{"id":34931,"date":"2015-10-19T20:38:48","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T00:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wanderlust.com\/?p=34931"},"modified":"2015-10-19T20:44:57","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T00:44:57","slug":"what-coloring-as-an-adult-taught-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/it\/journal\/what-coloring-as-an-adult-taught-me\/","title":{"rendered":"What Coloring as an Adult Taught Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every Sunday when I was 11, my best friend Clare and I would gather the pennies earned from our weekly paper route, and walk to a small flea market in a field near our homes. Ducking through stalls stocked with clock radios, cheap nightshirts, and white socks, we\u2019d eventually find our way to the woman who sold only one thing: fuzzy, velvet, black and white pictures\u2014each with a pack of five colored felt-tip pens.<\/p>\n<p>I had mostly forgotten about the joy of coloring that I had felt as an 11-year old\u2014the creative fulfillment of choosing just the right color, the calming effect of being wholly absorbed, and the sense of achievement when no white space remained.<\/p>\n<p>But on my 38<sup>th<\/sup> birthday, among the many practical and grown-up gifts my boyfriend gave me this year were two black and white books &#8230; \u201cThey\u2019re adult coloring books,\u201d he said as I looked down at the title <em>Enchanted Forest.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It was I who was enchanted\u2014and I&#8217;m not alone.<\/p>\n<p>More than nine million copies of UK artist Johanna Basford\u2019s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Enchanted-Forest-Inky-Quest-Coloring\/dp\/1780674880\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1445217430&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=enchanted+forest\" target=\"_blank\">Enchanted Forest<\/a><\/em>, and its predecessor, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Secret-Garden-Inky-Treasure-Coloring\/dp\/1780671067\/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1445217430&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=enchanted+forest\" target=\"_blank\">Secret Garden<\/a><\/em>, have been sold since their launch. And many other illustrators are pumping out similar books. At this point in time, three of Amazon\u2019s top 20 selling books are adult coloring books.<\/p>\n<p>So what is it about coloring that has these books flying off the shelves?<\/p>\n<p>Stress reduction is one reason given. In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2015\/jun\/26\/adult-colouring-in-books-anxiety-stress-mindfulness\" target=\"_blank\">an article on <em>The Guardian<\/em> website<\/a>, Lucy Fyles\u2014who <a href=\"https:\/\/inthemidstofmadness.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">has a blog where she reviews coloring books<\/a> from a mental health perspective\u2014says she has found it helpful for her own anxiety: \u201cI have a very active mind, made worse by anxiety. It [coloring] just seems to quieten it down and slow it down. I\u2019ll go to a coloring book, I\u2019ll be incredibly stressed, I cannot stop the thoughts swirling around in my head. And half an hour later, I\u2019ll notice that I\u2019m calmer. My mind\u2019s calmed down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A second reason: Coloring is a creative outlet. In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/business\/currency\/why-adults-are-buying-coloring-books-for-themselves\" target=\"_blank\">an interview with <em>The <\/em><em>New Yorker<\/em><\/a>, illustrator Basford said: \u201cColoring is so accessible. It unleashes the creativity we all have in a way that\u2019s quite safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I know many people do find coloring rewarding\u2014several of my friends are among them. But why do we feel the need to defend the appeal of coloring by using labels like therapy, <a href=\"http:\/\/wanderlust.com\/journal\/5-truths-to-remember-when-youre-creatively-blocked\/\" target=\"_blank\">creativity<\/a>, or meditation? There are valid reasons to sit down and color for a little while rather than troll the internet for the third hour running. What\u2019s wrong with just doing it for <a href=\"http:\/\/wanderlust.com\/journal\/the-argument-for-adult-play\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>fun<\/em><\/a>?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Because, before the monkey mind starts to tell me that I have better things to be doing, and that I could be drawing my own pictures, and that purple is not the color of a leaf, I am reminded of what it was to be childlike.