Coloring in my wellness pages has become a vitally important part of my daily self care, and if you loved to color when you were a child, you might find it beneficial, and enjoyable! to bring coloring back.

Coloring as an AWARENESS/INTENTIONALITY practice ~

Over the years, I’ve worked with many healing practices, but it took me a really long time to actually stick with them consistently, even though I had felt their benefits for so long.

Coloring became my intentionality practice, supporting me in my process and allowing me to stick with my practices long enough for them to take root and truly benefit me. This one thing made all the difference for me when it came to sticking with my practices, to showing up for myself on a consistent basis. Coloring my wellness pages helps me to be aware; it reminds me of all the things I’ve discovered and helps me to establish these new practices as habits in my life. This allows the practices to have a cumulative effect and allows me to step out of the groove and create new grooves, my own grooves. Coloring helps me to SET my intentionality for my day, helps me CHOOSE my stance, my ground for the day rather than letting the day and the habits and old-timey ways choose it for me, and it helps my awareness to continue throughout the day, helping me to be more aware of who I am and how I want to be in the world.

Coloring as a RELAXATION/MINDFULNESS practice ~

Coloring calms me down. Everything becomes still, and there is simply me, now, with my piece of paper, shapes and colors. For me it is a moving meditation, like stitching is, allowing me to come into the present moment and leave the distractions, the incessant chatter and the worries behind for a little while. It helps me find my way back into my body when I’ve been way too much in my mind. Everything slows down, inner dialogue quiets, I breathe more deeply and find myself truly IN the present moment.

If crayons and coloring books featured heavily in your childhood days, as they did in mine, you may be interested in knowing that Carl Jung prescribed coloring to his patients in the 1900s to calm and center their minds. Clearly he knew the benefits of mindfulness long before that term became mainstream. I’ll gladly take calm and centered as incentive to color for a little while today.