Illustration of a person's hand colouring a butterfly on a sheet of paper. © Recipes for Wellbeing

Mindful colouring

When you say ‘yes,’ to others, make sure you are not saying ‘no’ to yourself. —Paul Coelho

👥 Serves: 1 person, 11-25 people, 2-10 people, 26-40 people, 41+ people

🎚 Difficulty: Easy

⏳ Total time: 31-60 minutes

🥣 Ingredients: Recipes for Wellbeing’s colouring templates (1 per person), printer, colouring markers, and a quiet space, relaxing music is (optional)

🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Awareness, Liberatory Learning, Positive Emotion

💪 Wholebeing Skills: Creativity, Focus, Inquiry, Letting go, Mindfulness, Peacefulness, Presence, Serenity

Mindful colouring

📝 Description

Colouring for peace and mindfulness.

When was the last time you coloured? Colouring is no longer reserved just for kids, but the kids in all of us, too!

You may be pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of benefits that colouring offers. Besides being a bit of fun, colouring helps the brain to focus on one activity, and fires up the brain’s frontal lobe, an area that assists in problem-solving and creativity.

Colouring can be extremely beneficial for people who suffer from anxiety, overthinking, or people who lead lives with high levels of stress. As you focus on the task at hand and the outcome of your colouring template, your brain can reach a meditative state, with life’s other stressors fading into the background. Colouring can also help lower your heart rate and even decrease feelings of sadness. If you’re feeling this way, it’s best to select a more intricate and detailed colouring template.

Happy colouring!

This recipe has been created by our wellbeing content writer collaborator Marissa Del Mistro.

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Important: We shared this recipe as part of our blog post “Wellbeing for Ukraine” and you can access a translated version here (kindly translated by our changemaker friend Lisa Glybchenko).

👣 Steps

Step 1 – Select a template (5’)

Browse the 8 Recipes for Welling’s colouring templates (courtesy of our friends at Housatonic) and select the one that interests you the most. Using a printer, print off the selected template, gather your markers and find a quiet space.

Step 2 – Colour your heart away (45’)

You may wish to add music to your colouring session for added relaxation. You can select soft music such as classical music or instrumental music of your liking.

Spend the next 45 minutes getting lost in the artwork you are making – that is what it is, after all, artwork! Focus on the colours, the shapes and the lines and do your best to get rid of any distractions such as phones, computers, or television.

Step 3 – Reflect (10’)

Once time is up (or one you finish colouring your template), spend a few minutes reflecting on your experience:

What thoughts and emotions did you experience as you were colouring?
Did you have to battle perfectionist tendencies (e.g. to colour within the lines, to follow a logical colour palette, etc.) or were you able to let go of them and follow your intuition?
When you look at what you created, what does it say about your current quality of mind, body, heart, and soul?

Step 4 – Repeat (weekly or bi-weekly basis)

Try to repeat this activity on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, especially when you may be feeling anxious or overwhelmed and see how it positively impacts on your mind and overall wellbeing.