Trendy stress-relieving coloring books hit shelves

• Craze started in France in 2013, when coloring books aimed at relieving anxiety outsold cookbooks.

There’s a new weapon in the world’s anti-stress arsenal: the adult coloring book.

Marketed to anxious, overworked grown-ups, the books have taglines promising to inspire creativity, bring balance and restore inner peace.

Interest in adult coloring books has quadrupled over the summer at Barnes & Noble in Pittsford, which has two table displays dedicated to a trend that “wasn’t even on the radar a year ago,” according to lead bookseller Joanne Lyons. The books range from simple, quick patterns to highly intricate mandalas and other designs that could take days to finish.

“I think people are looking for more mindfulness practices in their lives,” says Melanie Medeiros, a 36-year-old anthropology professor and yoga teacher in Rochester.

She noticed adult coloring books at a friend’s house while doing research in Brazil over the summer.  . She bought her's soon after and keeps it on her coffee table for when the mood strikes.

“I don’t even think my color combinations are very attractive,” says Medeiros, who uses the exercise to increase her focus skills, “but I try not to think about that and instead try to relax.”

The rage began in France in 2013, when coloring books aimed at relieving anxiety flew off the shelves fast enough to outsell cookbooks, and eventually made its way overseas. An online tutorial from Illinois’ Aurora University on how to choose coloring books and supplies ends with this: “Stressful thoughts and future worries can be simply pushed aside as you take time to enjoy the present.”

Dr. Herbert Benson, founder of Harvard’s Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine and author of The Relaxation Response, contends that repetitive muscular activities — in this case, the back-and-forth hand movements required to color — decrease heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tension.

The draw, so to speak, of adult coloring books is that they nurture our nostalgic needs. Caroline Floeser, a 20-year-old University of Rochester English major, has received a coloring book every Christmas since she can remember. Recently, she bought The Coloring Book for Grown-Ups, anticipating the start of a new tradition.

“I’m not good at drawing, and it’s a nice way to be artistic,” she says.

Lyons recommends using brush markers because of their saturated colors and flexible tips.

"My impression is people experience flow when they do this,” she says. “Meditation isn’t hard, but it has to be learned. This is something people can do without any training at all.

"It’s for everybody.”

Robin Flanigan is a freelance writer in the Rochester area.