Relaxation Moments

Relaxation, Peace and Serenity for the Mind and Body

Sneak More Relaxation into Your Day with These Simple Tips

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Deciding to relax more often and finding the time are tough. Our schedules are packed with to-dos and there isn’t a lot of wiggle room for relaxation. Sure, you can go to bed earlier, get up earlier or schedule your next vacation, but there are other ways you can sneak more relaxation throughout our day. Here are some tips that will help-

TIP- Read more

TIP-Unplug more

TIP- Shower more

TIP- Nap more

TIP- Eat more

TIP: Grab a good book: Carrying a book with you in your bag, in your car, or within reach, can help you relax anywhere. If you find yourself waiting in line, open your book. Waiting on kids while they practice, open your book. The act of reading a great book can distract a busy mind from worries and help you relax in between commitments during the day. Instead of being distracted by overthinking or worrying, your mind can actually catch a break and refresh.

TIP: Unplug from technology: It may seem relaxing to scroll through social media but it can trigger anxiety and other powerful emotions. It’s become habitual to look at a screen any time there’s nothing else holding your attention. Rather than default to screen time, try sitting in silence or listening to soothing music instead. Unplugging from technology close to bedtime can make a big impact on how fast you fall asleep and how deeply you rest.

TIP: Expand your hygiene routines: Relaxation is an act of self-care. Allowing proper time for daily activities like showering, changing clothes after work, and getting ready for bed can help you relax as you transition throughout the day. Even ten extra minutes to yourself can make a big impact on your state of relaxation.

TIP: Learn to cat nap: Studies show that naps between 10-20 minutes offer the benefits of restorative sleep without the drowsiness caused by sleep inertia or too much nap time. Mastering the cat nap can help you relax and rejuvenate during the day and give you the boost you need to keep going while feeling relaxed.


TIP: Eat more often and choose better foods: Managing blood sugar can help you stay relaxed. Suffering the highs and lows of being hangry one moment and experiencing a food coma the next are stressful to your mind and body. Instead, plan to eat often and choose high quality food combinations. This helps keep your mood and energy stable.

Relaxation doesn’t have to be relegated to one long session. It’s possible to snag some relaxation throughout the day which adds up to a more refreshed and relaxed state of being. Find the techniques and opportunities for relaxation that best fit your schedule and your lifestyle and stick to them for a healthier mind and body.  

Finding the Right Relaxation Techniques for Your Needs

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So, you’ve made the smart decision to relax more and boost your health. Now what? Acknowledging the importance of relaxation is an important first step to a healthier and more rested you, but how do you plan to achieve some peace when relaxing hasn’t been your go-to health move?

Thankfully, there are a wide range of ways to relax. Some physical, some mental, and all of them are beneficial. Since you are unique, what you consider relaxing may vary from someone else. That’s why it’s important to try different techniques until you land on a handful that do the trick.

Before you start, consider what your top stressors are

If you are a white-collar worker, your stress may include traffic, deadlines, dealing with difficult people, etc… A primary care giver may face stress dealing with children, overwhelming amounts of laundry and endless sticky countertops. If you work with your hands, your stress may include sore muscles, long hours, and fatigue. Whatever you do, there’s specific stress involved.

Determining what the top stressors are can help you identify what type of relaxation has the most benefit. You may intuitively know ways you’d like to relax and unwind, or you may need to explore options until you land on ones that work best.

Standard relaxation techniques include:

You may enjoy all, some, or none of these ideas or you may have something else entirely that helps you relax.

There’s no rules to relaxation…except this one

Relaxation is a state of being free from tension or worries. Whatever puts you into that state is relaxing; however, some things seem relaxing but they contribute to stress. Be mindful that whatever activities you are engaging in are truly relaxing and stress free.

If you enjoy gaming but find you are wound up like a top trying to beat the next level or compete online with others, it may not be as relaxing as you think. If you enjoy sports, but find you get worked up being too competitive, it may not be your best form of relaxation. If listening to true crime podcasts excites you and triggers anxieties, you may need an additional relaxation technique.

Whatever relaxation activity you choose should help you decompress your mind, body, and spirit, and allow your mind to ease from worries and your body ease from stress. If the activity doesn’t promote this sense of wellbeing, it may not be truly relaxing.

