Colouring in combats anxiety

Recent research from a team led by Jayde Flett at Otago University in New Zealand suggests that an enjoyable and inexpensive way of practising mindfulness and combatting anxiety and depression is to join the colouring craze that has taken the UK by storm in recent years. Young women who engaged in colouring-in for just ten minutes a day for a week reported lower anxiety and depression than a control group who did a series of unchallenging logic puzzles. Previous research shows that colouring in an existing outline is more effective than drawing an original image and then colouring it. So if you want to settle your mind before getting down to your writing, and meditation is a bit too passive for your liking, get out your picture-book and crayons. (Creativity Research Journal).