Colouring Books... For Grown Ups?!

I'm not embarrassed to say that I own thirteen colouring books and have my eye on several more.

Colouring, for me, is a great way to alleviate anxiety. I use it as a way to focus on one thing, rather than every little thing, and to work out any tension or frustration. It has an almost hypnotic calming effect on me - nothing matters except which colour I want to use next.

It's also taught me that it doesn't matter if things aren't always perfect all the time. I've made mistakes. I've picked up a crayon thinking it's pink and have it turn out to be orange; I've given some cats neon green eyes, and some girls startlingly peach skin. And I've learnt that it doesn't matter. Being such a highly strung perfectionist with a tendency to cry out of anger when things don't go as planned, this has been a valuable lesson to me. Yes, colouring can be fun, but for me it's much more than that.

Mental health is something close to my heart, something I'm passionate about and want to speak about more on my blog. Finding the words to do so, however, is not an easy task. I' using this post as a way to shoehorn it into my online presence. I'm not ashamed of my Generalised Anxiety Disorder, or the fact that I take medication. I'm not scared to talk about it, I just find it incredibly difficult to put into words.

I doubt it'll ever go away so I need to learn to accept it for what it is: part of me. And if colouring  can help me do that, then I'll colour until I can colour no more.