Journaling

How to Get Started With Adult Coloring Books

April 24, 2018 by Marya 8 Comments

People from all walks of life are rediscovering their long lost love of art and creativity. If you’ve been wanting to get started with adult coloring books, keep reading.

Adult coloring books and printables are everywhere right now. I think a lot of people need a release from digital everything. Not only that, but coloring reduces stress and can also be considered a form of mindfulness meditation. Coloring is a no-stress creative outlet that anyone can do with just a few supplies.

Coloring for Mental Health

When you were a child, you probably enjoyed using crayons and a coloring book, and today, you can also enjoy this activity by using adult coloring pages. There are multiple mental health benefits from coloring therapy, so don’t feel like you’re being childish!

Reduce Stress

Mental stress is destructive for your overall health and it can lead to physical problems. Instead of using food or alcohol to relieve your stress after a difficult day keep an assortment of coloring pages and beautiful crayons ready at home.

Coloring Can Relieve Depression

If you struggle with depression, then coloring therapy can lift your mood. When you’re feeling sad, you can choose brightly colored crayons and coloring pages that have a positive or happy theme.

Use crayon colors such as yellow, orange or red to stimulate the emotional center of your brain while you create artwork such as flowers. And while you’r coloring, play some music that you like, concentrate on positive thoughts and say positive affirmations to yourself.

Coloring May Reduce Anxiety

If you struggle with anxiety, then find adult coloring books that focus on mindfulness so that you can feel better. The best crayon colors to reduce anxiety include shades of blue or pale pink. These soothing colors may help you to feel calmer.

How to Get Started With Adult Coloring Books

There’s so many options available not it can be a little overwhelming. And if you don’t like coloring mandalas, there’s lots of options to choose from that are completely adaptable to your skill and mobility needs. Don’t think you’re limited to just coloring mandalas. There are dozens books on almost every theme imaginable. Here’s a few ideas to get you started!

What are you grateful for? What blessings have come to you today? Color Your Way to Gratitude is a beautiful hybrid of a coloring book for grown-ups, and a journal to record the significant moments in your life. Spend time in quiet reflection, while coloring, to truly appreciate and be thankful for your surroundings. An attitude of gratitude invites even more experiences for you to cherish and appreciate.

Are you an essential oil junkie? Lemon Essential Oil coloring pages explores different aspects of Lemon – the history, science, uses, and more, all while providing fun and detailed coloring elements. The Lemon Essential Oil package includes quotes, and recipes, and a nature journal page, all themed for Lemon.

Here’s a few more out of the box coloring books:

Coloring Supplies for Adult Coloring Books

There’s no rules for adult coloring. Don’t be afraid to experiment and feel free to color outside of the lines! Two of the most popular options are colored pencils and markers. Each one has its own advantage.

With colored pencils, you can change the intensity of the color by varying the amount of pressure you put on the pencil, which gives you more control over how your coloring page will appear.

Markers can give your picture an intense, vibrant look. They’re also a faster way to color, if you’re low on time or energy. However,they don’t allow you to vary your hue. So if you want to color a flower several different shades of pink, you’ll have some difficulty with that. And you’ll also have to check any new coloring books you buy to ensure your markers aren’t ‘bleeding’ onto the next page.

But don’t be afraid to experiment with coloring tools that are out of the box. Some people really using gel pens to color, while other people might prefer to use a box of crayons. Try out a few options and see what you strikes you as the most fun.

How to Choose a Color Palette for Adult Coloring Books

If you’ve ever become frustrated with how your pages come out, try working with color palettes to give your adult coloring books a more uniform look. You can find inspiration for color palettes in nature or around your home. Any time you’re out, if you see a color pattern that inspires you, just take a quick picture of it. For online inspiration, you can do a Pinterest search of color palettes, this inspirational brand palette guide from Canva, Design Seeds, or Color Collective.

How to Get New Coloring Sheets Every Month

If you’ve become a coloring fan girl and are always on the lookout for new coloring sheets, you might want to check out coloring memberships where you can sign up and you’ll receive new coloring pages each month.

Color Monthly is what I use and is just one of the many options available. You can get your coloring sheets delivered digitally or physically, whatever works best for you.

The advantage of going digital is that you can print the designs yourself. So if you like a certain weight of paper or prefer a particular layout, you can make sure it’s just the way you like it.

