I've seen a lot of articles in past few months about coloring books for adults being a hot item right now and that coloring is so relaxing. I thought about it and I went, yeah, you know that would be kind of cool. Relaxing and probably it would inspire creativity. When I do a lot of scrapbooking, it always helps my writing and I have theorized that it's because creativity is flowing, but in a way that doesn't drain the writing muscles in my brain.
Daydreams of how relaxed and productive I'd be danced in my brain. I ordered one of the really highly rated coloring books and a pack of art pencils.
Finally, with both in my hands, I sat down at the table and began to color.
Relaxation didn't come. Almost all I could think about was how much other stuff I had to do and I couldn't believe I was wasting time coloring. I stressed about which color I should use to color in the flowers. I became frustrated when my plan to color every other petal an aqua color failed when I had the wrong number of petals and I ended up with two aquas next to each other.
The pencils frustrated me, too. I was expecting a deep, rich color, but instead I had to press hard to get nothing more than a light tint to the petals. Maybe I should have bought different pencils, I worried as I colored. But I'm not an artist and I had no clue which kind of pencils I should have bought. Do I need to research this? But art pencils are ridiculously expensive already, do I really want to buy another set that I might not like either?
Um, you know, that cabinet should be straightened out. I wonder where I could put-- No, focus on the coloring, it's relaxing. Breathe in and out and color.
I wonder if I should hang my wind spinner outside? Does the home owner's association allow wind spinners in the front of the house? I have that hook right there on the front porch. Do I have a hook on my back patio?
Color. Focus. Relax.
Now I have the wrong number of petals to do every other petal purple. Why did the color book artist do this? I can't be the only one who wants to color every other petal a different hue.
Why am I coloring when I have half a dozen other, more important things to be doing?
If you're getting the idea that this was a relaxation failure for me, you'd be right. It also didn't inspire creativity. I'm not ready to give it up yet, but maybe I'll try it with music next time or while I'm watching baseball or something.
