That’s the word from The Boston Globe, which reports that colouring books for adults are flying off store shelves. The books, which the paper says are more detailed than their child-focussed counterparts, are among the top sellers on Amazon.
Why are grownups buying up a genre generally targeted at younger children? The answer seems to be that colouring between the lines can be a therapeutic exercise.
“I think it probably speaks to people’s enjoyment in doing this kind of relaxing hobby or distraction from everyday life,” Sarah Deaver, president of the American Art Therapy Association, told the Globe. “It creates an object of focus, and it creates something that’s beautiful and that’s satisfying.”
Art psychotherapist Samantha Davis explains to a top radio station in Capetown why there is such a surge in the popularity of the pastime, even in South Africa.
Davis says that clients regularly come to her to share how colouring in helps them to relax. She says people often experience more anxiety from having to draw from scratch; but colouring in provides more mental relief.
5 benefits of colouring in for adults:
1. Neurologically, colouring in helps people find a sense tranquility and serves as a kind of escapism.
2. There is an opportunity for adults to explore their mood by choosing different colours according to how they feel.
3. Adults get to experiment with different styles of shading and different ways to start.
4. Colouring in helps stimulates the brain and senses, as well as one’s creativity.
5.The pastime provides an opportunity for people to step away from the pixelated world of electronics and back to the classic use of paper
