Session Twelve Coloring Tool

Feeling Observation

For the practices this week, we are going to return to our feeling observation logs. This time, as you do the practices, I would like you to check in with the log and decide which column you feel best represents how your feeling at that moment.

After you’ve established how you feel, I would like you to try coloring for about 5 – 10 minutes. If you don’t have a coloring book, they are available at any bookstore. You can download pictures, just search “adult coloring pages,” and you’ll find many options for printing.

During the practice, you can use your dominant hand for this part of the practice, but remember the four rules for coloring:
1 – Completely fill the space
2 – Try to stay inside the lines
3 – Don’t judge your work. You don’t need to keep it when you’re done.
4 – Don’t rush – remember you can take months to color a single page if you like.

After you are done coloring, enter notes about how you feel. Is it different than when you started? Is the difference mostly physical? Is it mental, have your thoughts changed? Is it emotional? What difference have you noticed?

After you’ve recorded how you feel, I would like you to try coloring with your non-dominant hand for another 5 – 10 minutes. As you are coloring, please to remember to:

1 – Completely fill the space
2 – Try to stay inside the lines
3 – Don’t judge your work. You don’t need to keep it when you’re done.
4 – Don’t rush – remember you can take months to color a single page if you like.

After you are done coloring, enter notes about how you feel. Is it different than when you started? Is the difference mostly physical? Is it mental, have your thoughts changed? Is it emotional? What difference have you noticed?

Now that you’ve experienced the effects of coloring with both your dominant and non-dominant hand, what have you noticed? Which practice has more impact on your overall mood? Is there anything specific you are noticing now, relief of any pain, or a change in thinking or even an emotional shift? What is the most significant thing you’ve noticed?

As you notice the shift in your experience, return to your feeling observation log and see if you have moved from one state to another. If you are often experiencing a triggered state are you noticing you match the list of Rest-and-Digest / Surviving or even Thriving?

Where would you put yourself on the scale? How does the thought of being able to make this kind of change feel to you?

Continue trying the coloring practices throughout the week. You don’t always need to do the dominant hand coloring. If you can go straight to non-dominant coloring without stress, you can do that. Not everyone can do 20 minutes right off the bat, but try to go as long as you can without too much strain.

Check-in every few days and notice if there is any improvement in your overall mood or stress levels. Make notes below about what you notice. You might see more than just an improvement in mood. Stress is very detrimental to our physical well being. So, you could see dramatic health benefits as well. Record everything you notices.