Explore any and all activities that seem to be relaxing and see what you think. Also, don’t get bored doing the same thing all the time. Find new, fun ways to relax to keep yourself interested, engaged, and entertained while you relax.

Are You the Biggest Barrier to More Relaxation?

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Relaxation

How do you rank when it comes to relaxation? Relaxation is a voluntary action which often makes it harder to achieve. Choosing to relax requires awareness, discipline, and self-love. Understanding the benefits of relaxation and making it a priority in life can be hard when so many things are competing for your time and attention. It’s often easier to sacrifice relaxation when you feel overwhelmed or overextended, but relaxation is the very thing that could resolve those issues.

It may seem as though there are too many barriers between you and relaxation, but the biggest one could be…you. The good news is, with some simple mindset shifts, you can remove the barriers, including yourself, from the equation.

Choose relaxation through awareness- Our sympathetic nervous system, or SNS, helps us in times of stress. When our SNS is activated, we experience an increased heart rate, boosted adrenaline and other hormones, and our fight or flight response kicks in. By contrast, our parasympathetic nervous system, or PNS, helps our bodies transition from fight or flight back to calm and connected.

Understanding that the SNS needs to shut down and PNS needs activation is important, otherwise we live in a heightened state of vigilance all the time. This can lead to chronic worry, anxiety, as well as high blood pressure.

Get out of your own way by recognizing when your SNS needs a break. Living with too many stressors can keep your body in fight or flight and it’s up to you to determine when you need to trigger your PNS and find peace.

Choose relaxation with discipline- Knowing you need relaxation for your mind and body is one thing, actively engaging in it is another. It takes discipline to make relaxation a routine part of your everyday life. In the same way you create other routines for your health, shift your mind to include relaxation. Find a way to relax that makes sense for you and your lifestyle and stick to it. It’s ok to try more than one activity until you land on the ones that work best for you.

Get out of your own way by scheduling relaxation into your day. Include meditation, a cat nap, or walking barefoot in the grass into your to-do list. For most people, marking it down on their schedule can help them make relaxation a priority until it feels like a normal part of life.

Choose relaxation out of self-love- There are lots of ways to relax. Deep breathing can help you achieve a relaxed state, but so can a wonderful massage. Relaxation should be a reflection of the love you have for yourself and your health. Melding relaxation with activities that bring you peace, joy, and comfort is a form of self-care that benefits your mind and body as a whole.

Get out of your own way by allowing yourself to do things that feel lovely and loving. Find relaxation by soaking in a warm bath or enjoying your favorite beverage. Relax alone or in the company of others. Learn to embrace relaxing activities as vital as eating and sleeping are for your health. Don’t allow anyone else to encroach on your right for relaxation.

Sometimes a busy day leaves no room for relaxation, but overall, it’s usually us that gets in the way of being more relaxed. Thankfully, we can control ourselves and make important shifts to being more relaxed and engaging in relaxing activities.

Relaxation is Important to Your Health and Well-being

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Somehow, the idea of relaxing has become synonymous with laziness. In a busy world of people grinding out their success and taking care of their families, the idea of relaxing doesn’t come easy. The thing is, we need to relax, every day, not just during the occasional vacation. 

Your health, both physical and mental are tied to your ability to relax. Here’s how-

Relaxation lowers blood pressure, regulates breathing, and heart rate. Relaxation eases tense muscles and helps release stress. Relaxation reduces anxiety, depression, and many mood disorders.

So, why aren’t more people relaxing?

We are over-committed- Now, more than ever, we are pulled in too many directions. We make to-do lists, build out our schedules, and over-commit to so many things. It never occurs to us to schedule down time to recover from the demands. Eventually, since we don’t prioritize some peace and quiet, our bodies demand it by reaching their limits and experiencing illness, injuries, and mental fatigue.

It’s not culturally acceptable- While some cultures covet down time and build it onto their societal fabric, others don’t. Americans especially feel the pressure to be productive, only taking time for relaxation on Sundays and accrued vacation time.

