Mandala Coloring Promotes Well-Being

Mandala Coloring Promotes Well-Being

Blog 4

 Introduction

    

For the past few months, I have been experimenting with adult coloring, a mind-body practice, and observing how it affects my emotions, psychological well-being, health, and how it can help me reach mental and emotional stability just by participating in the mind-body practice. Prior to engaging in adult coloring for the purpose of these assignments, I just assumed coloring was a childish activity people indulge in. I chose coloring, though, because my mother actually colors, and she says she uses coloring as a coping mechanism for stress, so when we had to choose a mind-body practice we wanted to learn about, I immediately chose this one. However, I’ve come to realize that coloring is very beneficial in relieving stress, reducing anxiety, improving health, thinking more positively, and obtaining mental and psychological well-being. I’ve noticed it’s easier for me to fall asleep, I have more positive thoughts and feelings about myself, which leads to less stress about school and goals, and it helps regulate my emotions. In this blog, I want to veer away from my personal experiences with coloring and how it was beneficial for me, and instead talk about research that proves my observations with coloring. 

Does Adult Coloring Reduce Stress?

According to Fan Xuening et al. (2025), academic stress is a worldwide factor that leads to negative outcomes, such as poor performance, physical illness, sleeping problems, depression, anxiety, and academic burnout. I can attest to this because I am among the ones who stress about school, and in my previous blogs, I discussed being stressed about school. I talk about how all the work required of me causes me to be stressed, how I become stressed about whether or not I’m going to achieve my goal of becoming a doctor because I feel I haven't done enough to get there, and how it leads to me feeling down and depressed. Researchers have explored interventions that can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression in workspaces and school settings. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are among those interventions, and due to increased popularity in research, MBIs have been proven to be the most effective approach for reducing stress, anxiety, and depression

(Xuening et al., 2025). 

 There are informal MBIs, which include yoga, meditation, mindfulness mobile apps, and art-based mandala coloring. Informal MBIs are better for students because they don’t require equipment, space, or instructors, which saves money and reduces stress on the student. This article talks about a study of 128 middle school students who participated in a research study on whether mandala coloring or grit-enhancing programs reduce academic stress. 62 out of the 128 were the control groups, and the other 68 were the intervention group. The intervention group was split into 2 groups: mandala coloring and the grit-enhancing program. Both intervention groups had 6 sessions in a 10-day span, where they either colored for 30 minutes or learned strategies to promote grit. There were pre- and post-tests conducted to assess stress levels and grit levels. This study found that participants in the mandala coloring group displayed significantly lower levels of stress, while participants in the grit-enhancing program didn’t demonstrate lower levels of stress (Xuening et al., 2025). 

 

Ultimately, coloring intricate designs can reduce stress significantly, no matter what's causing you stress, and incorporating mindfulness-based interventions in workspaces and schools would be very beneficial in reducing stress levels, which could help students' and workers' performances. 

If you want to know more about mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and how they can reduce and relieve stress, anxiety, depression, and more,  click here.

Anxiety is Reduced by Coloring Mandalas 

One study showed that color therapy significantly reduced anxiety in university students. Color therapy, according to Noor et al. (2017), involves the use of color to restore balance to the body and its energy system. This study had 100 university students from 3 different universities in Islamabad. They were given a state-trait anxiety questionnaire pre-test and post-test after 30 minutes of coloring a pre-drawn mandala. The purpose of this study was to determine if color therapy, such as coloring mandalas, reduces state and trait anxiety. When researchers compared the t-test of the pretest and posttest mean values of trait and state anxiety, they both showed a significant decrease in anxiety after coloring a pre-drawn mandala coloring page (Noor et al., 2017). When I would color while my anxiety levels were high, I always felt so calm, and my anxiety completely subsided. I would no longer be shaking, nor the heart-sinking sensation. People with anxiety and stress must find interventions that can help reduce anxiety because anxiety can affect the extent to which individuals realize their potential, have goals in life, and understand the relationship they have with others, which is associated with low self-esteem and behavior issues (Emanuela et al., 2021). In this article by Cindy Emanuela et al. (2021), there was a study conducted where individuals of all ages who experienced anxiety were asked to color mandalas in 30 minutes. The participants were given both a STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) test and a PWB (psychological well-being) test before and after. The results showed that anxiety was significantly reduced by coloring mandalas, but PWB was not increased by the intervention. I agree with these findings, but I don’t at the same time because whenever I had anxiety and colored, my anxiety was significantly reduced or nonexistent after. But I definitely felt like my PWB increased because I had more positive thoughts, I was able to control my emotions better, and my social relationships seemed to improve because of higher self-esteem. Just as Vaughan Johnston et al. (2011) stated and proved with research, mind-body practices increase self-enhancement. 

