Pencil in time to relax: Grown-up colouring books are a fun form of mindfulness

“I have a bad habit of constantly checking my phone and scrolling through Instagram,” she says. “Social media is always on and it’s hard to pull yourself away from that. By the time you go to bed, you’re wired and it’s hard to mentally switch off. Colouring is a great excuse to put my phone down and have a break before I go to sleep.”

Purcell was initially sceptical about colouring: “I thought I had too much to do to waste time doodling.” But she has now replaced some screen time with colouring and finds it enormously beneficial.

“You totally switch off and all you focus on is what colour to use next,” she says. “It helps me to unwind after the day and forget about anything that may have been stressing me out.”

In a blog post on her boyfriend Niall Breslin’s mental health support website Alustforlife.com (which was my1000hours.com), she urges everyone to try colouring: “I was always planning the future, whether that was the next few days or hours, which meant I forgot to take in the present moment of each day,” she writes.

“Just 10 to 20 minutes a day has genuinely proven to quieten my mind.” Purcell’s favourite colouring books are Animal Kingdom and Enchanted Forest but there’s an ever-increasing range for her to choose from. The top best-selling books on Amazon currently include two colouring books for adults.

Why have so many people suddenly started colouring? Does it represent a path to mindfulness, as some claim? Or does it function as a form of art therapy?

Mary O’Callaghan is a former Buddhist monk who teaches mindfulness at the Oscailt Centre in Dublin. She believes the colouring book craze stems from our current pace of life.

“The challenges we face today have a lot to do with the busy, fast-paced world we have created where there is very little downtime,” she says. “We have even invaded our private downtime with technology. Who doesn’t have phones and iPads in their bedrooms?

“Being able to slow down, to be with what’s going on rather than planning or projecting into the future, that’s our challenge,” says O’Callaghan. “It’s also what makes us happiest.”

Gill Hasson has recentlyco-authored The Mindfulness Colouring and Activity Book, which claims to offer calming, colouring and destressing doodles to focus a busy mind. She thinks our newfound interest in colouring books is linked to our need for more mindfulness.

“When I first heard about these books, I thought back to how much I loved colouring as a child,” she says. “Then I thought about what I knew about mindfulness and realised colouring was extremely mindful. It focuses your attention. It’s not so difficult that you give up and get annoyed and it’s as easy or as difficult as you want it to be.”

O’Callaghan can see that colouring books could be a way of relaxing and could be a path towards mindfulness. “They represent a way of slowing down while still being engaged in an activity,” she says. “They’re a helpful transition on the way to total mindfulness, which is a stage where you can sit mindfully with a cup of tea, walk the dog mindfully or even do the dishes mindfully.”

However, she is wary of reducing mindfulness to merely relaxing and de- stressing. “It’s the capacity to be awake to what is going on within and around us,” she says. “Mindfulness helps us see and think clearly and make more creative choices with respect to the thoughts, feelings and impulses that we constantly have to engage with. Colouring books might slow you down but you can get lost in the colours or start daydreaming.”

This doesn’t mean that colouring cannot be mindful. “When we really practice mindfulness, our day will be characterised by our ability to live more creatively in the present moment with all the proven benefits that follow from that,” says O’Callaghan.

“Colouring is as good a way as any to be mindful but everything — from taking a shower to washing the car — can be mindful. Mindfulness is not something you possess. It’s a way of relating.”

This is why Hasson and co-author Gilly Lovegrove have included activities other than colouring in their book.

“There are word puzzles, mazes and more,” Hasson says. “There are all sorts of ways in which you can be mindful. It’s all about keeping your head and mind in the present moment. It’s that simple but not that easy.”

If colouring can be mindful, Alma McQuade, an art therapist in South Dublin, is less convinced that it can be therapeutic. “These books might be helpful for some people,” she says. “They might be relaxing and meditative. But nobody should say that they are art therapy. I work with individuals and groups of all ages, helping them to make art and communicate in a way that reaches below the verbal level. These people create their own artwork. It all comes from them and they make sense of it in conversation with the therapist. That’s art therapy. Colouring is something different entirely.”

Bernadette Ryan, a psychotherapist with Relationships Ireland, believes the benefit of colouring may come from connecting with our inner child.

“Anything that puts us in touch with that little child can bring about a change in attitude,” she says. “We can have a more playful and creative approach to the stresses and struggles of life as a result.”

Colouring can also be a way of letting go of the high standards we hold ourselves to in the rest of our lives.

“We don’t have to keep within the lines if we don’t want to,” says Ryan. “That’s important for those of us who are stressed due to the pressure of overachieving. But be careful not to turn it into a colouring competition. Stay in the moment and go with the flow. Don’t put yourself under pressure to create a work of art.”

O’Callaghan believes colouring could be the first step towards mindfulness for some people. “It can raise your awareness of the moment,” she says. “It could be the first time you connect with your body and notice your thoughts. Just as children love colouring books and outgrow them over time, going on to create their own images; perhaps there’s a parallel process going on with adult. As our mindfulness develops, we too will want to express our creativity in more unique ways.”

If colouring books are representative of where we are now, Mary O’Callaghan hopes for a more mindful future. “But my sense is that they are unlikely to be of long-term significance. In three or four years’ time, I think we’ll have moved on.”

Meanwhile, Roz Purcell plans to continue night-time doodling. “I’ll definitely continue because it gives me that mental break I need in the evening... It’s just what I need to switch off.”

STRAYING OUTSIDE THE LINES

Johanna Basford’s The Secret Garden is the ultimate example of the craze for adult colouring books currently sweeping the world.

Describing itself as ‘an inky treasure hunt and colouring book’, it has sold 6.8m copies worldwide so far.

Retailing at between €12-€15, this colouring book is not cheap and yet many people claim it’s a worthwhile purchase.

What is it that makes this book so special?

As someone who last coloured between the lines two decades ago, I decided to check it out.

Initially, I found myself beguiled by the book’s designs. My eyes felt instantly soothed just looking at the leafy trees, flowers in boom, woodland animals and relaxingly repetitive mandalas.

I decided to start with a swirly floral pattern. Sitting at the kitchen table with my colouring book and pencils, I felt myself regressing to a child-like state. I slowed down and focussed on what I was doing. I put thought into my choice of colours and to staying between the lines.

The movement of my pencil along those swirly lines was pleasing in itself and there was a sense of achievement at seeing something bright and colourful emerging from what had previously been black and white lines.

However, my engagement didn’t last long. After 10 minutes, I started to tire of struggling to stay between the lines. Because the design was an intricate one, I sometimes strayed outside the lines and berated myself for it. I was frustrated that my design wasn’t perfect.

Experts might say there’s a lesson in that and point to excessively high standards I often set for myself.

But this is something I already know about myself and I don’t know if colouring will help.

Roz Purcell finds that colouring for 10 minutes at the end of every day helps her to relax. I’m not convinced it work for me. I might just stick to my tried-and-tested method of a long soak in the tub followed by an early night with a good book.