On colouring books and wasting time

If, like me, you happen to take an interest in book sales, you’ll probably have noticed how prominently colouring books feature in the bestseller charts. You may also have noticed the number of people shaking their heads over these colouring books, accusing people of wasting time; sometimes even saying, “Grow up.”

Okay, so you don’t like colouring books. You may never have been the kind of child who enjoyed the feel of a brand-new colouring book or the joy of a pack of brand-new pens, who stuck out their tongue in concentration as they tried to keep within the lines. You may be the kind of adult who thinks that childish things should be set aside at a certain age, and never again revisited. You may even be the kind of adult who believes passionately about art, and who thinks that staying within the lines is somehow antagonistic to creativity.

Let’s think about that for a minute. Creativity is a broad concept. We’re all creative, in our own ways, but most people prefer to be consumers, not creators. That doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy participating in the process. Consuming art is by no means a passive activity. We sing along to the radio. We lose ourselves in music. We read books by other people, even though we may also write them ourselves. Reading a book is not the same as writing as book for oneself, and yet we all value reading, even though it’s a more passive form of exploring a story. The reader brings their own ideas, their own perspective to the task - and yet they stay within the lines of the creator’s narrative.

Why? Because art – be that painting, writing, playing music, reading, or anything else requiring creative thought – takes us to a different place, a slightly altered state of consciousness. There’s nothing particularly esoteric about this. The human brain functions in more or less the same way for most individuals. There’s a left-hand brain, that processes information,; and a right-hand brain, that deals with abstract thought; feelings; imagination; the subconscious. The left brain tends to think in ways most of us think of as “adult.” The right brain is childlike, suggestible; it processes reality in a more abstract way, through the creation of symbols and dreams, rather than the assimilation of facts and figures.

Okay, yeah, whatever, you say - but what has this got to do with colouring books? Bear with me for a moment. Most of us - especially those who live in the West - exist in a state of perpetual – and mostly unconscious - anxiety. Bombarded by the stresses of our daily lives - work, money, family, health - and with the media (social media included) constantly providing us with ever-increasing sources of anxiety and rage, many people find it hard to turn off the perpetual inner white noise – the questions, contradictory messages, fears. Many people spend their lives permanently hopped up on this rush of adrenalin, unable to let go or relax.

This is where some of us begin to think that “growing up” isn’t always an ideal state. Living in the real world is hard. But denying the imagination is fraught with even greater risks. That right brain we were discussing, with all its abstract thought processes, has needs we don’t fully understand. We need to dream – it’s a well-researched fact that sleepers deprived of REM sleep will function less efficiently, suffer more stress and are more likely to suffer mental problems than those allowed to dream normally. And during our waking moments, we also sometimes need to let go – to turn off the questioning, active, analytical part of our brain and allow the dreaming, intuitive, passive half to take over.

We all have our own ways of doing this. Some practise meditation or yoga. Some listen to soothing music. Some look at pictures, or watch clouds, or do complicated jigsaws, or look into the flames of a log fire. Some even like to spend hours colouring in complex patterns in colouring-books. In each case, it isn’t so much about the activity being performed, but about the state of mind it induces: that quiet, contemplative state that reduces anxiety, slows the heart rate, allows a person to relax. Far from being “mindless,” this kind of activity is essential to our physical and mental health. It encourages the imaginative part of our brain to expand; it is the friend of creativity. When the pernickety left-hand brain is concentrating on some repetitive, “mindless” activity – such as keeping inside the lines - the intuitive, right-hand brain is freed to create and dream.

So get out the colouring books and the pens. Stick your tongue out as far as you can. And spend some time with your childhood self. Your childhood self is worth listening to. And your childhood self still remembers that time spent day-dreaming, colouring or staring at clouds is very far from wasted.