If you want to read more about research surrounding anxiety and coloring, use this link. This article talks about many different research studies that study how anxiety can be reduced by using certain interventions, such as coloring, with data and analytics to prove it. 

Emotions Play a Role in Health and Wellness

As I was just saying before, when I do my mind-body practice, I think more positively, which leads me to feel healthier, mentally and emotionally. This belief coincides with Candace Pert's theory that positive thinking and emotional well-being influence the body’s chemistry, which promotes overall health. Through research, Candace Pert concluded that neuropeptides and their receptors form a network throughout the body, connecting the mind and body (Pert, 2019). She believes that this network was the substrate for emotions, meaning emotions can be manifested all throughout the body. Her work and theory led the development of psychoneuroimmunology, where neuroscience, immunology, and endocrinology are studied to understand the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and physical health. Ultimately, when we think positively, we have an increased emotional well-being, which activates the immune system and promotes healing. This is why people who have chronic conditions and think more positively are actually healthier, mentally and emotionally, than those who don’t have chronic diseases and have low self-esteem and negative thoughts. When my anxiety and stress were reduced, my thoughts were more positive and negative, and my lupus flares were non-existent, considering stress causes my lupus flares. 

Conclusion

Conclusively, coloring, specifically intricate designs, such as mandalas, can significantly reduce stress and anxiety. When anxiety and stress levels are significantly low, one can sleep better, think positively, control own emotions better, and mental health levels are higher. Not only does using interventions to control anxiety help your PWB, according to Candace Pert, but it also increases physical well-being.

References

Cindy Emanuela, Monty P. Satiadarma, & Roswiyani Roswiyani. (2021). The Effectiveness of Coloring in Reducing Anxiety and Improving PWB in Adolescents. IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities, 8(1), 35–48. https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.8.1.03 

Noor, S. M., Saleem, T., Azmat, J., & Arouj, K. (2017). MANDALA-COLORING AS A THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTION FOR ANXIETY REDUCTION IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS. Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal, (6), 904-907. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/mandala-coloring-as-therapeutic-intervention/docview/1999443853/se-2

‪Pert, C. (2019, January 24). The wisdom of the receptors: Neuropeptides, the emotions, and the bodymind. Candace Pert, PhD. http://candacepert.com/articles/the-wisdom-of-the-receptors-neuropeptides-the-emotions-and-the-bodymind/  

Vaughan-Johnston, T., Jacobson, J. A., Alex, P., & Sanders, E. (2021). Mind-body practices and self-enhancement: Direct replications of gebauer et al.’s (2018) experiments 1 and 2. Psychological Science, 32(9), 1510-1521. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621997366 

Xuening, F., & Na Na, H. A. (2025). Academic stress and burnout reduction through mandala-coloring and grit-enhancing: School-based interventions for adolescents. Behavioral Sciences, 15(4), 439. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15040439

My Experience with Mind-Body Practice: Adult Coloring

 

My Experience with Mind-Body Practice: Adult Coloring

Blog Entry 3 

The Impact of Coloring

    My recent experiences with my chosen mind-body practice, coloring, were very effective and beneficial in helping me cope with anxiety and stress. After each instance of coloring, I felt an intangible sense of serenity, akin to the feeling one acquires during meditation, where I was free from stress, anxiety, and overall, at peace. There were no disturbances, such as negative thoughts in my head; my breathing was slower and calmer, my level of mindfulness was at an all-time high, and it became easier to sleep. Although coloring may not seem very advantageous, it has profusely helped me regulate my feelings and emotions as well as set me up for day-to-day activities with a positive attitude, whether that be going to the gym, going to class, doing school work, or starting my day in general. 

