Relaxing and Clearing My Mind by Coloring

When I was a child, I loved to color.  I constantly had crayons and coloring books with me and it was my favorite past time!  I never outgrew that childhood favorite either.  Through my teens and early 20's, I would color with the children I babysat.  Over the years, I colored less because all the coloring books seemed to be designed for small children and the paper was too thin.  I continued to color with my daughter, but I always hoped that I would find something that was more adult oriented.

I was thrilled when the first adult coloring books started to hit the market.  I bought one from Amazon and grabbed some coloring pencils, gel pens and BIC ultra fine markers.  Every evening before bed, I would color for a little while and I realized that all my worried just melted away.  No longer was I thinking about everything I had to do, the dirty dishes, the laundry, or the bills.  I just allowed the creative juices to flow.

Most of my coloring books are purchased from Amazon, but I have also found some at Walmart, Michaels and AC Moore.  I prefer the books with Mandalas and busy pictures.  My favorite books have their pictures printed on one side of the paper only, but I still have 3 or 4 books that are double sided.  I use color pencils ONLY on the double sided books.  The single sided pages are colored in a mixture of everything.  I pull these out of the book to color them, or I place a piece of paper behind it and color it in the book.

Have you joined the adult coloring craze?  What do you like to do to relax?  Let me know in the comments below!