Our brains don’t know how- Sometimes our brains can’t shut off. Issues like anxiety and depression can keep our brains in overdrive and we avoid relaxing altogether to avoid the hyper-awareness of how we feel inside. Essentially, we would rather stay busy than feel our feelings.

We choose the wrong relaxation- Relaxing should be free from stress, worry, and negativity. Choosing the wrong activities when we relax can negate the positive effects of down time. If you choose to watch true crime, play intense video games, or read suspenseful books while you ‘relax’ you could be triggering your brain into fight or flight rather than relaxation.

What You’re Missing When You’re Not Relaxing

Relaxing is a lot like eating well and exercising, it’s good for you! Here’s how relaxing contributes to your overall health-

Relaxing lowers blood pressure- High blood pressure often has no symptoms and can lead to heart attack and stroke. Hypertension is a leading cause of death and diet and exercise can influence it, but so can relaxation. In the same way 30 minutes of cardio can lower your risk of high blood pressure, so can 30 minutes of routine relaxation.

Relaxing boosts blood flow- Relaxation helps blood flow to the brain and other major organs helping our systems work as they were designed. Restricted blood flow can cause illness and injuries.  

Relaxation improves digestion- Our bodies do many things on their own without us thinking about it. We don’t need to remind ourselves to breath, our heart to beat, or our food to digest, but we can influence these actions. Relaxation is voluntary and helps us calm ourselves and our bodies. This can improve digestion by loosening muscles and allowing for proper blood flow to the digestive system.

You may think relaxing is a luxury or something to experience on vacation, but it’s vital to your health and wellbeing and should be a part of everyday life.

22 Tips for Falling Asleep Faster and Sleeping Better

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The average healthy adult needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. That being said, millions of people around the world experience poor sleep. Sleep issues can be attributed to many reasons, including stress and anxiety.

Poor sleep can also occur because many people haven’t cultivated good sleep habits — often referred to as sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene includes practices that can help you get to sleep and stay asleep.

Sleep is important. It’s not something that you can do without. No matter what is going on in your life, you need to get quality daily rest so you can maintain a healthy mind and body. Sleep is when your body cleanses and repairs itself. It’s also necessary for processing what you encountered during the day.

If you suffer from poor sleep, the good news is that there’s a lot you can do to change that. Many of these tips are very simple and don’t take a lot of time, money, or energy to implement. The key to making them work is doing them!

You spend a third of your life sleeping! That’s a lot of time, and yet many of us don’t invest in making this the best experience we can. Instead, we look at sleep at just “something to do” between one day and the next.

We need to shift our mindset to focus more on the quality of our sleep because it influences everything else we do during the other two-thirds of our life!

A restful night’s sleep has many benefits …

Sleep is not just something to do. It’s a necessary part of our daily life and will naturally occur in absence of anything that disturbs or disrupts it.

Sleep gives your body time to cleanse and repair itself. There are certain processes that only take place in the body while you’re sleeping. One of those processes involves cleansing the toxins that build up in the brain during the day. It’s also a time for the body to repair itself. When you rest, your body “goes to work” in amazing ways that keep you healthy in mind and body.

A good night’s sleep makes you more alert the next day. Not only will your concentration be heightened, you’ll make fewer mistakes in your work. Restful sleep reduces your frustration and irritation levels, and that’s especially important when we need to deal with our family, friends, and co-workers!

You’ll have a better view of life. Everything looks better when you’re well-rested — regardless of what’s going on in your life. If you’ve ever suffered from a long night of tossing and turning the next day, everything looks and feels different. Life feels harder. Problems seem bigger. And your body feels heavy and tired — because it is!

So you can see that there are many healthful benefits to mind and body by getting a good night’s sleep, which underscores why you should pay attention to this important part of your life.

Things to keep in mind …

Before jumping into helpful actions you can take right now to improve your quality of sleep, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.

Routines. Healthy habits are important for creating a better sleep result. Anything that you can do regularly will automatically start priming your body and brain for sleep. The tips below provide helpful ideas about things you can do (and not do) as you create a routine that works for you.

Be patient with yourself. It takes time to create new habits. Consider tracking your daily tasks on a calendar until they become routine. You may need to add, delete, or change your routine until you can find one that works for you. This may take some time and experimentation. Give yourself 21 – 30 days for your new habits to become routine.

