Colouring Activity Brings Joy To Readers

The Leaderonomics colouring contest finalists’ and winner’s say

Several weekends ago, I visited a local bookstore in search of the perfect Christmas gift for a friend. Upon entering the bookstore, I discovered an entire section dedicated to just adult colouring books. I found myself enthusiastically flipping through the pages of a myriad of books, each with a theme of their own.

Some of my favourites include Colour Me Mindful: Underwater by Anastasia Catris, Harry Potter Colouring Book by Warner Brothers and Escape to Wonderland: A Colouring Book Adventure by Good Wives and Warriors.

As many of you are aware by now, the adult colouring fad took off last year and surprisingly enough, the trend doesn’t seem to be dwindling away just yet as some would assume.

In conjunction with this trend, my colleague Millie Ong wrote an article titled Colouring Away Stress (published Dec 5, 2015), and Leaderonomics conducted a colouring contest for our readers.

The purpose of this contest was to provide our readers with the opportunity to test it out for themselves, to see if colouring really does help in relieving their stress, and also to encourage them to take a little time out from their hectic day.

Featured below are the six finalists and winner of our contest. Each of them has provided a little description of how colouring as an activity has been beneficial.

We would like to thank all those who have participated in the contest. Our heartiest congratulations goes out to Melinda How Wei Cheon, who will be receiving an adult colouring book and a chance to meet Millie and the CEO of Leaderonomics, Roshan Thiran.

WINNER

Colouring helps me to concentrate, to focus on one thing and it brings me joy –Melinda How Wei Cheon, Klang, Selangor

FINALIST 1

Art helps me to de-stress and unleash my creativity. It also energises me and helps me to find solutions to the problems that I may face because art requires me to think outside the box. “Eureka” moments come when I take a step back to relax –Eliza Tan, Shah Alam, Selangor

FINALIST 2

There are three main ways how colouring has benefited me:

l. Taking some time off, especially at night when the environment is quiet and serene, to do the colouring gives me an initial peace of mind. This enables me to think of what needs to be done, i.e. some mental planning.

2. The actual selection of the colours (from a selection of two boxes containing 24 and 30 colouring pencils) enables me to do some matching and to visualise how it would turn out.

3. The duration of the colouring activity, which I keep to no more than an hour, enables me to relax and focus on what I am doing. When I am relaxed, my mind is clear and I am able to inject focused ideas on what I want to achieve –George Koshy, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

FINALIST 3

The colouring activity helped me to play around with the colours as much as I wished, with no limitations or restrictions –Seri Elena Phuah, Ampang, Selangor.

FINALIST 4

It’s a miracle. Colouring makes me happy and excited, especially when I’m feeling down. I also like it because it helps to relieve stress –Tan See Kee, Temerloh, Pahang.

FINALIST 5

I enjoyed colouring this piece. I loved seeing how the vibrant colours blended in. In fact, I got crossed eyes a lot, so I had to learn to focus –Hui Ming, Petaling Jaya, Selangor

FINALIST 6

Colouring helps me to reflect on the beauty of God’s creation around us. It helps me to be more aware of the colours of nature around me, and that itself gives a calming effect to me –Swanie Lim, Klang, Selangor.