeping enough; I mean find something that you can do that’s just for you. Take the time to be good to yourself. The new academic year is just getting started and believe me, particularly for us postgrads, it goes from nought to a billion in about two weeks.
Figuring out that one thing that really makes you smile now will help so much when the pressure of deadlines and whatever else is weighing you down.

Some examples…

When I bought my first book, it was a moment of madness in the summer when I had a lot of spare time and had gotten bored of playing The Sims. I’ve always loved doing creative things, and particularly loved painting when I was younger. However, I learned fairly quickly that I had absolutely zero skill at drawing, which, since I’m a perfectionist, meant that I soon lost interest in art. But colouring? Who’d have thought it - it makes the perfectionist and the creative person inside of me so happy.

It turns out that colouring is a really great way to completely de-stress. In the summer I wasn’t stressed, just bored, so colouring was just a fun way to pass the time. Now that I’ve started my Masters, colouring is something I do basically every evening, sometimes just for ten minutes, sometimes for two hours, and it completely takes my mind off everything. Deadlines, coursework, my job, whatever I’m worried about (which can be stupid amounts for no reason), it all goes away for a little while.

Who doesn’t have that child inside of them that just wants to put on some TV and colour something in every now and again? I love that it’s become a thing for older people to do. I love choosing my next book even though I’m only a third of the way through the first one. Sometimes I start and don’t finish, sometimes I spend hours painstakingly filling in every last detail, sometimes I stay within the lines, sometimes I don’t. I guess my point is that it just doesn’t matter; it’s just something simple, fun and engaging enough that you forget about everything else for a little while.

Emma