Now, let’s look at what you can do to improve the quality of your sleep and, thus, the quality of your life!

Sleep Tips for a Better Night’s Rest

Never underestimate the importance of sleep. Creating a healthy sleep routine should be a priority above all else. Review these helpful tips which will give you a new view to cultivating better quality sleep.

Tip #1: Create a daily end-of-day routine that primes you for sleep. It’s best to do this routine outside of your bedroom, so you only use your bedroom for sleep. Your routine might include writing in a gratitude journal, reading a few paragraphs in a book, or listening to relaxing music. Since you’ll want to do this every night, make sure you enjoy the activities, they don’t excite the body or mind, and they don’t take a lot of time.

Tip #2: Use your bedroom only for sleep and not as a place to work, read, listen to music, or watch TV.

Tip #3: Remove gadgets from your room (including your TV) so you won’t be tempted to access them or be disturbed by them.

Tip #4: Turn off any type of gadgets or screens several hours prior to bedtime. That means you need to turn off your TV, computer, and phone.

Tip #5: If you use an alarm clock, reset it with soothing wakeup tones so that you’re not jarred out of sleep. Awakening suddenly to unpleasant sounds creates a stress response in the brain and body that’s best to be avoided.

Tip #6: Exercise regularly or do tasks that involve moving your body during the day, as this will help you sleep better at night. That being said, avoid exercising within 3 hours of bedtime.

Tip #7: Create a mantra to say as you drift off to sleep. A mantra is a phrase that you repeat over and over. You can craft one of your own or repeat a prayer, scripture or favorite quote.

Tip #8: Fix your bed before you sleep. A good habit is to fix your bed first thing in the morning. Why? It keeps your room looking tidy, and it helps you sleep better according to a study by the National Sleep Foundation.

Tip #9: Clean your bedroom area. Clutter can create agitation and possibly even depression. Make sure you keep your bedroom clean. Put things away. Regularly dust and vacuum, too.

Tip #10: Don’t sleep on a cluttered bed. Make your pets sleep in their own beds. Remove any extra stuff from your bed surface, including extra pillows, stuffed animals, blankets,and books. Keep your bed simple, inviting, and clear of clutter.

Tip #11: Clear the air. Air out your bedroom daily and consider investing in an air purifier to make sure you’re breathing in fresh air. Avoid using sanitizers and candles as these can disrupt sleep. Fresh air is best.

Tip #12: Avoid consuming caffeine or alcohol several hours before bedtime. In fact, avoid drinking a lot of liquids to avoid having to wake up to use the restroom.

Tip #13: Adjust the temperature to keep things on the cooler side. You’ll fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer in a cooler room. If it’s hot in the summer and you don’t have air conditioning, you might invest in a small fan to circulate air around the room.

Tip #14: Set a bedtime and wake up time and stick to it — even on the weekends. You thrive on routines, and creating a sleep schedule will make your day and evening much better.

Tip #15: Wash your bedding. Change your sheets and pillowcases weekly to ensure you’re sleeping in a clean bed.

Tip #16: Sleep in a dark room. Any type of light can disrupt sleep. If you can’t darken the room sufficiently, consider investing in a sleep mask.

Tip #17: Avoid eating meals or snacks within a few hours of bedtime. Digestion consumes a lot of energy and can sometimes disrupt sleep.

Tip #18: If your alarm clock emits light, cover it up, so it doesn’t disturb your sleep. Also, if you awake during the night, you won’t be able to see what time it is so that will reduce anxiety.

Tip #19: You spend 1/3 or your life in bed. Make it comfortable for sleeping by investing in a quality mattress.

Tip #20: Reduce noise in your sleep area. Or, if you need distraction, invest in a white noise generator.

Tip #21: To enjoy better sleep, invest in quality bed linens, including a good supportive pillow.

Tip #22: Avoid taking naps within 6 hours of bedtime and keep them less than 90 minutes long so they don’t upset your regular sleep cycles.

Your sleep hygiene or habits need an appropriate level of attention because they’re vitally important to creating and maintaining your continued physical and mental health.

Try implementing some of these sleep tips and you’ll find the quality of your sleep and wake time will improve!