Someone coloring an intricate design

    When I first began this mind-body practice, I colored before bed because that’s mainly when I self-reflect and become overwhelmed with emotions and stressed about my success in the future and things I have done or have not done in the past to set myself up for success. Consequently, coloring before bed has helped me focus only on the present and what I can do in the moment to set myself up to achieve the success I so desperately desire. Coloring has helped me not stress about things I can’t really control or predict, but rather what I can do to increase the likelihood of obtaining the desired outcome. When I’m stressed or experiencing anxiety, my hands tend to shake uncontrollably, but I’ve noticed that after I’m done coloring, I no longer shake b

ecause of the stimuli that made my hands start shaking in the first place. With coloring, I’m able to control my thoughts, emotions, and feelings way better than letting them affect me. When my feelings and thoughts are under control, I find that my social relationships are better because I actually want to be around other people or talk to people. When I'm down or in my head a lot, I go into isolation from the outside world, and I don’t want to interact socially, where I begin to feel alone and depressed. So, coloring has significantly reduced the number of times I feel down and want to isolate myself from the world. This all plays into why I say that coloring comes with a feeling of serenity and tranquility. My mind is just calmer with no worries in sight.  

Sleeping peacefully

    Furthermore, when I color before bed, I find it easier to fall asleep, mainly because of the amount of calmness I am under. It helps calm my mind and reduce nighttime anxiety, so when it’s time to go to sleep, I fall asleep almost immediately instead of being in my head while forcing myself to go to sleep as usual. This is because coloring activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which slows brain waves and creates a sense of relaxation. Coloring also activates the production of melatonin, as I said in my previous blogs, which prepares the brain for deep sleep. I’ve noticed that my sleep pattern has become better, and I’m able to stay asleep the entire night without waking up. As a result, I have more energy when I wake up, and I’m more than ready to start my day. Because coloring gives me peace of mind before bed, I also wake up with a positive attitude that helps me get through the day instead of dragging my feet. Essentially, coloring gives me the ability to go about life positively and actually look forward to my everyday activities. 

Conclusion

    Ultimately, coloring has a significant impact on emotional well-being and mental health as well as cognitive functioning. The time spent coloring encourages attention and impulse control, which can help you cope in challenging situations.

My Experience with Mind-Body Practice: Adult Coloring

 Blog Entry 2 

Three Psychological States I Chose to Do My Mind-Body Practice In

What Stress Looks Like?

    In an effort to experience the benefits of my mind and body practice to a full degree, I chose to partake in adult coloring when I was experiencing mental or psychological disarray. These psychological states include stress, anxiety, trouble sleeping, and being emotionally overwhelmed. In my experience, being a college student can be quite stressful due to the workload and the material covered in courses. I stress about knowing all of the material in my courses for my exams, getting good grades, meeting the requirements for medical school, managing school and work while still doing exceedingly well in school, etc., I mean, the list could go on. As I've discussed in my first blog entry, I also have anxiety where my hands shake uncontrollably, my heart rate increases, or I have this sinking heart sensation, usually stemming from conflict, but also randomly. In moments like these, I feel detached from reality, being only in my head or internally panicking. My nerves seem to be all over the place, and ultimately, it becomes difficult to concentrate on tasks at hand or things I need to do. Consequently, it becomes hard to attain mental and psychological stability.  By doing this mind and body practice in these states, I could see if coloring actually helps regulate my stress and anxiety and decide if coloring is worth including in my daily activities from now on.

    If adult coloring could help promote the parasympathetic nervous system, which returns your body to a state of relaxation, I wanted to understand how this takes place exactly. I wanted to experience in real time what my body and mind go through as it goes from a state of disorder to a state of order, and how it could make it easier for me to fall asleep on nights when there are a million things on my mind.

