Adult coloring books have gained popularity over recent years, and studies show that their popularity is well deserved. Research has proven that coloring books have a positive impact on our quality of life. And coloring books are a fun, easy, and economical way to improve our health.
It is a common misconception that retiring helps reduce stress, but we seniors know nothing could be further from the truth. And stress isn’t the only thing we battle with either; many of us deal with anxiety, depression, insomnia, and a variety of health issues.
Stress is by far the most common issue seniors deal with and one that causes a significant impact on our health. Regardless of what causes one’s stress, the reality is that it negatively affects our health and can cause such issues as:
- Body aches
- Fatigue
- Weight gain
- Sleep deprivation
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Lowered immune system
- Increased blood pressure
However, the good news is that coloring for as little as 30 minutes a day can help improve your stress levels and positively impact other areas of your well-being. Coloring doesn’t just help lower stress; it can also improve our memory, cognitive function, head eye coordination, and more.
Though coloring cannot fix everything and is not a cure-all for disease, there have been favorable research results showing that taking time to color each day can improve our overall health.
This article discusses the top five health benefits of adult coloring books for seniors, recommendations for the best coloring book of the month clubs, and other helpful tools to get you started coloring your way to a healthier life.
The reason we are including coloring book of the month clubs is that they make life easier. Signing up for a coloring book subscription helps reduce decision fatigue. Plus, a subscription is a convenient way to buy coloring books since they are delivered to your door each month, ensuring you always have a nice selection of coloring books on hand.
5 Health Benefits of Coloring
- Reduce Stress, Anxiety, Depression
- Physical Health Benefits
- Improve Cognitive Function
- Promotes Fine Motor Skills
- Improve Brain Function
Reduce Stress, Anxiety, and Depression
The most common health benefits seniors gain from adult coloring books is their positive impact on their mental health. And as we all know, stress does not diminish with age.
In fact, anxiety and depression are both common issues seniors deal with day in and day out. The good news is that research shows that daily coloring is an effective method for reducing anxiety and symptoms of depression.
Coloring is effective at diminishing feelings of anxiety and stress because it is an active form of meditation. Meditation is one of the best ways to practice mindfulness, which is a key component of releasing our anxiety.
Mindfulness is the ability to focus one’s mind and stay in the moment. It helps us to relax our bodies and promotes deep breathing. Mindfulness also helps reduce stress-inducing mind chatter.
A study conducted by International Islamic University Islamabad showed that those who colored for just 30 minutes showed a noticeable difference in their anxiety levels. And those with state anxiety, anxiety caused by outside factors, showed twice as much improvement over those with trait anxiety.
Physical Health Benefits
Coloring is so efficient at promoting mindfulness that UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center uses coloring to help relax chemotherapy patients during treatment. The process not only takes away some of the stress cancer patients feel but can move the patient’s focus away from their physical pain.
Because coloring is a form of meditation, it is believed that it shares many of the proven health benefits meditators receive from daily meditation, such as:
- Reduce pain
- Lower blood pressure
- Heart disease
- Improve symptoms of asthma
- Decrease symptoms of fibromyalgia
- Improve attention
- Improve sleep quality
- Decrease blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin levels
- Decrease symptoms of depression
Meditation is so useful when managing physical aches and pains because it decreases stress hormones that cause inflammation. Moreover, meditation and mindfulness can help promote a better night’s sleep, vital to staying healthy.
Improve Cognitive Function
Coloring is an excellent hobby to aid seniors who have dementia or Alzheimer’s. Coloring has a calming effect on those who struggle with cognitive disorders. Plus, because coloring induces mindfulness helping focus the brain on one task, it reduces the stress associated with cognitive dysfunction.
Additionally, coloring can help recreate positive emotions from memories of coloring. And coloring gives people a sense of accomplishment, which is often lacking for those who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Promotes Fine Motor Skills
Because people spend more time on their personal devices such as their cell phones and tablets, they have begun to lose their fine motor skills. However, studies have found that coloring can improve and regain our fine motor skills.
Coloring helps improve our fine motor skills through the processes of selecting the different colors and coloring inside the lines, which help to retrain our brains. Additionally, coloring helps develop better hand-eye coordination, another skill that diminishes over time and a lack of use.
Improve Brain Function
Brain function is positively impacted through meditation. Meditation is known to help stimulate brain cells’ regeneration and build connections between the two sides of the brain.
Working on active meditation skills, such as coloring, can help your brain become more alert and increase its neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity impacts how your brain grows and changes, as well as allow new cells and new neural connections to form.
And according to a study on meditation reported by Harvard Medical, an MRI showed that those who meditated registered an increase in different areas of the brain, such as the regions that influence learning, memory, regulating emotions, empathy, introspection, and imagining the future.