To restful sleep!

Tame Your Brain by Coloring Mandalas

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Mandalas have recently become immensely popular, although their existence has started long ago. The very word “mandala,” translated from Sanskrit, means circle. Simultaneously, according to the Buddhist faith members’ explanation, the term itself refers to a pictorial representation of the universe.

It is important to note that Mandalas appear in all fragments of human life. Mandalas appear in the moon, sun, and earth. In a certain way, it symbolizes the circle of life, including your friends, family, and the culture in which you live.

Mandalas’ meaning is a circular pattern that symbolizes that life is like a circle; it never ends. Mandalas can have a powerful spiritual meaning for a person/group of people.

How to Use Mandalas

When choosing a Mandala, make sure that you know its meaning and that its visual appearance is attractive. If a particular Mandala is appealing to us, experts say the Mandala helps our brain prevent running thoughts from breaking through and allows us to have a spiritual view of that Mandala.

After that, you need to observe it for a while before you start coloring it. The longer you follow the mandala lines, the more you can become aware of the feeling of light. Intuitive thoughts can become more powerful. You can create mandalas yourself, and you can also start coloring existing ones for it to work.

Mandala Coloring Methods:

  • From the inside out – that means you start from the center.
  • From the outside in – this way can help you establish more vital meditation skills, while at the same time, it encourages creativity.
  • By Sections – Every Mandala usually has 4/6/8 symmetrical sections.
  • Optional – In the end, there are no rules. You can choose the way that is the most fun for you to draw or color a mandala.

How to Choose Your Colors

If you want to use Mandalas for specific purposes, check out the color meanings and choose based on what you need.

Meaning of Different Colors:

  • Red: Symbolizes strength, passion, and energy, aggression, sensuality. At the same time, red color is the color of the first Chakra.
  • Orange: Symbolizes change, creativity, transformation, self-esteem. It is the color of the second Chakra.
  • Yellow: It symbolizes happiness, desire to learn and acquire new knowledge, willpower, laughter, and wisdom. It is the color of the third Chakra.
  • Green: This color is a symbol of nature, hope, physical healing, psychic abilities. It is the color of the fourth Chakra.
  • Blue: This is the color of the fifth Chakra. It symbolizes peace, calmness, communication, respect, meditation, inner peace, and emotional healing.
  • Indigo blue:  This is the color of the sixth Chakra. It represents intuition, mind, justice, creativity.
  • Purple: This is the color of the seventh Chakra. At the same time, it symbolizes oscillations, creativity, focus, and everything related to spirituality.
  • Black: In most cultures, this color has a negative connotation. The color black symbolizes individuality, deep thinking, mystery, authority, etc.
  • Pink: Symbolizes love, femininity, tenderness, femininity.

Mandalas can help us tame our minds and brains, establish stronger concentration and focus, get rid of stress and unnecessary thoughts, practice self-discipline, and meditate in a slightly different way.

Achieve Meditation Through Coloring Pages for Adults

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Parents and teachers have long considered drawing and coloring a good tool/activity. It is a widespread activity for engaging and calming anxious and disobedient children. But adults adopted this relaxing activity that reminds them of their childhood.

What started as a novel pastime has become a trend spread worldwide. The evidence is that many coloring books for adults have found their way to the top of international bestsellers’ charts. There are many reasons adults color, but the biggest one is that this activity relaxes and has many benefits.

Coloring Is a Form of Meditation

Based on research from the 20th century, coloring has a relaxing impact. It encompasses calmness. And it stimulates brain areas associated with human motor skills, creativity, and senses.

Even the psychiatrist Carl Jung used colors in his practice. He introduced into Western thought the Eastern motif of the mandala, the appearance of which he believed to reflect the human soul’s internal processes. He drew and created the mandala’s motifs, believing that their shape reflected provided a safe space of calm for his patients to bring their Self into sessions.

Several different studies included brain scans during coloring. The researchers concluded that both brain hemispheres activate during this activity. That means that we are using both our creative and logical side during this activity.

Just like meditation, coloring allows us to remain present in the current moment. It stimulates relaxing thoughts and helps us control them and prevents over-thinking. It can also help you replace negative thoughts, patterns, and images in your mind with more pleasant ones.

