NHS illustrator’s delight as nurse tells how colouring in pastime soothes stresses

After another long day at work, nurse Carol Sinclair reaches for the one thing that can help her relax and forget another fraught shift on the Covid frontline… her coloured pencils.

The senior charge nurse for the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service in Aberdeen is not alone, as NHS staff discover a passion for stress-busting colouring-in.

“The past year has been a rollercoaster,” said Carol from Ellon in Aberdeenshire. “I manage 35 staff and we’ve all had good, bad and truly rotten days. They come to me for support and I’ve been taking some of that burden home.

“Giving blood is still essential travel so we’ve been extra busy and have also been collecting convalescent plasma from donors who had coronavirus. Some of their stories are harrowing.”

Yet when Carol, 43, puts the fancy set of colouring pencils gifted to her by her husband to paper, the worries of her workday slowly melt away.

“I’ve been colouring a lot the past year because the calming strokes of the pencil help clear my mind,” she added. “It’s amazing how much calmer I feel after 15 minutes of colouring and quiet.”

Best-selling illustrator, Johanna Basford, is delighted her adult colouring books and free downloads are among those helping key workers relax.

She has sold more than 21 million books with fans describing the calming benefits of adding colour and shade to her intricate black and white designs.

When the pandemic first hit, the Aberdeenshire-based artist made her drawings free to download online.

Backing our NHS heroes? Let them know by putting a poster in your window

“It’s been overwhelming and heart-warming to hear how colouring in has made a difference to some people. I’ve had messages saying it’s helped people’s mental health and got them through some really dark days,” said Johanna, 37.

“Last April, a consultant anaesthetist in London, whose team were helping to put Covid patients on to ventilators, told me she was sharing the resources with her team from them do on their breaks or at home.

“Being in the NHS this past year must have been just incredibly difficult. Tools like colouring encourages a focus on self-care and put a full-stop on the end of a busy day, giving them a little time to recoup.”

Research has found that colouring can actually relax the fear centre of our brains, called the amygdala, which activates when we are stressed or scared. The creative pastime also promotes mindfulness, as it can take your away from your troubles and into the present, as you enter what psychologists refer to as “the flow”.

While stuck indoors over the first lockdown, Johanna took time out to dream up new “inkscapes”, populated with tree-top castles, floating islands, fairytale villages and underwater palaces and sprinkled with the artist’s beloved botanical themes.

These intricately hand-drawn illustrations created in the attic studio of her home in Auchnagatt, near Ellon, are abundant throughout her ninth book, World of Wonders, which is published on April 1.

“Usually my books are about nature but this was a response to being stuck at home. It’s more of a journey that takes you to all these different wondrous realms, and there’s a bit more architecture,” said Johanna.

“The idea is that, after a year mostly spent indoors, you can jump into this book and journey to all these wondrous places.”

Spending more time with her young daughters, Evie, 6, and Mia, 4, influenced Johanna’s latest work.

“The past year forced us to have an Enid Blyton summer. We spent a lot of time outdoors with the girls, playing in the woods and pottering around in the garden, and that sparked ideas for the book and got me into a playful frame of mind,” she added.“Drawing has always been my happy place. Taking a short pause from doom-scrolling, home-schooling and screen fatigue to relax and pause is so important and colouring offers that, like an idyllic island in a sea of chaos.”

Worlds Of Wonder by Johanna Basford, published by Virgin Books