Colouring helps to relax

I stumble upon it by chance in the office supply store: a shelf full of books with colouring. Not for children, no, for adults. Large and small colouring, greeting cards, animals, cityscapes and above all: spiritual symbols such as mandalas.

Keep things simple

Did I miss something? Is colouring the new puzzling? A cursory internet search seems to confirm it; it’s a hype and everywhere you look you will find colouring books and materials. It doesn’t leave my mind. But I just ignore the countless opinions on the most beautiful colourings and the very best pencils. A simple entry level with mandalas for 4 euros and a simple set of colour pencils seem well enough for my purpose.

Relaxing

‘Relax by colouring’ it says on the cover of my colouring book, and that is what I want to investigate after a day of small and large concerns. The book lays in front of me on the table. Don’t think ahead, I say to myself strictly, and intuitively I choose a purple pencil, after which I plan to start colouring a mandala from the inside out. The purple colour turns out to be lilac. But funnily enough it doesn’t bother me. My hand moves smoothly back and forth across the paper and the pencil scratches softy; It seems as though tension and frustration dissolve automatically. It becomes silent.

Deeper

The phone rings. I reluctantly pick up, and while I listen and talk, the petals and boxes of the mandala effortlessly turn blue and purple. A new layer, diagonally across the first layer, makes it go deeper in colour.

When I hang up, there is a cheerful flower laying in front of me. How would my brain look now? I wonder. I imagine also like a multicolored mandala.

Tips

Publishing House BBNC publishes the series The only real colouring book for adults. On the blog kleurvolwassen.nl you can find everything about colouring, pencils, felt-tip pens and colouring techniques. And for mandala colouring have a look at mandalakleurplaten.

Would you like to relax without to much costs; colour a mandala!

Photocredits: Miriam Notenboom