Now the advantage of getting your designs bound in a book is being able to take multiple designs with you anywhere. All you have to do is grab your book, your coloring supplies, and you’re ready to start out on your next adventure.

Remember, coloring isn’t about doing it “the right way” or staying in the lines. There are absolutely no rules when it comes to coloring. You can make your trees pink if you want, add your own doodles to the page, or even paste an inspiring quote on your coloring sheet.

Don’t stress over it…get started with adult coloring & just have some fun with it!

P.S. Go visit Color Monthly for unique designs that you won’t see anywhere else!

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How to Overcome Emotional Eating With a Food Journal

April 2, 2018 by Marya 5 Comments

You probably already know that journaling is a great tool to help you overcome emotional eating. Therapists and counselors have long encouraged people to journal to heal from stress and trauma.

Writing down your thoughts and triggers can help you to keep track of what you’re eating and moving forward in your recovery. But for many of us, finding the time and situation to sit down and actually write in the journal might be a little tricky.

For me, I’ve found that journaling tends to happen when I make it a part of my morning routine. Having a set morning routine allows you to set the intention for a healthy and productive day.

Using a food journal will allow you to express yourself and at the same time provides a a therapeutic tool that will help you to get through the day. And with a set morning routine, you get into the practice of writing in the journal every day without thinking about it too much, and you won’t need to worry about it for the rest of the day.

Create a Morning Routine That Works for You

You can also use your food journaling time as part of a full morning routine. Maybe it’s something you do after devotions, meditation and breakfast. The important thing is to set the intention and make it a habit, and you’ll find yourself keeping up with it without too much effort.

Have Your Food Journal Ready to Go

Set up a quiet area in your home to write in your journal. It should be a place where you feel comfortable and won’t get interrupted too much. It might be easier for you to stay in bed to write in your journal before you begin your day (and the house is quiet!)

You might keep it at your kitchen table while drinking your morning coffee, or just relax on the couch for some writing time.

Whatever you do, try to pick an area of the home where you will enjoy sitting and writing, and you won’t have to worry about other people in your house bothering you during this time.

What Should You Write About in the Morning?

Using journaling as part of a morning routine has some definite advantages. Plan your day out in the morning by writing down a favorite scripture or affirmation, start a food log of what you plan to eat.

Journaling about your emotional eating triggers before your day even starts will help to give you a healthy mindset to get you through the day. And when those stress cravings come up, you’ll feel better equipped to handle them.

Remember that journaling for emotional eating doesn’t have any set rules. If writing in the morning doesn’t work for you, that’s okay. Find the time and place that works for you in order to get the most out of journaling.

How to Motivate Yourself to Keep Journaling

As rewarding as journaling can be, sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated with it. If you’re struggling with this, here’s some tips can help you keep that motivation and even perk up some changes to your journaling routine.

Create Daily Journaling Prompts

Creating daily prompts is a great way to keep you motivated. But the key here isn’t do this every day. Take some time on the weekend to create some journal prompts for the week.

Besides the obvious food log, you can write down affirming words that will help to keep you on track when the day starts to get busy.

Decorate Your Journal

Don’t be afraid to have fun and decorate your journal! It’s already yours on the inside, so make it pretty on the outside too. Make it a journal that represents you. You can decorate the outside, the pages, and the flaps. Make sure that the journal is inviting to you and calls to you to write in it. You want something that is as welcoming as your home and that you’ll love to sit down with.

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Health Benefits of Mindful Coloring for Adults

February 19, 2018 by Marya 6 Comments

You’ve probably noticed that coloring books is a thing right now, and an extremely popular one at that. To me, coloring seems like the perfect antidote to our stressed digital lives. It takes us back to a simpler time. There are many health and psychological benefits of coloring.

When I was a kid, my favorite thing to do was hide away in my room and sketch and draw for hours. With no digital distractions, it was easy to get lost in it. But as I grew older, I grew dissatisfied with my work and never felt like it was good enough. To make things worse, I tried to get into an specialized art school but didn’t make it, and I stopped after that. However in my midlife years, I’ve begun to take it up again.

Mindful coloring is really a very simple concept. It is the art of coloring while practicing mindfulness. Being mindful is all about being in the moment, being engaged and involved in what’s going on around you. Unfortunately, mindfulness has become a lost art in our day with the ubitquous presence of cell phones along with social media and a 24 hour news cycle. We sadly miss out on the basic pleasures and simple joys of life because we’re so busy multitasking.

