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