Coloring through the stress . . .

Today I want to give you a personal creative suggestion — for any of you dealing with a stressful situation or a crisis:  adult coloring books.

Coloring through the stress with adult coloring books . . .

I hope you’ll forgive me for not divulging private details or specifics. I don’t mean to be cryptic at all.

There’s an extended family situation — how’s that for being cryptic — that has been going from bad to worse, despite the best intentions and efforts of doctors, friends, family members, you name it.

Imagine something that doesn’t directly impact your day-to-day life, but does impact your day-to-day heart.

Some of us are able to handle things better than others. I know of someone who seems to handle a major crisis with ease, yet I watched her break a manicured fingernail once and it was as if the world was coming to an abrupt end. Kind of blew my mind.

So.

This Summer, I’ve been blogging less. It wasn’t by intention as many of my blogger friends have done, in order to enjoy the Summer months more. No, instead I’ve been having a hard time concentrating as the situation with the extended family member gets worse.

And it isn’t a steady downhill. As you can imagine — and as no doubt some of you have experienced in your own lives — there are been many ups and downs. Many highs and lows.

My husband is really good at compartmentalizing. Me? Not so much.

I tend to just pour everything — and every issue — into a giant bowl and mix it all up and then wonder why I can’t focus on the current project that I’m being paid to complete and photograph and document and so on.

Coloring has helped me like nothing else has. I’ve been coloring in these so-called adult coloring books for quite some time, before it became the popular trend that it is today. But I’d color periodically, just for enjoyment.

For example, this past weekend as I had to sit by the phones — yes, home phone and cell phone both — I found that I couldn’t do anything but color.

And color I did.

For hours.

And coloring helped keep me occupied in a creative way.

Did it completely wipe out my stress?

Of course not.

But it did help me big-time.

I’ll no doubt write about these adult coloring books in more detail, but for now I just want you to know this:  they work!

~Laura