Coloring for Humans: Why It's Good for Your Mental Health

Today I want to talk about something "smaller". Something that I think gets overlooked a lot when we talk about wellbeing in the digital age.

I want to talk about human connection. And surprisingly, coloring (what a shock, I know 🤪).

We're more disconnected than we think

We live in a world that is more digitally connected than ever, and yet loneliness is at an all-time high. 😞 We scroll through feeds full of content, react with emojis, double-tap photos, and somehow still end up feeling like no one really sees us. The irony is brutal!!!

A lot of what we consume online today is also increasingly ✨not human✨. AI-generated images, AI-written captions, AI commercials, algorithmically curated everything. And I think, even if we can't always name it, we feel that hollowness, emptiness (I would also name it unfulfillness, but I know that's not a word... yet!). In the way we close an app and feel emptier than when we opened it; well, at least I do.

Real art from real people

Here's what I love about Lake, and what I don't think gets said enough: every single coloring book in the app was made by a real human artist. A person who sat down, picked up a tool, and drew something from their imagination, their experience, their heart, their story, their dreams, their human brains.

When you color one of those drawings, you're spending time with someone's art. You're adding your own color, your own choices, your own mood to something another person created. That's a human exchange; even if it happens quietly, on your couch, on a Tuesday evening, with Gilmore Girls streaming in the background (you know, that TV show made by... HUMANS!).

And that matters to me. Especially right now. Especially in May!

Share what you color

There's a good reason why coloring (traditional or digital) has become such a popular mindfulness tool. It simply keeps your hands busy while your mind quiets down (or in my case, it switches the inside voice conversation to being picky about color palettes and which brush to use).

But what I find even more interesting is what happens when coloring becomes something you share.

Think about it! When you finish a page you're really proud of, what's the first thing you want to do? Show someone! And that is one of the most human things there is. Every time I finish a drawing I'm really proud of, I share it with my mom (who is also Lake-obsessed, probably even more than me 🙈) and then we compare how each of us colored the same drawings, talk about what we like about the other one's choices, and what could be improved. Sounds silly, but it's a nice way of bonding.

That's why one of the things I genuinely believe is that sharing your colored pages with a friend, partner, family member, etc., even just sending a photo in a message, is a tiny but real act of connection. You're showing them something you made (or at least colored!). And it also makes me happy when someone shows what and how they colored something! 👏That's 👏 a 👏connection!

So if there's one small thing I'd encourage you to do this season, it's this: color something, and send it to someone you care about. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be yours.