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Are adult coloring books good for mental health?

Coloring offers many benefits for mental health, particularly in reducing stress and anxiety after a long day of work or school. Similar to meditating, coloring allows us to focus our mind and engage in mindfulness. Dr Fenkel explains, "The repetitive motion of filling in shapes with color can soothe your mind, allowing you to temporarily set aside worries or stressors that might be weighing you down."

Because the activity itself is very low stakes, it is a perfect way to unwind. You can focus as much or as little as you like, and for however long you choose. "When choosing colors and filling in a design, your brain can take a break from the overthinking that often contributes to stress," Dr. Fenkel says. "It’s a way of giving yourself permission to pause, slow down, and reconnect with a sense of calm."

Not only does it help with de-stressing, it can also contribute to help processing your emotions. "The creative expression involved in coloring can also help you process emotions. Even though it might seem simple, the colors you choose and how you apply them can reflect your inner state," according to Dr. Fenkel.

"Coloring isn’t just a pleasant pastime, but also a small but effective tool for managing stress, nurturing mental well-being, and cultivating peace in a busy world, " Dr. Fenkel says.

So sit back, relax, grab your markers or pencils, and start coloring!

Find Your New Favorite Adult Coloring Book Here!

Yournotes Publishing Mindfulness Coloring Book For Adults

This book offers a wide variety of animals and flowers to choose from! The intricate patterns encourage you to pay attention to detail and let you get super creative with your color choices! This book gives you 50 different patterns to color in, so you have enough to last for a while, too.

Crayola Flower Coloring Book

This 40 page adult coloring book is a breath of fresh, floral air. Made by Crayola, AKA coloring book royalty, you know the quality on this book is gonna be good. These gorgeous illustrations are on perforated pages as well, so you can tear out your favorites to share on your fridge!

Adult Swear Words Coloring Book

Sometimes you just gotta laugh, you know? These 40 single-sided pages are full of swear words and illustrations to help you take the edge off. Some designs are more simple, some are more intricate, and all are a real good time. And if you don't believe me, this adult coloring book has 4.6 stars out of over 3,000 ratings!

Kytefox Publishing Stress Relief Adult Coloring Book

This book features larger images, which is perfect if you’re not a fan of smaller details. It has a very nature-inspired and mystical vibe, so if that’s your style, this coloring book would be perfect for you! There are a total of 60 designs to color in, so you've got a lot to work with while you wind down.

RYVE Adult Coloring Book for Women

This adult coloring book is "thoughtfully designed to provide a peaceful, mindful experience, combining the joy of coloring with the power of introspection." Each illustration is paired with personal growth prompts, so you can ground yourself even more. This book features bleed-resistant paper, so you don't have to worry about accidentally coloring over your prompts for tomorrow.

Cozy Friends: Coloring Book for Adults and Teens

This adult coloring book is perfect for a sweet, cute little vibe! I’ve seen these little characters all over TikTok, and they’re just so adorable! I love the characters and all the cute settings the book places them in. Each of the 40 pages features hand-drawn designs, so you know this one's special.

Cozy Spaces Coloring Spooky Cutie Coloring Book for Adults and Teens

With fall right around the corner, I thought it was only fitting to include a seasonally themed coloring book too! I mean could this get any cuter? You definitely wanna pick up this 40 illustration book ASAP!

Mindfulness Patterns: Coloring Book with Creative Pattern Designs for Stress Relief and Relaxation

Mindfulness really is the big goal with these adult coloring books. This one has 50 illustrations on single-sided pages, and features "a variety of shapes and zentangle doodle patterns." Don't know what "zentangle patterns" are? Me either! According to Zentangle.com, these are images created by drawing structured patterns — cool!

Large Print Easy Color & Frame - Stress Free Adult Coloring Book

This adult coloring book is spiral bound with larger print — again, that's really helpful for folks who wanna worry less about coloring in all the intricate, tiny little lines. There are 31 coloring pages, with each being one-sided and perforated. Plus, this well-loved book (4.7 stars out of almost 5,000 reviews) features thicker paper to prevent bleed-through.

Markers, Pens, And Pencils For Your Adult Coloring Books

SFAIH Brush Tip Alcohol Markers Set

Hands down, this is the best marker set on Amazon for a reasonable price! It’s always helpful to have both thick and fine tips to cover larger or smaller areas of the page. I also love the variety of shades within the same color, and they're all SUPER cute!

Caliart 34 Double Tip Brush Pens Art Markers

This is another excellent marker option if you’re looking for an even finer tip! These are perfect if your coloring books have teeny-tiny details, and if you’re a perfectionist (like me) who loves to stay inside the lines.

Soucolor 72-Color Colored Pencils for Adult Coloring Books

If you’re more of a colored pencil girl than a marker girl, I highly recommend this 72-piece colored pencil set. They have every color you could ever need! Plus, colored pencils are great for blending if you want to get a bit more technical with it.

Artownlar Premium 72 Colored Pencils with Coloring Books Set

Finally, if you’re always on the go or want to color while traveling, you should grab a coloring book set! It comes with everything you need and is perfect for bringing on a road trip, to the park, or even as a thoughtful gift for a friend!

"Our collections are a homage to the rich Scandinavian design identity that we cherish and aim to preserve," says a rep from IKEA Sweden. There are also some vintage prints in the mix. Try our easy pencil skirt pattern for a fun summer skirt.

Storage hack: Use these bold prints to cover boring cardboard boxes and add a leather handle for a chic and practical use.

Learn how to reupholster an ottoman and pick fun IKEA fabrics to create a statement piece.

You can never have too many tote bags, right? This floral pattern would make for a cute and colorful market tote!

