{"id":7187,"date":"2018-01-25T08:30:52","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T13:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/?p=7187"},"modified":"2018-01-18T15:03:35","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T20:03:35","slug":"7187","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/working-well\/7187\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult Coloring Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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3 Reasons Adult Coloring Can Actually Relax Your Brain<\/h2>\n

Find out what’s behind the latest craze<\/h3>\n
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It\u2019s the latest craze. Where you might\u00a0expect to see children, you find adults: They\u00a0sit\u00a0with\u00a0colored pencils in their hands, bent over the swirls and intricate patterns of coloring books. Yes, coloring books. They are losing themselves in patterns of mandalas, curved flowers and\u00a0runaway stems. This is a world they create and escape into, and it\u2019s become\u00a0a popular form of relaxation.<\/p>\n

But how does it work? What does this pastime do to our brains to elicit such pleasure and calm?<\/p>\n

According to clinical psychologist\u00a0Scott M. Bea, Psy.D.<\/a>, it has everything to do with refocusing our attention. \u201cAdult coloring\u00a0requires modest attention focused outside of self-awareness. It is a simple activity that takes us outside ourselves. In the same way, cutting the lawn,\u00a0knitting, or taking a Sunday drive can all be relaxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does adult coloring do to relax people?<\/h3>\n

Dr. Bea\u00a0cites\u00a0three reasons\u00a0adult coloring can be calming:<\/p>\n

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  1. Attention flows away from ourselves.\u00a0<\/strong>A simple act, such as coloring, takes your attention away from yourself\u00a0and onto the present-moment event. \u201cIn this way, it is very much like a meditative exercise,\u201d Dr. Bea says.<\/li>\n
  2. It relaxes the brain.<\/strong>\u00a0When thoughts are focused on a simple\u00a0activity, your brain tends to relax. \u201cWe\u00a0are not disturbed by our\u00a0own thoughts and appraisals,\u201d he says. \u201cThe difficulties of life evaporate from our\u00a0awareness, and both our bodies and our brains may find this rewarding.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Low stakes make it pleasurable.<\/strong>\u00a0The fact that the outcome of coloring is predictable also can be relaxing. \u201cIt is hard to screw up coloring, and, even if you do, there is no real consequence.\u00a0As result, adult coloring can be a wonderful lark, rather than an arduous test of our capacities,\u201d he adds.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    https:\/\/health.clevelandclinic.org\/2015\/11\/3-reasons-adult-coloring-can-actually-relax-brain\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    3 Reasons Adult Coloring Can Actually Relax Your Brain Find out what’s behind the latest craze It\u2019s the latest craze. Where you might\u00a0expect to see children, you find adults: They\u00a0sit\u00a0with\u00a0colored pencils in their hands, bent over the swirls and intricate … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9193321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[241883,126816],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stress-busters","category-working-well"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/saB9fc-7187","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9193321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7189,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187\/revisions\/7189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}