Coloring for Your Brain
I know the title sounds weird but stay with me.
Anxiety
18.1% of United States population suffers with anxiety.
Less than half receive treatment.
Anxiety, Depression, and Chronic Pain are all closely related when it comes to the function of the brain.
Chronic Pain
Individuals with Chronic Pain are more likely to also suffer with depression and have anxiety.
Individuals with Depression and Anxiety are more likely to suffer with Chronic Pain.
Aging & Brain Function
As we age our ability to perform small detailed movements with our hands decreases.
These small detailed movements have strong relationship with how well our brain functions.
In older individuals our ability to perform small motor movements is correlated with the decline in how our brain functions.
Whoo that was a lot of bullet points.
Essentially; anxiety, brain function, fine motor movements, aging and pain are closely related in an intermingled web due to how the brain and body functions together.
Coloring
For years researchers have studied how coloring can positively affect our mood and help to decrease anxiety. More recently a larger more comprehensive study was done looking at to what degree coloring can affect our mood. Here is what they looked at.
To what extent does coloring a mandala affect someone’s state of anxiety?
To what extent does coloring a mandala affect our mindfulness and flow state(feeling immersed in an activity)?
Does coloring and reading offer the same type of anxiety-decreasing effects?
Does coloring a mandala affect selective attention?
Can coloring a mandala help with/increase creativity?
And……
Here is what they found.
Coloring led to reduced anxiety and increased attention.
Selective attention improved (Selective attention refers to the processes that allow an individual to select and focus on particular input for further processing while simultaneously suppressing irrelevant or distracting information.)
Creative Originality was improved.
Coloring can benefit well-being by reducing anxiety and by improving the ability to focus attention and generate original responses to problems after coloring.
The researchers also wanted to let individuals know, “It is not clear how useful coloring mandalas is for high levels of anxiety, what the duration of any effects is, or how best to maintain any beneficial effects (e.g., duration and frequency of coloring, or the need for accompanying instructions). Future research on coloring as a well-being intervention could examine these issues.”
Why?
If knowing that coloring can benefit your creativity and help decrease levels of anxiety and you’re stoked about starting to incorporate coloring in your life then maybe you don’t want and or need to know the nitty gritty details of why coloring can positively impact our brain. If that’s the case here is a website that has free mandalas you can print off link and here is a link to a site where you can create your own mandalas digitally.
If you’re a nerd like myself and like to know the nitty gritty details. Here you go.
The Nitty Gritty…
The prefrontal cortex also known as the cerebral cortex is the front part of your brain, the red highlighted part of the brain on the right.
The Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC) main function is cognitive control aka executive function.
Executive function includes; ability to balance short-term rewards with long term goals, considering the future and making predictions, impulse control and delaying gratification, modulation of intense emotions, shifting/adjusting behavior when situations change, foreseeing and weighing possible consequences of behavior, simultaneously considering multiple streams of information when faced with complex and challenging information, inhibiting inappropriate behavior and initiating appropriate behavior, and last but not least the three things that the PFC does that we are interested in today…
Focusing Attention
Organizing thoughts and problem solving
Modulation of intense emotions
Let’s get started. The prefrontal cortex controls executive function and has a connection with the amygdala which is one of the primary drivers of stress, anxiety and fear. When we are in a state of anxiety, fear, or stress the amygdala’s activity increases and it hinders our ability to think clearly and perform executive functions, essentially it decreases how effective our prefrontal cortex works.
Luckily for us the relationship between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala goes both ways. Which means that when we perform executive function activities like concentrating (during reading, writing, non-sleep deep relaxation, coloring, etc,.) we are working the prefrontal cortex and the use of the prefrontal cortex down regulates the amygdala, the primary driver of stress, anxiety, and fear.
One of the reasons it’s thought that reading and coloring are able to have such a positive impact on decreasing stress and anxiety is because they are activities that work the prefrontal cortex and also can be fun and enjoyable. This results in a dopamine release, which is a happy hormone, and this further benefits us and positively reinforces the use of the prefrontal cortex.
That’s not all though. One of the reasons coloring is also thought to be so beneficial for the brain, possibly more so than reading or other activities that involve the prefrontal cortex, is because coloring combines the use of the concentration(prefrontal cortex) and fine motor movements(prefrontal cortex). As we age it’s thought that both; our brain’s function and ability to perform fine motor movements decline as we age. However, our brain’s function and ability to perform fine motor movements decline at a similar rate. Which makes sense when we look at how the prefrontal cortex is involved with fine motor movements. Picture on the bottom right.
Overall, we know that coloring can have a positive impact on anxiety, concentration, and coming up with new ideas. However, the research is promising that doing activities like coloring, learning an instrument, meditating and utilizing our prefrontal cortex combined with fine motor movements could also help slow down the aging of the brain as well as improve our ability to continue to perform fine motor movements. Since many individuals with chronic pain experience anxiety and depression, increasing the activation of the prefrontal cortex might be able to play a role in decreasing their overall pain as well as helping to decrease anxiety.
In fact a study was done looking at how mindful mandala coloring in nature effects stress and pain and they found, “The results indicated that mindfulness-based art therapy and contact with nature were statically favorable in reducing chronic pain and stress levels in individuals suffering from Chronic Widespread Pain.”
So print off a mandala go sit in nature, get to drawing and you might just feel better, that’s what the research says.
References
Choi,H.;Hahm,S.-C.;Jeon, Y.-H.; Han, J.-W.; Kim, S.-Y.; Woo, J.-M. The Effects of Mindfulness- Based Mandala Coloring, Made in Nature, on Chronic Widespread Musculoskeletal Pain: Randomized Trial.Healthcare2021,9,642. https:// doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9060642
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