If you have tried to meditate several times and did not like it or unsuccessful, you can now ease yourself from stress with this activity. You may like it too much.

The Therapeutic Effect of Coloring Books

Coloring has been around for a long time. It gives the best results when you engage in it often. Many mental health practitioners and their clients turn to coloring to ease anxiety. Psychiatrists and psychologists often use drawing, coloring, and presenting different images as one form of therapy with their patients.

Of course, we don’t have to be patients of these practitioners to enjoy the benefits of coloring. Like any other kind of art, coloring requires time to do. As you take time alone, you move away from everyday problems.

While coloring, some people concentrate entirely on what they are doing, while others let their thoughts wander. In both cases, the person relaxes. And when we are relaxed, amazing things can happen!

The state of relaxation, which we achieve by coloring, results in:

  • Happiness
  • Calmness
  • Absence of depression and anxiety
  • A reduction in blood pressure
  • A decrease in fear and anger
  • The elimination of headaches
  • The elimination of digestive disorders
  • Brain stimulation – helps us in solving our problems faster
  • It tames our mind – it doesn’t allow us to overthink
  • Improved focus and concentration
  • Embraces our inner child
  • Increases self-awareness
  • Strengthens self-confidence

Love Yourself: Self Care with a Coloring Routine

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We are all in a hurry and lead a busy life. The day does not seem to be long enough to achieve all personal and business responsibilities. Unfortunately, as a result, our self-care suffers.

Taking care of yourself should be a priority in this time where we all seem to rush around a lot. Because, if not, stress, lack of sleep, and chronic fatigue become an integral part of your daily life.

When you have your day planned to the brim, the excess can result in stress. If you plan your daily routine within your energy levels’ limits, you can feel more at peace. And if you do not plan your day and let things happen sporadically, you may experience chaotic energy levels.

The best way to handle your schedule is to plan as much as you can in advance and allow yourself time for a self-care routine.

Self-Care Activity – Coloring

Self-care activities should be something that you enjoy engaging in and positively impacting your mental health. There are many activities of self-care you can choose.

Coloring adult coloring pages is a lot of fun and is easy to include in your daily self-care routine. Plus, it has many benefits.

To color, you only need a quiet place, a piece of paper or coloring book for adults, any coloring pencils, markers, or crayons, and that is it. If you also turn on some soothing music, make yourself a cup of tea or coffee and turn off your phone, you will create your oasis of peace.

Set aside at least half an hour a day for this activity, and you will eventually notice all its advantages.

Benefits of Adult Coloring   

1.     It has a calming effect. It can help you reduce stress and anxiety.

2.     It encourages creativity. Given that there are no rules for this activity, you can improve your coloring skill and embrace your inner artist.

3.     It will improve your focus and concentration in general. While you are coloring, you will have to focus on what you are doing, eliminating negative thoughts and emotions. When it becomes a habit, it will improve your focus on other activities as well.

4.     It is a great way to practice Mindfulness, and at the same time, it is a form of meditation.

5.     It will help you reconnect with yourself.

Tips for Creating Your Coloring Routine

  • Get to know all the colors, learn more about their meanings.
  • Find coloring books and colored pencils you like.
  • If you like Mandalas, get acquainted with the meaning of the Mandala you want to color. It can enhance and deepen your coloring self-care routine.
  • Be persistent, even when it seems that you don’t have time to do something for yourself.
  • Create an atmosphere that will entice you to practice this activity every day.

Push your boundaries, and don’t be afraid to combine colors. There is nothing right or wrong when it comes to coloring. Let your creativity run

How Coloring Helps You Fall Asleep

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Sleep experts say that many adults encounter sleep disorders. Most of the time, those sleep disorders meet the criteria of insomnia. People who experience sleep disorders get less sleep, frequently wake during the night, and have reduced energy levels during the day.

An extended period without sleep affects mood and behavior. At the same time, it also affects the mental and physical condition. Stress and anxiety are some of the biggest triggers for sleep disorders.

If you suffer from sleep disorders, sometimes overthinking and overanalyzing triggers these disorders. The best way to improve your sleep and establish healthy sleep patterns is to find an activity that will help you reduce stress before bedtime.