Remember, our brain is a muscle, and the more we use it, the stronger it will become.
3 Coloring Book of the Month Clubs
- Coloring and the Classics
- The Monthly Coloring Club
- Life Escapes
Coloring and the Classics
The founders of Coloring and Classics were inspired to start the company after an unforeseen health situation induced by day to day stress without any downtime. This unlucky event made the founders realize that something needed to change.
The founders first attempted meditation practices and other styles of relaxation to manage daily stress better. Unfortunately, they discovered that traditional forms of meditation were not working for them. Instead of giving up, they shifted to other forms of active meditation, including adult coloring books. It didn’t take long before they realized the benefits of meditation through coloring.
Shortly after realizing how effective coloring was to reduce stress and anxiety, they decided to help spread the benefits of coloring and founded Coloring and Classics.
Coloring and Classics is not the average coloring book of the month club. Their mission is to introduce the big three, “imagination, problem-solving, and creativity,” to others in the effort to aid people in finding downtime.
Coloring and Classics bring their members more than just coloring books; the subscription also includes novels and puzzle books. And there are two different club options:
The Coloring and Classic Box:
- Month-to-month for $16.99
- 3 months for $47.97
- 6 months for $90.00
- 12 months for $168
The Coloring and Classics Premium Box:
- Month-to-month for $28.99
- 3 months for $84
- 6 months for $161.94
- 12 months for $312.00
The membership includes 1 adult puzzle book, 1 adult coloring book, and a hardcover novel. The Coloring and Classics Premium Box also includes a 12-ounce bag of hand-roasted premium coffee.
There are seven different genres to choose from for your monthly novel:
- Acclaimed fiction
- Acclaimed nonfiction
- Mystery
- Thriller
- Horror
- Romance
- Fantasy
When you order your Coloring and Classics subscription, the box will ship within 48 hours. All future subscription boxes ship the last week of the month. You will receive the FedEx tracking number when your box ships out via email.
The Monthly Coloring Club
The Monthly Coloring Club is an online adult coloring book store that sells art therapy coloring books. The Monthly Coloring Club has both digital and hard copy coloring books.
You can purchase their coloring books individually or in a subscription.
In addition to coloring books, The Monthly Coloring Club has complimentary online coloring classes. The classes demonstrate various coloring techniques such as shading, combining colors, and picking coloring materials.
The Monthly Coloring Club carries a variety of coloring book themes like:
- Holiday
- Season
- Animal
- Architecture
- Nature
- Patterns
The Monthly Coloring Club’s specialty is their coloring book of the month subscription. There are four different coloring book subscription options:
- Calm Pack Digital for $6 per month – 6 Drawings
- Relax Pack Digital for $11 per month – 20 Drawings
- Calm Pack Cardstock for $14.00 a month – 6 Drawings
- Relax Pack Cardstock for $29.00 a month – 20 Drawings
All but the relax pack cardstock are individual drawings; the relax pack is a top-bound book instead.
The cardstock coloring pages are printed on 110-pound cardstock, ideal for watercolors, markers, coloring pencils, and crayons. Plus, the different pages include an inspirational saying and a gratitude reminder.
Each month there is a different theme. Some of the themes include wild safari, complex mandalas, weird and wonderful, and underwater adventure.
Life Escapes
Life Escapes specializes in adult coloring books. They offer hardcopy coloring books as well as digital copies. But what makes Life Escapes different than other coloring book subscriptions is their wide variety of coloring book options.
Life Escapes carries more than 100 creative coloring books to pick from, some of the coloring book options include:
- Fall into Autumn
- Christmas Goodies
- Landscapes
- Flowers
- Kittens
- Oldtimer Coloring Book for Men
- Churches
All of their 48-page PDF coloring books are sold individually for $10 or you can purchase a sampler that has 10 designs for $5. Plus, Life Escapes offers a 12-month subscription.
Each month the recipient receives a random collection of 30 prime quality pictures from different coloring books.
Other Tools
Of course, you will need something to color with, and though crayons are definitely an option, colored pencils tend to be the preferred choice amongst seniors.
Colored pencils are easier for coloring the smaller and more detailed designs commonly found in adult coloring books. However, some people prefer to use markers, gel pens, or even paints.
For those who have arthritis in their hands, choosing larger pencils, crayons, or markers may be more comfortable, all of which are available.
Before you start coloring, be sure that the paper you are coloring on can hold up to the media option you chose. Additionally, if you are going to use crayons or pencils, it is a good idea to pick up a small sharpener to help keep a fine point.
I had no idea that practicing active meditation techniques, like coloring, might make the brain more aware and neuroplastic. I’ll be sure to share this with my mother, who has been looking for a new pastime, and look into custom coloring book sellers who can assist us in getting one. She is getting older, therefore stimulating her mind will be very beneficial in the long run.