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| So my younger self was right: colouring in is the key to a happy life | So my younger self was right: colouring in is the key to a happy life |
| (2 months later) | |
| Researchers have found that just 10 minutes a day in the company of crayons can give adults a mental lift. It’s been keeping me on the right lines for years | |
| Fri 10 Nov 2017 13.17 GMT | |
| Last modified on Fri 10 Nov 2017 13.22 GMT | |
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| As a small, Meatloaf-looking girl, often to be found wearing an unlikely collection of bottle-green leggings, DM boots and silk waistcoats (imagine a radical feminist Status Quo), I absolutely loved colouring in. I would spend ages on the sort of intricate geometric patterns that would have been perfect training for a career in carpet design. | As a small, Meatloaf-looking girl, often to be found wearing an unlikely collection of bottle-green leggings, DM boots and silk waistcoats (imagine a radical feminist Status Quo), I absolutely loved colouring in. I would spend ages on the sort of intricate geometric patterns that would have been perfect training for a career in carpet design. |
| I well remember the warm, porridge-like mental state that came on as I sat under my beloved Mr Men sleeping bag, an untouched bowl of orange quarters and sunflower seeds to my right, a rolling display of Rugrats or Darkwing Duck flickering in my peripheral vision. I could lose hours, days collectively, brows furrowed, breathing into my double chins, working up a crayon mosaic that now brings to mind an ITV3 impression of what it’s like to trip out on LSD. | I well remember the warm, porridge-like mental state that came on as I sat under my beloved Mr Men sleeping bag, an untouched bowl of orange quarters and sunflower seeds to my right, a rolling display of Rugrats or Darkwing Duck flickering in my peripheral vision. I could lose hours, days collectively, brows furrowed, breathing into my double chins, working up a crayon mosaic that now brings to mind an ITV3 impression of what it’s like to trip out on LSD. |
| So it was with a happy sigh of recognition that I read that psychology researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand have found that there are definite mental health gains for adults colouring in for as little as 10 minutes a day. | So it was with a happy sigh of recognition that I read that psychology researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand have found that there are definite mental health gains for adults colouring in for as little as 10 minutes a day. |
| Now, I must admit that the last time I was in Otago I gave myself such severe concussion that I lost my sense of smell for over a year. And while the brain injury may well have reduced my ability to appreciate the chilly delights of Dunedin (where the University of Otago is based), I do remember getting the distinct impression that this was the sort of town where a little mood-lifting hobby wouldn’t go amiss. In the brilliant and quintessentially Kiwi words of the report’s joint author, Dr Celia Lie, the purpose of the study was simply to see if adult colouring in books would “live up to the hype”. | Now, I must admit that the last time I was in Otago I gave myself such severe concussion that I lost my sense of smell for over a year. And while the brain injury may well have reduced my ability to appreciate the chilly delights of Dunedin (where the University of Otago is based), I do remember getting the distinct impression that this was the sort of town where a little mood-lifting hobby wouldn’t go amiss. In the brilliant and quintessentially Kiwi words of the report’s joint author, Dr Celia Lie, the purpose of the study was simply to see if adult colouring in books would “live up to the hype”. |
| The researchers tested 115 women aged 18 to 36 (welcome to my demographic, friends), and found that those who were assigned a week of colouring in tasks, rather than other mind games such as sudoku, reported lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. I can well believe it. While people down the centuries have been sent into a spiral of nervous, self-destructive psychosis while trying to navigate the boundless, unplotted landscape of Art with a capital A, I doubt many of us have been brought to the point of exhaustion by adding just the right shade of orange to a black-and-white drawing of a koi carp. As another of the report’s authors, Dr Tamlin Conner, put it: “In this way, colouring in could be considered an act of everyday little-c creativity, in much the same way as gardening or gourmet cooking.” | The researchers tested 115 women aged 18 to 36 (welcome to my demographic, friends), and found that those who were assigned a week of colouring in tasks, rather than other mind games such as sudoku, reported lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. I can well believe it. While people down the centuries have been sent into a spiral of nervous, self-destructive psychosis while trying to navigate the boundless, unplotted landscape of Art with a capital A, I doubt many of us have been brought to the point of exhaustion by adding just the right shade of orange to a black-and-white drawing of a koi carp. As another of the report’s authors, Dr Tamlin Conner, put it: “In this way, colouring in could be considered an act of everyday little-c creativity, in much the same way as gardening or gourmet cooking.” |
| I will, however, take issue with the statement that all the women who took part in the study reported feeling more “mindful” during that week. Colouring in, whether as an adult or child, is almost the definition of a mindless activity. While your body may be present, your concentration (unless you’re really struggling with that drawing of dolphins frolicking in sea spray) will likely wander off into the realms of total, incidental, trivial periphery. That’s not mindfulness, it’s nowhere near meditation, but it is mighty pleasant. | I will, however, take issue with the statement that all the women who took part in the study reported feeling more “mindful” during that week. Colouring in, whether as an adult or child, is almost the definition of a mindless activity. While your body may be present, your concentration (unless you’re really struggling with that drawing of dolphins frolicking in sea spray) will likely wander off into the realms of total, incidental, trivial periphery. That’s not mindfulness, it’s nowhere near meditation, but it is mighty pleasant. |
| Just as some of my happiest moments on Earth have been spent splitting logs, painting skirting boards or making bread, colouring in can be a welcome break from the focused, attentive brain – a retreat back into our intuitive, physical, mammalian world. Or, in my case, to a simpler, cream-cheese-cheeked, silk-shirted childhood. | Just as some of my happiest moments on Earth have been spent splitting logs, painting skirting boards or making bread, colouring in can be a welcome break from the focused, attentive brain – a retreat back into our intuitive, physical, mammalian world. Or, in my case, to a simpler, cream-cheese-cheeked, silk-shirted childhood. |
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