Try this animal print in our most adorable hugs and kisses pillows. New to sewing? Try our sewing class!

Practice your sewing skills by making a simple overalls dress! This fabric would be perfect.

Box Covers

Wrap them like gift wrap around shoe boxes using a staple gun for another easy storage hack.

A small print like this black and white check is great for small projects like a pencil pouch.

Colorful stripes are perfect for a pillowcase pattern (via PurlSoho), where you just stitch two rectangles of fabric together (standard size is 20 by 26 inches) right sides together. Then hem the opening!

Wall Organizer

This wall organizer is another easy DIY, where you can sew the rectangle around the dowel, or iron the edges with no-sew hem tape. Hand-sew or machine stitch the pockets, making sure to fold under the edges for a cleaner look!

Planter

This drawstring planter cover is a cute idea for covering ho-hum planters or vases.

Traveling with a kiddo? Keep them comfy with this sweet travel pillow pattern from Joann's.

A great first sewing project is this crop top in this fun purple check!

No Sew Covered Canvas

Probably the easiest way to use this fabric is by staple-gunning it around a canvas for an easy and creative art piece!

Protect your laptops with a fabric case in a bold striped pattern. This fabric would also make a great curtain!

OMG, how cute! Make your pet a bed (via Joann's) in a playful print you'll both love.

Learning the straight stitch on your sewing machine will get you very far. New seat cushions in every room!

I never met a tassel I didn't love. Add bright colored tassels to this B&W print.

Toss your toiletries in something handmade with thistravel bag pattern.

Pocket Patch

Pocket patterns are great for adding to furniture and clothes. This top-stitched one is handy for holding the remote, emergency snack bag, or a small book.

So let’s start from the beginning. Paris Geller (played by Liza Weil) joined the GG crew in Season 1, right as Rory Gilmore (the show’s sort-of protagonist) walked into Chilton Academy, a private school where Paris was attending, for her first day. A far cry from Rory’s relatively timid and soft-spoken personality, Paris tore up the screen with her high-strung personality and immediate rivalry with Rory (Rory did not feel the same), who Paris viewed as the only candidate who could possibly challenge her spot at the top of the class standing. As the year progresses, the two become friends, which of course Paris still highly questioned.

The rest of their high school experience is plagued with repeated ups and downs, from Paris’s parents’ highly publicized divorce to their joint student government campaign and, most notably, Paris’s C-SPAN meltdown, courtesy of a Harvard rejection fueled by what she can only assume to be wide-spread knowledge that she lost her virginity. Despite losing the Valedictorian slot to Rory (which Paris comes to terms with after finding out Salutatorians tend to be more successful), Paris walks across the graduation stage and accepts her diploma from the school’s headmaster, to which she iconically quips, “no hard feelings.”

Fast forward to Paris’s first year at Yale, a school she knew Rory was attending but had no intention of ever seeing again. Not to the surprise of Paris’s life coach, the two frenemies were placed together as suitemates, a pairing that ultimately served as a catalyst for lifelong friendship. Throughout college, Paris pursues pre-med and pre-law degrees, joins the Yale Daily News alongside Rory, dates an elderly professor (he passes away, leaving Paris to grieve), moves on with the editor of the Yale Daily News, Doyle McMaster, and potentially saves Rory from abandoning Yale forever by admitting to Lorelai that Rory is the only person who ever listened to her, challenged her and motivated her.

Paris then proceeds to become the editor of the Yale Daily News, a position in which her power-hungry tendencies took full-force, resulting in a forcible resignation, kick Rory out of their shared apartment, let Rory move back into their shared apartment (now with Doyle), be accepted to a slew of prestigious medical and law schools. She ultimately chose to attend med school and break up with Doyle, to which he refused, and tells Rory that they’re on their own but she can still do great things (Of course this doesn’t last, the two are meant to be best friends.)

Somehow this doesn't even scratch the surface of the character of Paris. As you can tell, Paris is a fiercely loyal, protective woman who fights for herself to no end. She (literally) doesn’t care what other people think (so long as they’re not within her immediate circle) and never stops pursuing her dreams, no matter how many times she probably should have. She is the epitome of feminism in modern television — perhaps taken to an extreme — and serves as a necessary counterweight to Rory’s floundering sense of self.

So long as she keeps her need for perfectionism in check, Paris has one of those few personality types whose wild ambition and outspokenness is directly beneficial to her success, a success that she, and only she, can define. Sure, she has an exaggerated sense of self-importance, but when balanced by Rory’s soft-but-straightforward approach, Paris can quickly reset, reevaluate and move forward.

That's the thing with Paris — she’s always moving forward. She doesn't get into Harvard? Tough. She takes a few days to wallow before considering her other options: Yale, Columbia and Princeton. She doesn’t know whether to choose med school or law school, so she takes stock of her bearings, reflects on her past dreams, and makes a clear, concise decision that she moves forward with.

Her brutally honest nature (both internally and externally) is exactly why Paris works. She’s generous when needed, comfortable with giving tough (and oftentimes tougher) love, is able to express vulnerability with the people she loves, doesn’t allow outside influences to affect her path and never let’s someone (especially a man) tell her she’s less than (*cough, cough*—Rory). For an early 2000s show, she showed women that there is power in education. There’s power in stepping away from a caretaker role. There’s power in expressing your opinion, no matter your age.

There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s inspired countless women over the years — after all, she’s inspired me! Even though she’s had her controversial moments, she’s always been a cheering voice for women, even if it’s behind her resting grimace. For these reasons, and so many more, I am hereby deeming Paris Geller the best of Gilmore Girls — the heroine, perhaps, and a feminist icon to all.