For the past couple of years, adult colouring books have taken the UK by storm. You can find them in almost every book store. The varieties are endless – pattern books, mythical creatures, or even Game Of Thrones colouring books. Why have colouring books been such a phenomenon and what can we learn from them?

Before Christmas I bought myself The One And Only Mandala Colouring Book from Amazon UK. I was very excited when it arrived and thought I’d plow through the book with relative ease. That was my first misunderstanding about a colouring book, thinking to plow through. Many articles cover the benefits of colouring; essentially it develops the ability to be mindful, to relax and to focus the mind.

So what did my colouring experience say about me?

1. I seek to get the colouring done and need to focus more on the enjoyment of the process
2. I can be colouring but still be thinking about something else – this is evident within the colouring as I appear to slightly go over lines instead of stay within them
3. I am very good at colouring when wholly focusing on the process
4. I shouldn’t colour when I am tired because I miss small spaces, with the pattern being littered with white
5. Don’t colour in luminous yellow in low light…it doesn’t look like anything is being coloured in at all and ends up a total mess 🙂

What I realised was that colouring taught me a lot about how I work! If I rewrite the above in relation to my work, it can place things into perspective and make me more aware of pitfalls to avoid. So the list would become:

1. I seek to get the job done and need to focus more on the enjoyment of the process
2. I can be doing a task but still be thinking about something else – this is evident within the quality of work
3. I am very good at my job when wholly focusing on the process
4. I shouldn’t work when I am tired because I miss things out, with the task being littered with errors
5. Don’t work on something that doesn’t have a clear objective…little is achieved and it ends up a total mess 🙂

If you want to learn about how your brain works whilst having fun and (mostly) relaxing, why not try colouring? It’s certainly a colourful, eye-opening experience.

__

The One and Only Mandala Colouring Book, Amazon UK