It may sound surprising, but one of the best activities to achieve a better sleep quality is coloring. It is an activity intended for all ages. It helps you relax and be in a more meditative mindset, which would help you sleep better.

What Happens When You Sleep?

During the night, the human body produces Melatonin, according to the Sleep Foundation. It is a hormone created by the pineal gland that facilitates falling asleep and enables a sounder sleep. Melatonin secretion decreases over the years and begins to decline in a person’s forties.

For this reason, the elderly often have a problem with insomnia. To stimulate the production of Melatonin, go to bed a little earlier. Make sure to put aside cell phones, tablets, or laptops before bedtime. We recommend giving yourself 1 hour before bedtime to color. Coloring improves tallows the brain to ease tension and stress in a relaxing and creative way.

The relaxation provided by coloring books lowers the amygdala’s activity. It is the part of our brain that is the center of our fight or flight responses and which experts claim our reactions to things going on in our environment.

Quality sleep is most important for energy production. When we get enough sleep, we get up fresh and rested, or exhausted after a poor night of sleep. As a result of insomnia, the body weakens, and immunity decreases, which leads to a poor overall health picture of the body.

Try Coloring to Get Better Sleep

  • The best way to improve your sleep quality with this activity is to practice it before bedtime — color for at least 15 to 30 minutes before going to bed.
  • You will achieve the best effect if coloring becomes part of your daily routine and self-care.
  • Everyone needs to spend some time engaging in self-care during the day because it is vital for establishing mental balance. Spend that time on useful activities that can help us nourish your body and soul.
  • The most significant benefits of coloring are reducing stress and anxiety, anger and fear, and boosting brain/mind stimulation.
  • We can compare the various effects of coloring with the results of meditation. You can improve focus and nourish your soul.
  • When the body is relaxed, and the mind is free of running thoughts, the body falls into sleep more easily and naturally.

Stress Less with Coloring for Adults

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A surprising trend in relaxation products has been the expansion of coloring books for adults. The question is: Is coloring just for fun? Or does it provide us with various benefits for our mental health?

The answer to both questions is YES!

Coloring is not only for children. Numerous studies have proven that this activity reduces stress, drives a low mood away, and encourages creativity. It has a similar effect to meditation, and because of its positive impact, many experts recommend it as a form of therapy.

What Does the Research Have to Say?

Since this activity for adults has recently become popular, profound research is still limited. What is widely known is that coloring therapy has been recommended for years and has been an enormous success.

In 2006, researchers conducted a study and discovered that this type of mindfulness therapy helped women who have cancer – it decreased emotional and physical distress symptoms during their treatment. It has also helped people cope with other conditions (depression, anxiety, addictions, and trauma). Also, studies prove that this therapy benefited those who loved to draw and color when they were children.

The Benefits of Coloring

1. It reduces stress/anxiety – during coloring, the level of anxiety and stress decreases. The activity requires complete focus. Also, colors and patterns are hypnotic, making you feel good and in charge of yourself.

2. It boosts creativity – In this type of therapy, there are no limits. All it takes is to let your imagination run wild. There are no rules. You can paint in / out of lines and use any colors and patterns. And finally, there is no wrong way of coloring.

3. It exercises the human brain – When adults start coloring, they use both sides of their brain. The brain’s left side is the “rational” side responsible for fine motor skills and problem-solving. The human brain’s right side oversees the artistic choice of colors and provides aesthetic balance. Coloring exercises both sides of the human brain.

4. It encourages self-awareness and mindfulness – Maximum concentration is required when using coloring books for adults, which means that you must entirely be focused on this activity and block the rest of the world. You will unknowingly practice being present at a given moment. It will also help you sort your thoughts so that your attention is not distracted, helping you for other spheres in life.

Other benefits:

  • You can take coloring with you on any occasion, wherever you go, for which you do not need a lot of space and materials.
  • It is for everyone, not just kids or artists.
  • It strengthens our focus and concentration.
  • It’s a great way to get away from mobiles/laptops/computers.
  • It can improve vision and motor skills.
  • It can improve sleep.
  • It is a form of meditation.
  • It can bring back your happy childhood memories.
  • It can displace negative thoughts and emotions.