What I Experienced While Coloring 

    One day, when I was researching all the potential medical schools I should go to and all of their requirements, I became stressed and overwhelmed with negative thoughts. I began to stress about whether I qualified or if I had enough time to become qualified. I began to feel like I was failing in life, and all these negative thoughts began swirling around in my mind. Eventually, I decided I should open the new mandala coloring book I ordered from Amazon to get my mind off of things. As time passed while coloring, I realized I was no longer in my head. I was fully concentrated on coloring in the lines and what colors I wanted. I felt as if I were in a different conscious state, a meditative state. There was absolutely no thought in my head other than about coloring. It was very different from when I'm taking an exam, where my heart is racing, when tons of information from multiple chapters are running through my head, wondering which answer is the best choice, and biting my nails from being anxious about finishing or getting the answers right. My body was in a complete relaxation state. My breathing slowed and I was no longer stressing about my future. Even after I felt better mentally, coloring the mandalas felt addictive; I didn't want to stop. I remembered why I liked coloring a long time ago: it was fun, and it passed the time. Crazy enough, I colored until I got sleepy, when just before I was just too stressed and overwhelmed to even feel sleepy. Usually, it's hard for me to fall asleep, and I have to force myself to go to sleep, even when I'm sleepy, but with this mind and body practice, it came easily. 

Page from an adult mandala coloring book

    Every time I experience anxiety, I start coloring, and I almost instantly feel different. At first, my hands are shaking, and I have this internal feeling where I feel like I'm panicking. In consequence, it makes it hard to stabilize my hand to stay within the lines, and I'm forced to concentrate extra hard on staying within the lines. As time passes, I stop shaking, concentrating only on coloring rather than on whatever triggered my anxiety, and my breathing slows. When I'm coloring, I obtain a phenomenal amount of calmness. I have no worries, no anxiety, no negative thoughts, nothing but coloring. When beginning this assignment on mind and body practices, I didn't believe I would actually find something that would most suit me or be useful for me, but I have found coloring to be helpful as well as satisfying. 

Conclusion

    Evidently, coloring is more than just a therapeutic way to relieve stress and obtain psychological well-being, but also enjoyable. Coloring has begun to be something I do for fun and to relax my mind and body. It may be too soon to say this is my new coping mechanism for stress, but I definitely see this becoming a part of my daily or weekly to-do lists to ensure mental health. It feels easy; it doesn't feel like a chore as I thought it would. I've always said I need to find something I enjoy doing outside of school and work, besides reading, to avoid overworking myself, and I think I definitely found that something. It may seem childish, but now I see what my mom means when she says she uses it as a coping mechanism. Coloring is very distracting. Coloring takes me to a place with no worries and thoughts, and I think that's why I like it so much, because I'm an overthinker, and it allows negative thoughts to roam free in my head, to where I begin to believe them, to the point they affect me. It feels good to obtain physical, mental, and psychological stability when it seems so far-fetched, and I believe people should start coloring or doing any mind and body practice to receive the benefits they offer, just as I do. 

For more information on how coloring can relieve stress, anxiety, depression, and more, and links to some stress-relieving coloring books for adults, click here. 

Experience With Mind-Body Practice: Adult Coloring

Blog Entry 1

What is adult coloring?

Map of Cornwall, England by Michael Drayton from Poly Olbion

    Coloring, as we know, is the act of applying color with crayons, markers, color pencils, etc., to pictures and was originally used for artistic training, fine motor skills, creativity for the mind, but also to bring life to things with color, such as maps of countries (Fabry, 2017, para. 2-3). Coloring books originated as simple line drawings intended for children as early as the 17th century (Anderson, 2024, para. 3). One example of these early coloring books is a poem by Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, published in 1612. As time progressed, coloring became very popular, and adult coloring books were created as early as the 1960s. These early adult coloring books typically featured satirical content that addressed societal norms and aspects of corporate life (Anderson, 2024, para. 3).

Excerpt from the "Executive Coloring Book" by Brenda Jackson et al.

    Not too long after adult coloring books became a trend in the early 2000s (Anderson, 2024, para. 4), and now consisted of intricate illustrations of practically anything, such as flowers, people, places, etc. Coloring books of this time are more complex with designs that require focus and attention to detail, such as mandalas. As a result, adult coloring became an activity to reduce stress and anxiety, or as we know it, a mind-body practice. 

Why is adult coloring considered a mind-body practice?

