I got an adult coloring book as a gift recently and the back cover says that it is used to help increase mindfulness and decrease anxiety. I did not get that effect whatsoever. It made me too mindful to the point where it would just stress me out. I needed to stay within the lines and get my colors just right. Surprisingly, there are studies out there that have researched this topic. In Mantizios and Giannou's study (2018), they had students in 3 groups: a mandala coloring group, a free-drawing group, and a mindfulness-guided mandala coloring group. When testing the mandala coloring group versus the free-drawing group, their participants reported no change in mindfulness or anxiety. They also tested the mandala coloring group with the mindfulness-guided mandala coloring group and found that the guided group had decreased anxiety but no change in mindfulness. Additionally, post-study surveys were conducted and some participants voiced that they even disliked having the guided meditation while they were coloring (Mantizios & Giannou, 2018).
Although these adult coloring books are advertised to increase mindfulness and decrease anxiety, do they really? It seems like, based on their results, that there is not much these coloring books do to our emotional state but that there may be benefits to guided coloring. Moreover, their results suggest that further research is needed and you may need to be the person who tests if these adult coloring books actually help your mindfulness and anxiety.
Resources:
Mantzios, M., & Giannou, K. (2018). When Did Coloring Books Become Mindful? Exploring the Effectiveness of a Novel Method of Mindfulness-Guided Instructions for Coloring Books to Increase Mindfulness and Decrease Anxiety. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 56. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00056
This is a very interesting idea because like you, I often find myself getting more stressed and anxious when I am coloring in a coloring book. Part of this could be my tendency to be a perfectionist and the idea that I am stuck with it even if I mess up or do not like the color I chose. Instead of sitting down and having a relaxing break from school or the world, I usually just stop halfway through coloring because I do not feel relaxed. The times that I do feel more relaxed when coloring or doing some other art is when I am listening to music at the same time. For some reason the music lowers my stress and perhaps distracts my brain from getting stressed about colors and following the lines while coloring. A study of 55 healthy students was conducted during a normal week in the semester and during examination week, where they collected saliva samples to look for cortisol and alpha- amylase (Linnemann, Ditzen, Strahler, Doerr, & Nater, 2015). The study found that listening to music did lower stress levels in the students, and is a good “means of stress reduction in daily life” (Linnemann et al., 2015). Perhaps combining coloring and listening to music will make doing a coloring book more enjoyable and less stressful.
ReplyDeleteLinnemann, A., Ditzen, B., Strahler, J., Doerr, J. M., & Nater, U. M. (2015). Music listening as a means of stress reduction in daily life. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 60, 82–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.06.008
I bought an adult coloring book a while ago and only got around to doing about half of 1 sheet because I was worried if it would look good. I think having a guided meditation might be nice because I would be less stressed about colors I'm using or if it will look nice.
ReplyDeleteSomething that is getting more popular recently is color by numbers, where the picture has different parts with certain numbers and each number is correlated with a color. I have never done one but I think that it would lower my own stress because I know that I’m “doing the right thing” but without having to put as much thought into it. It would be interesting to compare guided coloring vs. free coloring and if there were different levels of anxiety/mindfulness. However, I do think that because I am the type who likes to follow directions instead of being more creative, it would be interesting to compare different types of majors in college in those two different types of coloring.
Hey guys!
ReplyDeleteI, too, have a love hate relationship with the adult coloring books. I tihnk the concept works in theory, but I get worried about messing up and it not looking "pretty-enought" which is ridiculous because it should be an activity for fun! I feel that it stems back to a level of perfectionism which then stems to self-critisism. In a study done by Tobey Mandel, it was found that there was a strong relationship between cortisol awakening response (CAR) and self critisism/perfectionism (SC) and eventually this leads to depression (Mandel, 2018). It is sad to think that something that should be relaxing is actually inducing a stress response due to this underlying need to be perfect and a self critical mindset. We need to be easier on ourselves and go with the flow. Next time, lets not be afraid to color outside the lines and lower our cortisol levels (as originaly intended in the first place!) (:
References:
Mandel, T., Dunkley, D. M., Lewkowski, M., Zuroff, D. C., Lupien, S. J., Juster, R., . . . Westreich, R. (2018). Self-critical perfectionism and depression maintenance over one year: The moderating roles of daily stress–sadness reactivity and the cortisol awakening response. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 65(3), 334-345. doi:10.1037/cou0000284