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For me there is no comparison with therapy, creativity, or <a href=\"http:\/\/wanderlust.com\/journal\/why-you-shouldnt-give-up-on-meditation\/\" target=\"_blank\">meditation<\/a> to be had. While I can sit down for 10 days to meditate and find it life-altering, I rarely get beyond 15 minutes of coloring without feeling weary. At 38 my eyesight is far from what it was at 11, and the black and white mushrooms and fairies start dancing around the page in flashbacks of an experience that didn\u2019t happen until seven years after my 11<sup>th<\/sup> birthday. I also have 45 coloring pencils these days to choose from rather than five felt-tip pens. Can you imagine? In a world where we have so many choices that our heads are about to explode, here I find myself faced with 45 choices every three seconds.<\/p>\n<p>To boot, I now feel a distinct dissatisfaction with coloring. At 11 I would never have expected to draw a swan swimming under a bridge. Now I feel like I would like to draw my own bucolic scenes. I had a try. \u201cIs that a bird?\u201d my boyfriend asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a frog\u2026\u201d I responded.<\/p>\n<p>But even though my creations may never be as epic as Basford\u2019s beautiful illustrations, <a href=\"http:\/\/wanderlust.com\/journal\/10-ways-to-find-creativity-in-your-normal-routine\/\" target=\"_blank\">I nonetheless felt a huge sense of release from my own creative expression.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As for fun, well \u2026 I\u2019ve realized coloring in is no longer my go-to. I\u2019m inclined to agree with my 7-year-old neighbor to whom I gave my book this summer. After 10 minutes of coloring four of 500 leaves, he turned to me and said\u2014\u201cThis is going to take me maybe a year to finish. Have you got anything more fun for me to do?\u201d\u2014and so we spent the afternoon making a fort in the garden instead.<\/p>\n<p>There is one reason, however, that I do cherish coloring books and hope their popularity reigns on. Because, before the monkey mind starts to tell me that I have better things to be doing, and that I could be drawing my own pictures, and that purple is not the color of a leaf, I am reminded of what it was to be childlike. I am reminded of the 11-year-old who had fun, armed with five pens and a fuzzy, velvet, black and white picture from a flea market.<\/p>\n<p>I was thumbing through some old diaries the other day and found one from the summer after my 11<sup>th<\/sup> year, when Clare and I ended up in separate schools, and other things became more pressing than coloring, like the dreaded puberty and school tests. It reads:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI\u2019m going to be 12 soon so its [sic] time I have to grow up. It makes me sad because I will miss playing with Clare and my fairy books and coloring and stuff. But I think it will also be fun to be older.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So these coloring books of mine may never get used again, but they will stay on my shelf gathering dust as a reminder to prove my 11-year-old self right. Fun doesn\u2019t stop <a href=\"http:\/\/wanderlust.com\/journal\/8-things-nobody-tells-you-about-growing-up\/\" target=\"_blank\">when you grow up<\/a>\u2014even if, in my case, coloring does.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.istockphoto.com\/portfolio\/LisandraD?facets=%7B%22pageNumber%22:1,%22perPage%22:100,%22abstractType%22:%5B%22photos%22,%22illustrations%22,%22video%22,%22audio%22%5D,%22order%22:%22bestMatch%22,%22portfolioID%22:%5B13365529%5D,%22additionalAudio%22:%22true%22,%22f%22:true%7D\" target=\"_blank\">iStock<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-33960\" src=\"http:\/\/live-wanderlust-fest.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/HelenaveryHS.jpg\" alt=\"HelenaveryHS\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/HelenaveryHS.jpg 200w, https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/HelenaveryHS-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/HelenaveryHS-185x185.jpg 185w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifeaslove.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-cke-saved-href=\"http:\/\/www.lifeaslove.com\/\">Helen Avery<\/a> is a Section Editor at Wanderlust Media, working on the Vitality, Wisdom, and Wellness channels on wanderlust.com and YOGANONYMOUS. She is a\u00a0journalist, writer, yoga teacher, and full-time dog walker of Millie.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coloring is relaxing and creative, but more than anything it reminds us of the importance of play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1495,"featured_media":35061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1056],"tags":[433,201,966],"class_list":["post-34931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vitality","tag-creativity","tag-meditation","tag-self-care"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.0 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Coloring as an Adult Taught Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Coloring is relaxing and creative, but more than anything it 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