    Adult coloring, as I said before, is more than just for fun; now it's a way to achieve mental and emotional stability. Mind-body practices are defined as a group of techniques or procedures that target mind-body interactions to promote health (National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health [NCCIH], 2025). Thus, adult coloring is a mind-body practice because when you color, some parts of your brain's cerebral hemispheres are activated, resulting in a meditative state, improved motor skills, improved focus, improved sleep, reduction of anxiety, and relief of stress (Taylor, 2021). 

Mandalas adult coloring 

    When you're coloring, you're focused on color choice and staying within the lines, making you only think about the present and quiet your inner dialogue, removing negative thoughts and emotions (Taylor, 2021). Also, when you're focused on coloring, your frontal lobe is activated. Your frontal lobe plays a key role in thinking and reasoning, regulating emotions, motor functions, and memory. Therefore, when you color, your frontal lobe is becoming more stable, allowing you to concentrate, organize, and reason. This can be very beneficial for individuals with ADHD. According to Heidi Moawad (2024), engaging in mind-body practices, such as adult coloring, can help promote the parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates bodily functions during rest and relaxation, leading to reduced stress and anxiety. When relaxed, your blood pressure and heart rate decrease, and breathing becomes normal, which helps with anxiety. Additionally, as your body enters this state of relaxation or meditative state, your pineal gland releases melatonin naturally, allowing you to sleep better (Taylor, 2021). Adult coloring can also reduce cortisol levels, which is the hormone responsible for the body's stress response. Lower cortisol levels boost immune function, reduce the risk of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, and increase mental sharpness and cognitive function (Davidson and Hobbs, 2024).

    It is clear that adult coloring is more than an activity you do when you're bored, but also an activity that can be very beneficial to the human mind and bodily functions. I believe a lot of people label coloring as childish, which I used to if I'm being honest, but I now believe that a lot of people should try adult coloring or other mind-body practices when feeling overwhelmed or stressed. 

Why I chose this mind-body practice

    I chose adult coloring as my mind-body practice because I actually used to be fond of coloring before I knew that it was a mind-body practice. I don't color anymore unless it's required in an assignment, such as this one, but I would like to get back into it. I want to start back coloring not only for the mental benefits it brings, but also to experience the changes my mind and body go through as I'm doing this mind-body practice, and to compare the difference in my mental well-being before and after. Now that I know what it can do for your mental and physical health, such as relieve stress and anxiety, improve focus abilities and fine motor skills, help you sleep better, etc., I think it will be interesting to do and experience.

    My mom used to color out of coloring books with complex illustrations all the time, and I made fun of the fact that she did it so much. I thought it was weird she liked to color at 40 years old, but oddly enough, every time I did say anything about her coloring, she would always tell me she uses it as a coping mechanism for stress, for she stresses a lot about things she can't control. Now that I know there are tons of studies proving her claims that adult coloring is a stress reliever, I would love to start coloring, for I too struggle with always being stressed, especially as a college student. I don't think I have anxiety, but I have moments where my nerves are really bad, and my hands shake uncontrollably, and I never know how to get it under control, but I think adult coloring could help me in moments like these to put my mind and body in a relaxed state. When I'm stressed or just in my head too much, I usually read, but if adult coloring puts you in a meditative state where all negative thoughts and emotions are non-existent, it wouldn't hurt to add another mechanism to get out of my head or calm my nerves.

References

Anderson, C. (2024, October 14). What is adult coloring books?. Focuskeeper Glossary. https://focuskeeper.co/glossary/what-is-adult-coloring-books    

Davidson, K., & Hobbs, H. (2024). 11 natural ways to lower your cortisol levels. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ways-to-lower-cortisol

Fabry, M. (2017, August 2). National coloring book day: Who invented coloring books?. Time. https://time.com/4880819/coloring-books-history/ 

Lewis, D. (2015, December 29). Adult coloring books were popular (and subversive) in the 1960s. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/adult-coloring-books-were-popular-and-subversive-1960s-180957666/ 

Moawad, H. (2024, August 30). The parasympathetic nervous system and your health. Verywell Health. https://www.verywellhealth.com/parasympathetic-nervous-system-8687840

Taylor, M. (2021, August 11). Interested in coloring? 7 benefits of coloring for adults. WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/benefits-coloring-adults

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2025, April). Mind and body practices. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/mind-and-body-practices