![]() Do you remember the first time you saw an adult coloring book or heard about the idea of adults coloring for relaxation and creativity? I remember the first time I saw an adult coloring book in an article in the New York Times about Johanna Basford’s 2013 coloring book Secret Garden. The cover of the book exhibited lovely black-ink line drawings against white paper with gold foil accents. The book’s simple message was optimistic—tapping into your childhood activities is therapeutic. And the adult coloring sensation was on. Adults set up coloring clubs, met up at cafés, and bought each other countless coloring books to devote hours filling in line drawings with colored pencils and crayons. Adult life has hit a breaking point where high stress, fast pace, and increased anxiety is the norm of the day. Regardless what people are doing—students, homemakers, professionals, and creatives—our collective levels of stress and anxiety have reached a height where our health and wellbeing are affected. Today, more people are more stressed and more affected by that stress than ever before. Since 1999, levels of stress, depression, and anxiety have risen at a steady pace. And this is not just an American problem; this is happening all over the world in nearly every demographic by age, economics, and location. OK, so what do we do about it? In much the same way that we turned to coloring books to relieve stress and balance our lives, journal writing is a simple activity that anyone can engage in to relieve stress. With half the country being at odds with the other half, can people really decrease stress as easily and picking up a journal and jotting down a few notes? Yes, it can work. Of course, journal writing is not a cure-all to everyone’s problems, but the research indicates that it people’s stress, anxiety, and depression levels can decrease with journal writing. Set Yourself Up for Successful Writing |
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