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Why Your Brain Needs You to Pick Up a Crayon (The “Zero-Pressure” Meditation)

What is the most childish thing you’ve done lately? How did that help? Did you felt how all the “adult life” pressure just vanished or is it just me?

Childish as it sounds, but did you know that doing these things have a positive impact over your mindset? When I talk about inner change, people often think I mean sitting in a dark room for hours. They also assume I mean writing 5,000 words in a journal. While those have their place, sometimes the most profound shifts happen when you just stop trying so hard.

That’s where coloring comes in. I know, it sounds like something you left behind in kindergarten along with nap time and glue sticks. But for an adult mind trapped in a loop of stress, it’s actually a high-leverage tool for self-awareness.

10 reasons why coloring helps an adult

  1. It’s a “Backdoor” to Meditation: If you’re like me and struggle to “clear your mind,” try coloring. It gives your brain a simple task to focus on. It’s meditation without the frustration;
  2. The Ultimate Digital Detox: You can’t scroll through a stressful news feed while you’re shading in a sunset. It forces you to disconnect from the “limitless credit card” of screen time;
  3. It Silences the Amygdala: Research shows that the repetitive motion of coloring relaxes the amygdala. This part of your brain is responsible for the “fight or flight” response. It’s a physical reset for your fear (I talk more about this amygdala in my book, Fighting the Inside Dragons);
  4. Low-Stakes Creativity: Many of us are terrified of making mistakes. Coloring gives you a safe space to practice “imperfect action.” If you go outside the lines? The world doesn’t end.
  5. It Ends the “Flow State” Drought: It’s one of the easiest ways to enter “Flow”. In this state, time disappears. You’re fully present in the “now.”
  6. Emotional Expression Without Words: Sometimes we don’t have the words for how we feel. Choosing a dark blue or a fiery orange lets you externalize your inner world without writing a manifesto.
  7. A Tangible “Win”: In a world full of endless emails, work often feels “invisible.” Finishing a coloring page is a concrete achievement. It’s something you can actually see and touch.
  8. Improves Your Sleep: Swap your phone for a coloring book 30 minutes before bed. This change stops the blue-light attack on your brain. It signals that the “temporal party” is winding down.
  9. Exercises Your Focus: In an age of 10-second videos, staying with one image for 20 minutes re-trains your brain. This exercise helps you pay attention to the details.
  10. It’s Just Plain Fun: We’ve forgotten how to play. Reclaiming a bit of childhood joy is often the first step in washing away those “rusty” negative thoughts.

Coloring isn’t childish. It’s a way we, as adults, can re-write our brains to function in this crazy world.

What’s the most childish thing you’ve done lately?

PS: Do you want to improve your mindset? Tackle that amygdala by checking out my book, Fighting the Inside Dragons: 1st Edition. Links below.

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FREE Download For Members

20 comments

      • I feel free while drawing, especially when there are no lines to worry about. I also like releasing the colors from the crayons. I guess I tend to choose the brighter colors and feel a little better when I see them on the paper. Feeling open doors and relief from pressure–that’s fantastic!

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  2. hello and thank you for a wonderful post, I haven’t recently thought about doing something silly but am seriously considering it. And this coloring with crayons, feels really therapeutic and like a mindful way to focus on a task. For me, any activity that draws attention for even 20 minutes or more—anything that gently pulls you away from endless tv or phone scrolling, anything that allows a brief pause and stillness, feels significant, no matter how small. I find those moments deeply meaningful.  Just now, I took a little pause to learn more about the amygdala, and one description that caught my attention is that it helps process emotional reactions like anger or happiness. I’ve always been curious about how different habits trigger different emotions. I wonder, in your view, how that tiny but brilliant part of the brain responds differently to drawing with crayons versus feeding birds, squirrels, or rabbits? I feel that feeding animals can also be deeply therapeutic as well. There’s something quietly magical in feeding animals, the gentle responsibility, the calm attentiveness, the emotions it stirs that we may not have noticed before, or weren’t quite ready to feel. I would be so curious to hear your thoughts on how the amygdala might “experience” these different kinds of quiet, mindful moments.

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    • Thank you for this insightful comment! Regarding amygdala, it is a really interesting question and I had to think about it. In short, even though we might feel similar effects, the impact of the 2 is quite different. With coloring, the brain re-wires itself trying to focus more. The amygdala gets distracted during the process because you have to decide about the colors, boundaries and so on (decisions which are not entirely conscious). Being small decisions with tiny importance, you feel safe and your amygdala drops the “fight or flight” mode. With animals feeding, the effect is related to oxytocin. Feeding animals is considered a social activity so the amygdala gets inhibited by the oxytocin released by the process itself. With animals, you are not feeling alone anymore. This triggers the oxytocin and your amygdala gets dizzy with a few shots of it. So, if you feel you have too many “inside dragons”, choose coloring for focus. If you feel too lonely, choose animal feeding. I hope this answers your question. Again, great question!

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  3. Yeah drawing, even scribbling mindlessly calms me sometimes. That’s only time i don’t chase perfection. Another childish thing I do is I get excited whenever I hear the word ice cream. I’m so embarrassed of it at times. But it calms me down anyways.

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    • That helps too as it is a direct path from brain towards paper through hand movement. But the idea itself is to go for no pressure activities that can help the mind both focus and wonder around at the same time.

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  6. When I went to rehab (recovering alcoholic–almost 18 months sober!) I picked up coloring. I thought it was so silly at first. Plus, I am a terrible artist. But the focus it took to color….it took off the heaviness I was feeling. I forgot where I was for a while. And why I was there.

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  7. I totally get where you are coming from. Personally my go-to to get a break from the noisy world is doing jigsaw puzzles on my iPad. I especially like the larger ones that have complex patterns like a network of branches or snow-covered rocks, where I need to develop my distinction skills to find candidate pieces. While I am even happier with physical jigsaw puzzles, the self-contained nature of the iPad model avoids cluttering the house up (happy wife) and lets me do it anywhere when the mood takes me.

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  8. Coloring is my Hobby I use crayons colored pencils markers electronic coloring. Yes Indeed I have never let this activity go from childhood. I have all kinds of coloring books my family friends associates buy me coloring books often. 🖍️🖍️🖍️

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