Color To Lower Stress

As a child, I could spend hours on a day like today (shut in by the snow storm) creating masterpieces in the pages of my coloring books. As I got older, like most folks, the crayons got traded out for the more common writing tools - a pen  and a highlighter. Never would I have imagined that in my silver years I'd be given a legitimate reason to pick back up past time I so enjoyed - coloring.
Coloring has been found to be a very helpful de-stressing tool.  According to psychologist Gloria Martinez Ayala, the relaxation that comes from coloring lowers activity in the area of the brain that is involved in controlling emotions brought on from stress. Adult coloring promotes wellness, a place of quietness and stimulates in the brain the areas connected to motor skills, our senses and creativity. Coloring connects us to our feelings since the intensity and the colors chosen as we color often express our moods.
Now I don't want to mislead you to believe this is some kind of magic bullet that will render you stress free but it will help relieve those stressful feelings that overwhelm you. France, the United Kingdom and Spain have been in the forefront of the use of this technique. Now you can choose from several adult coloring book collection series readily available, one of my favorites is "Color Me Calm"  and be sure to use the correct tool...crayons and not color markers. Markers can give off  noxious fumes creating a whole other set of problems...let me hear back from you on this topic.
Here's to your health!!!!