How colour therapy helped my healing

Do you struggle with being able to do something in your day that makes you feel good? Are you angry? Is your brain too stimulated and you need to relax? Do you like colouring?

I felt all these emotions and many more after my stroke and found writing poetry and colour therapy very rewarding. When I worked a lot (pre-stroke) I always loved to dabble about in my small craft room at home when I wasn't working, to try and get some 'down time' and I could spend hours in there making cards and gifts for friends. Since my stroke I clearly have more time to do that but in addition, I love colouring and making things looks pretty to the eye. My brain on many days was so full of anger, not being able to do what I could or wanted to do, feeling depressed, but I found colouring cleared my brain and helped me relax enormously. The only decision I needed to make was which colouring pencil to choose. I could float away in my own little world and sit in my comfy chair and not have to interact with anyone for a while. I have always liked some uniformity and routine but since my stroke, my brain is much less organised and 'anything goes'. It didn't matter what colouring pencil I chose..it was the act of colouring that made everything seem OK. I am a great believer in the saying 'a little bit of what you fancy does you good' but there are a number of theories and websites about colour therapy and how it can help healing. Here is one of them...

http://www.colourtherapyhealing.com/colour_therapy/what_is_colour_therapy.php

I was also lucky enough to source on line, tthe beautiful Adelaide based artist Sharon Morgan who sent me some fabulous Mandalas from her Manifesting Mandalas web page and they can be downloaded for free. Here is the link...

http://manifestingmandalas.com/printablemandalas/

Maybe print one off and have a go and see how you feel? There are plenty of colouring books out there too but many are quite detailed. I prefer the easier ones on my brain. Maybe post a photo of what you have coloured and we can share beautiful pictures throughout the wonderful Enableme site? Here is an attachment of another one I coloured whilst sat awaiting for my son to return from his operation at the weekend. It's not fantastic. Nice simple colours but I can tell you, it truly made my brain calm. Happy colouring :)