Color your heart out!

So, stress is a very common thing for adults. You stress about finances, housework, regular work, getting to appointments on time, health, family, friends, traffic, construction, pets, kids.... My God the list could go on, and on, and on!

Me? My stress turns into anxiety, severe anxiety that immobilizes me and turns me into a hermit. I don't want to be out of the house, out of my bedroom, out of bed... hell not even out from under my safe place, under the blankets.

Most days I can cuddle the fiance or my kids and let them de-stress me. I mean my angel (my son) can just climb onto my lap and take a few deep breaths with me and I can calm down. Other times, I need a good book. But then... then I discovered adult coloring books weren't basic coloring books with naughty bits! I found mandalas were the most relaxing things I'd ever seen in my life. Especially when blank and I could fill in those blanks with color! I've bought four or five adult coloring books, most have some sort of mandala/repeating pattern, and it's SO SO very relaxing to lie in bed and color. It brings me to a place of safety, of comfort, of sanity where I can breathe comfortably and let go of everything and just focus on the colors I'm putting to the page. I get to create pieces of art... and I'm really not that good of an artist.

Apparently though, I'm great with colors. Patients in the chiropractic office I'm currently working in have admired the mandalas I've hung in the room I've got. They even inspired a few of my patients to pick up a coloring book of their own to help de-stress them, and have reported health improvements since they started coloring!

This is the book I started with and it's BRILLIANT!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Color-Your-Stories-Coloring-Writers/dp/0692563148

It's got the mandalas on the right side, and lines on the left for plot, protagonist, antagonist, scenes, secondary characters... So that way if you get ideas while you're coloring you can jot them down without putting down the book. I've done quite a few in it, including the one seen on the cover (in my own palate of course)

I use crayola colored pencils, the 50 pack, I love the different colors, and in some of the mandalas you need more than 24 colors to match the palate you go with. Though I did see Cra Z Art has a 72 pack that I want to get.

Yes I'm up at an ungodly hour, scouring over pinterest for organizational ideas for the house. Found a few. I'll post them in the afternoon :) Definitely taking a few to use. I'll show my Bug's room later today as well to show how we worked to organize, even though we aren't completely finished yet.

Stay sane, dolls! We can't afford for all of us to be completely batshit! ;)