As we get older, we often find ourselves with more time on our hands, so we can do more. Maybe the kids have grown up and left home. There is a chance that retirement has come, and you are looking for things to do to keep yourself from getting bored. People who love or care for you might need a healthy thing to do. It might be fun for adults to color. If you're a senior, coloring books can be a fun way to pass the time, but they can also be good for your body and mind, too.

If you want to have the best adult coloring experience as a senior, there are some things you should look into first. You can see why coloring is good for older people below, whether you are an older person yourself, or are looking for a good creative outlet for your parent or older relative. We'll also talk about what you should look for in a coloring book for older people, give some book suggestions, and show you how to use tools for coloring with arthritis or poor eyesight.

Benefits of Coloring for Seniors

There are a lot of good things about taking up coloring, no matter what your age is. For older people, it can be a good way to live a better life that also improves their mood and confidence. There are a lot of important physical, mental, and social benefits to having a hobby like coloring that make it especially good for people who are old.

Offers a Creative Outlet

After years of taking care of a family or working full time, you may have lost the desire to make things. Maybe you need to think back to how happy and proud you felt as a child when you finished that art project or clay sculpture for school. A great way to get your creative juices flowing again is to color again.

As a bonus, coloring also gives the person who does it a boost in confidence and self-esteem, because they can see the finished product of their work. You have made something unique, and your memories will be linked to the simple lines, patterns, and colors in your coloring book, even though they are simple.

Improves Fine Motor Skills

The practice of coloring inside the lines of a pre-made design keeps the hands of older people moving. This can be good for people who have joint pain or stiffness, because it keeps these parts moving and limber, especially if they do this every day. As with any kind of light exercise, keeping your muscles and joints moving and fine-tuning them can help reduce stiffness and pain over time, just like any kind of exercise. This will also help with hand-eye coordination because fine motor skills will get better and new brain pathways will be made in the process.

Make sure you don't give up if your hands aren't strong enough at first to give you the control you want. The more you do something, the better you get at it! Any skill takes time and effort to learn.

Keeps the Mind Busy

It's been a big thing to color for a few years now, and there have been many studies about the mental health benefits. All of them agree that coloring is good because it has the same benefits as meditation and mindfulness. When someone is coloring, it's easy for them to focus on the task at hand and let everything else, like stress, anxiety, or sadness, fade away.

Relaxes the Mind Too!

As long as the brain is working on a single creative project, the mind can rest. Putting all of your attention on coloring keeps your mind from going in different directions. You might not think about that upcoming doctor's appointment or the health of a friend or family member for a little while.

For people who are older, the older they get, the more things they lose, change, and stress them. Having this relaxing, therapeutic hobby as a tool can make a big difference in their overall mental health and quality of life by giving them a more positive thing to think about and work on.

Fills the Need for Socialization

Coloring is also a good way to build communities and find people who share your interests, which can be hard as we get older. The studies say that when you make art together, which can be a very vulnerable thing to do, you make a strong connection with the people you did it with right away. Who knew that coloring could lead to long-term friendships? There are a lot of senior centers and nursing homes where people color together all the time.

It's also easier than you might think to find a group of people who like to color near you. Check out Cleverpedia's list of coloring meetups to see if there's one near you. You can also learn how to start your own group by reading this.

Encourages Nostalgia and Memory Recall

People who have dementia or Alzheimer's should pay extra attention to this. To keep brain cells firing, you might want to think about old memories. As a child, you and your grandparent might have fun coloring together. The act of coloring itself might bring back good memories of that time. Maybe the subject of the coloring page itself will bring back a good memory.

If you are taking care of someone who has these conditions, sit down and color together. When they were younger, they might have liked to color in a book about that subject. A few stories might come up that you didn't know before.

What to Look for When Buying a Senior Adult Coloring Book

To start your new hobby of coloring, you'll need to find a coloring book that fits your needs. The following are some things to look for when you buy a new coloring book for an older person.

Thick Lines

This feature comes back to the motor skills part of the game. A problem with the way your hands move might not be a problem for you at all. It's different for people who have arthritis or who have trouble with their hands to look for thicker lines in the designs in the coloring book.

Important: This lets you off the hook if you can't always stay inside the lines. There are more chances that mistakes will show up if the lines are very thin. As long as you use thick lines, you'll be able to better control what happens in the end.

Appeals to Your Interests

Also, and maybe the most important thing, make sure you like the subject you're coloring! Coloring books come in almost any subject you can think of, so find one that fits your personality and interests.

As an example, do you like to do things outside? You might want to look at these cactus and succulent color books. You like cats and dogs. It doesn't matter what you want to color, there are plenty of books to choose from. There are even coloring books for kids with bad breath! So, do some research to figure out what would be the most fun for you to color.

Special Considerations for Seniors with Dementia or Alzheimer’s

People who have dementia or Alzheimer's should think about the designs and patterns in the coloring book they want to buy. I don't think these older people should do complicated mandalas or geometric patterns with small spaces, because they might get hurt. People who like to color should look for an adult coloring book with simple, well-known images that they can recognize. This could be animals and farm scenes, for example.

The more simple adult coloring books may not be difficult enough for you. But don't make a senior with dementia angry by making him or her angry with you. This anger will make both of you feel stressed, which will make things worse for both of you.

Best Adult Coloring Books for Seniors

Adrienne is here, and she wants to meet you. You can find a whole world of adult coloring books if you keep the ideas above in mind. But if you want some ideas, here are a few coloring books that you might like to look at.

Daydreams Coloring Book by Hanna Karlzon

People all over the world love this coloring book because it has a fun and organic art style that they love to color in. The thick lines are very forgiving, and there are no designs that have too many small parts. These pages are thick and have designs on both sides. This hardcover coloring book has a lot of pages. Due to the fact that the pages are printed on both sides, it is not the best choice for alcohol-based markers. I talked more about this book in my review here.

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