Adult coloring is a great way to bring back some of those simple pleasures.

How is Coloring Mindful?

Mindful coloring is great for stress reduction. Think about it..when you’re busy coloring, you’re just doing one thing. More than likely, you just want to focus on coloring and not check your phone, do housework or watch TV. As you focus on one thing, you’ll clear your mind of everything as you pick colors and focus on what you’re doing.

Mindful Coloring Can Be A Teaching Tool

The simple act of coloring can teach your to create better habits in other parts of your life. Mindful coloring allows you to learn to clear the junk out of your mind and focus on the task at hand, the act of coloring. And as you learn to focus and be mindful while coloring, you’ll learn beneficial tool to practice mindfulness in every area of your life.

Mindful Coloring Relieves Stress

One of the biggest benefits of mindful coloring is the way it relaxes you. You’re no longer focused on all the things that overwhelm and worry you. You’re focusing on something simple and childlike and it greatly reduces whatever’s troubling you. One of the big reasons for the popularity of coloring books is that it’s a great way to calm down and find focus.

Coloring is beneficial for anyone. It isn’t just for kids! Once you realize how beneficial mindful coloring is, you’ll return to it for stress relief, as a creative outlet and simple meditation. Coloring can be a great part of your self care toolbox, but if you live with serious mood disorders, please seek the help of a competent professional.

My Coloring Book Picks from Amazon

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February Journal Prompts

February 2, 2018 by Marya Leave a Comment

Growing up in the Northeast I remember the months after Christmas as being pretty depressing. The pretty holiday decorations are gone, the skies are gray and spring seems a long way off. Journaling is a great way to use up some creative energy and constructively use your time when it might be tempting to binge on food, social media or Netflix. Here’s some February journal prompts and creative journaling tips to boost your creativity.

How to make your journal pretty

Washi tape is a paper based tape you can locate in most dollar stores and craft stores and online. There are various styles including florals, retro, glitter..really, too many to count!. You can use this tape to decorate the sides of your journal pages, to separate entries, or to mark off goals. You can even use it to decorate for certain times of the year or just to offer something different as a border.

Stickers

Stickers are an easy and fun way to make your journal pretty. Look around at your local craft stores or see what’s on Etsy. They make it easy to express yourself through wording, inspirational quotes, or whatever fandom you may belong to. These stickers can be placed on the cover, inside, or throughout the journal.

Markers and Highlighters

Markers and highlighters can help you color everything from the date of your entry to goals and pages as a whole. No matter what you want to color or draw, you can do them with markers and highlighters. Keep in mind these are better for journals that are made of cardstock or heavy pages rather than composition notebook style journals or ones with traditional paper pages.

February Journal Prompts

What does Valentine’s Day mean to you?
Who is the person you think about the most this month?
Have you listed your business goals yet? If not do it this month.
The weather outside is…
Explain what the words love and romance mean to you.
It’s heart month, what small changes are you putting in place?
Is your business on track?
What’s the best business tool you find most worthwhile?
I love to journal because…
List two things you can do to clean out your closets to get ready for spring.
What bulbs or seeds are you going to plant this year? Pretend if you don’t have a garden.
The winter birds I love to see, and feed are…
What new clothes do you want for this spring and summer?
How many Valentine’s cards are you sending?
Find a chocolate recipe you could make this month & describe how you made it, who you shared it with and how it turned out.
How’s your product planning coming along? List out the products you plan on creating this year.
What’s your favorite topic to blog about this month?
What top qualities do you few as important in a relationship?
What’s the funniest thing you have seen people do this month?
Write about how you view your parent’s relationship.
Be truthful and describe how February really makes you feel.
What’s your favorite romantic movie to watch?
Are you sick of this crazy weather this year? Let all your feelings out!
What qualities do you love about yourself?

December Journal Prompts

December 5, 2017 by Marya 3 Comments

For many people, the end of the year is a time of reflection and thinking ahead to the New Year. One great way to get the noise out of your head and release tension is to start keeping a journal. It’s often difficult to talk to friends our family about what’s troubling us, but journaling allows us to get our thoughts out without repercussions or interruptions. Journaling is often the way to the root of the problem, and by the time you’re finished writing, you might be surprised at how much your tension is reduced. Below I’ve included some December journal prompts to help get you started.

