Going outside the lines: Adult coloring books a surprise hit
Nikki Waldman
Mesa Legend
Everyone has colored at least once or twice in their lives. Whether when one was a child growing up trying to stay in between the lines for personal growth or for a fun kindergarten assignment to bring home for mom to put on the fridge. Good news for adults with an artistic side to them, coloring is no longer for children. Coloring has now become very popular for even adults.
Now one may ask what makes a difference from a child’s coloring book? No it’s not that the cover on these coloring books say “Adult Coloring book”. It’s how these books are now made more complex and time consuming, rather than a simple kitten or dog to color. The adult coloring craze seemed to get very popular back in early 2015, when one could see commercials on their favorite television programs promoting these new books.
Adult coloring books can be found almost anywhere they have become in such high demand these days. Places such as Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Target, and crafts stores all have big sections in their stores dedicated to arts and crafts. But now these sections have been overrun with coloring books not just for children but for adults too. Even at local Fry’s grocery stores have them at the checkout counter to make that your easy last stop to purchase these books. There are many different type of adult coloring books, one for every kind of artist. There are books such as tattoo coloring books, owl coloring books, even coloring books for one’s favorite movie or television show such as Game of Thrones or Harry Potter.
These coloring books can be found for any kind coloring ideas. And for how affordable these books are the amount of one can own could be endless. Many studies have even proven that coloring is good for relaxation of one’s mind to help clear of any stress. Dorthy Raynor had this to say when it came to coloring. “It’s relaxing and takes you away from your everyday crap. Brings me back to younger days also fun to see how good you can be at it, satisfying when you see what you can do just for fun and relaxing.” It’s been researched that coloring books tend to be a huge therapy among people dealing with stress, depression, anxiety and PTSD.
When one colors they aren’t thinking about what’s going on in the world, or their problems.
But simply taking their mind off of the world of an hour and only thinking of getting that perfect shade of blue. Many popular well known news stations such as “Fox, CNN, USA Today” and more have all written about the new craze and spoke on how this can help stress and anxiety.
Debbie Howard explains how coloring helps destress her, “It helps me relax, meditate, release and engage my right brain creativity, explore colors and design and listening skills. I have a wrist injury and it has helped strengthen my wrist and hand. Researchers have found coloring to be so helpful for almost any kind of stressful situation. Since the huge take off from these adult coloring books, these adult coloring book creators have gone further with the “let’s go back to being kids”. The possibilities of are endless with what these coloring authors are going to create.
