Peace and purpose showcases 8 benefits of coloring to your selfcare practice

We have all heard the metaphor that we should treat ourselves like the passenger on the airplane that is having atmospheric difficulties, before we help anyone with their mask, we put ours on first.  We can’t give to others until we fill our cup first.  That is why it is important to have a self-care practice in place.  It allows us to fill our cup, so we have something to give.  A practice can consist of a routine of prayer, meditation, play, fun, exercise, diet, reading, writing, or any activity that fills our cup.  A practice can be done daily, weekly, monthly, and some parts may be done yearly.  It is important as we discover our practice to find what works for us.  In the Peace and Purpose Meditation Coloring book and workbook there are many suggestions for activities to add to our self-care and help us discover a personal practice.  Here are a few benefits of coloring that will create a self-care practice

1. Coloring can take us to the childhood freedom of coloring--As we open a new box of crayons, markers, or colored pencils, crack open our Peace and Purpose coloring book and pick out a page to color, we are transported back to our days as a child without a care in the world when we lost ourselves in the simple act of coloring and expressing ourselves.  Let this be our focus as we explore the Peace and Purpose pages.  Let’s enjoy a simpler time and allow our inner child to play.

2. Coloring gives us an opportunity to play with color--There is a rush of energy that comes from opening a box of color choices, whether it is a box of crayons, colored pencils, markers, pastels, etc.  As we explore the world of color, we can tune into the colors we prefer and how they make us feel.  Do they remind us of the colors in our favorite room, our favorite outfit, or maybe our favorite colors from childhood?  The more we explore color we discover the colors that speak to us.

3. Coloring works the artistic side of the brain--As we live in the world of work, schedules, and logistics, we don’t always take the time for ourselves and explore the artistic side of our brain.  By taking the baby steps of coloring, perhaps we can begin to see what other artistic skills are waiting for us to discover within ourselves and activate our creativity. As we play with the colors and stories, we are inspired to explore other artistic aspects of ourselves.

4. Coloring along with using positive affirmations improves happiness--Our brains have defaulted to the negativity in our lives.  We often find ourselves dwelling on what we did or said, and it isn’t on the joyful parts of our lives.  We can use our coloring time to train our brains to reset to positive thoughts.  We pick an affirmation from the workbook part of Peace and Purpose and train our thoughts as we color to repeat the affirmation when our mind wanders.

Relive happy moments in life through the images colored--The images in Peace and Purpose depict fashion sports, lifestyle, and relationships.  Studies have shown that we can make ourselves happier if we relive happy moments in our lives.  We can use our color time to pick an image that reminds us of happy times and as we color we up our happiness.

6. Coloring is a time to project positive thoughts to the future--We can use the coloring time to send positive thoughts for and visualization of the future.  We can pick an image that speaks to our future and savor the moments sending love and light as we color.  We can create a joyful story of the picture we are coloring as we are bringing it life.

7. Coloring allows us to create with our hands and immerse and savor an activity that produces a beautiful picture--When we have completed our picture, we have so much to enjoy.  We have the luxury of enjoying our self-care; we have created something beautiful to savor; and, we have a beautiful piece of art we can appreciate.

8. Coloring is portable for wait time in doctor’s offices, airports, cars, kid’s practices--Instead of being frustrated in wait times or defaulting to electronics, we can look forward to reaching into our Peace and Purpose bag, pulling out our Peace and Purpose coloring pencils, and creating in our Peace and Purpose Coloring book.

It’s all up to us how we use this self-care opportunity.  Peace and Purpose gives us an excuse to rediscover our inner child and continue our personal growth journey.  We might also discover our hidden artist and make it an essential part of our self-care habit.