What will your one word be for 2018 to meditate and reflect on?
How do you really feel about the holidays?
On a scale of 1-10 how is your mental health or your pain levels today?
What’s something you would like to learn more about in 2018?
List 3 new intentions you’d like to adapt in the New Year
What area of your life do you need support in right now?
What area of your life do you need to surrender to God right now?
Is there an even on the news or social media that’s triggering you right no? Journal your thoughts about it.
What’s your favorite Bible verse or spiritual prose right now?
What emotions are you currently feeling?

Download more December Journal Prompts here:

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See how many of these December related words you can use in your journal this month.

Winter
Ice
Holidays
Memories
Carols
Presents
Christmas
Fireplace
Music
Thoughts
Solstice
Forever
Hopes
Wishes
Intentions
Loved Ones
Midnight
Chocolate
Movies
Family
cookies
Spirit
Love
Cranberries
Calendar
Early Morning
Resolutions

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A Beginner’s Guide to Simple Bullet Journals

November 14, 2017 by Marya 9 Comments

Bullet journaling is a great way to organize and track the thousands of to do’s that are probably running throughout your mind during the day. It can also serve as a way to track pain symptoms, medications, as a food and fitness tracker…just about anything you can think of. It can even work as a memory keeper.

Any time you need to review what you’ve been doing over the past few days, weeks or months, you can just pick up your bullet journal for a quick update.

First things first…a bullet journal is is an analog system. Many of us are so used to using apps to stay organized on our smart phones now so it may seem strange to use something as old school as a notebook and pen. But that’s the beauty of it…there’s something very peaceful and grounding about writing things down this way.

Getting Started With Simple Bullet Journals

Here’s the traditional setup for a bullet journal with credit to Ryder Carroll from BulletJournal. Think of it as starting point, get comfortable with the basic system and then change it from there.

You’ll need a notebook, a pen, and a little bit of time to get started. The type of notebook you use is up to you. The traditional style is grid or dotted paper, but I find even ruled or blank pages work just fine.

The Key

The first page of your bullet journal will include your key. This will record the shorthand you use for your bullet entries. Here’s the traditional codes used. Feel free to add to it, or leave out things that don’t work for you. Make it yours.

The Index

Your next two to four pages will be set aside for indexing. This will allow you to quickly find any collection, or get to a particular month. Title each page as an index page and move on to the next section.

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The Future Log

With the original bullet journal setup this is a two page spread that records the coming 6 months. Many bullet journalers find it helpful to use a more traditional yearly calendar instead. This is a great place to record birthdays, anniversaries, or block out vacation time. Add or note the page number and record your future log in your index.

Monthly Logs

Start each month with a monthly log. Here you’ll record appointments and due dates. You can use a grid layout, or use one line for each day of the month. While this isn’t where you’ll track most of your tasks, the monthly log will come in handy for those times when you have a full schedule of chauffeuring the kids, tracking doctor and therapy appointments.

Daily Logs

The daily log is where you’ll spend most of your time in your bullet journal. Start a new section each day and record anything important for the day. Make your list of tasks and cross them off as you get them finished. Make notes of anything important you need to remember throughout the day as well as appointments as they pop up. Everything gets logged in the daily log for speed and ease. From there you can move it as needed to the monthly or future log, or migrate it to a different day.

There are a multitude of ways to do this. Look up the #bulletjournal and #bujo tags to find a layout that works best for you.

Migrating Tasks

At the end of the day, or even first thing the next morning make some time to review your tasks and then cross out and migrate anything that isn’t checked off. For example, if you didn’t get around to doing (or finishing!) laundry today, draw an arrow through it and add the task to today’s daily task list.

If you noted an appointment that came up yesterday, move it to your monthly list and draw an arrow through it in yesterday’s list. If something no longer applies then cross it out. Your goal is to deal with each entry from your daily list by completing it, migrating it, or crossing it out.

Collections

Now let’s talk about collections. Collections are simply thematical lists you make that aren’t date related. Some examples are lists of books you want to read, movies you want to watch on Netflix, specialty grocery ingredients..just about anything.

Just start the list on the next blank page. Title it and start jotting down the books you want to read. Make a note of the page you’re on and add this collection to your index page. Now when you want to add a new book title to this list, or reference it to see what you want to read, you can easily find it via the index.

I hope this inspires you to find a journaling system that works for you! Since I wrote this I wound up going with a Happy Planner because my life is too crazy for traditional bullet journaling, but I do “practice the principles.” Again, there’s no right way to do this. Just find what works and stick with it!

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How A Bullet Journal Helps Mental Health

August 7, 2017 by Marya 9 Comments

I started bullet journaling a while back and found an unexpected benefit: it helps my mental health. This is in spite of the fact that many of my pages are a scribbly mess. My ruler slips, I smear the ink pad, I lose track of the dots and sometimes stamp upside down. I’m still deciding on which spreads work best for me. Also my handwriting is sloppy. (Though if I were to slow down and write more mindfully that would probably help.)

It sounds kind of chaotic, but really it isn’t. For the first time in my life I’ve found a system that helps my mental health and actually works for my ADD addled mind. If I don’t have a spread for something that pops into my mind, I have designated “brain dump” pages where I record random thoughts. (This often happens during a yoga session!) This gives my mind a rest from trying to remember everything that dances across it on any given day.

Plus I’m actually getting stuff done. Getting the noise out of my head has greatly reduced my anxiety levels which trigger my dystonia and IBS symptoms (which typically happen at the same time.)

And one other thing…playing with paper, washi tape and pens makes me happy. It gives me something to focus on besides dystonia and chronic pain.

Now just today my rambling mind started to compute if the bullet journal of choice, a Leuchtturm costs about $20 and I have to get a new one every four or five months at the rate I’m going, isn’t that pricey compared to a regular planner? (If creating a bullet journal stresses you out, check out The Happy Planner. You can still do simple bullet journaling it and you can be as creative as you like.)

You do have to spend a few dollars on journaling supplies, but there’s nothing wrong with putting yourself first, especially when your mental health is at stake. You could do it in a cheap notebook from Target but the sensory feeling of good paper does help.

How to Get Started With Bullet Journals

You can spend a lot of time reading all about using bullet journals and watch a ton of YouTube videos to get ideas. But you aren’t going to get a feel for what will work for you until you start to give journaling a try for yourself.

You can read my Beginner’s Guide to Simple Bullet Journals here!

It’s okay to start with an inexpensive notebook and just try it out. Follow the basic bullet journal layout with an index, a key and a monthly spread. Track your daily tasks and see how it feels. Add in a few lists or collections and get a feel for what type of information is useful to you and what isn’t. Try trackers and various other hacks you come across and determine what works for you.

Keep It Simple

When you first start out bullet journaling, you may be tempted to write down and track every single thing. You may have lots of ideas for collections. It’s okay to start out with a bang but if you can’t sustain it, you may wind up feeling like a failure. Don’t over commit and track too much! The bullet journal will just become One More Thing To Do. Remember it’s a tool for wellness. Start small and figure out what works and what will be sustainable for you to write down and track.

Don’t Be Afraid To Rip Pages Out

You’re not in school any more! If you find that something isn’t working for you, don’t be afraid to rip it out. Maybe you thought that keeping a weekly reading collection was a good idea, but you couldn’t keep up with it?

Go ahead and rip out that page!

If your overall layout for your bullet journal isn’t working for you, don’t be afraid to toss it and start over. This is exactly it can be a great idea to just start out with a small and inexpensive notebook. Get another one and begin again. With a little practice you’ll find what works for you.

Make Your Bullet Journal Work For YOU!

Expect to do some testing and tweaking, and changing stuff around until you come up with something that works well for you. We all lead different lives and our brains work differently. Our bullet journals should reflect that.

Keep working on it until you come up with a system that feels natural. You’ll know it when you get there. The end goal is to have a bullet journal setup that makes your live easier and helps you stay organized without feeling that writing in it is a chore.

For me, I ultimately went with a Happy Planner because I couldn’t keep up with the traditional bullet journal page layouts and I got stressed planning them out! My life is such that I need to know what’s going on in the coming weeks and months, track veterinary and self care, etc. At this busy season of my life, it’s easier to have the work done for me. I just use the grid format to bullet journal as before.

However you journal, when it comes to your mental health and self care, it pays to go the extra mile if you have to.

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