Most of us remember enjoying coloring as a child—working hard to fill in our favorite cartoon characters with crayons while staying in the lines and getting the color combinations just right. But ever since Johanna Basford’s book Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book hit stores in 2011, adults have been getting into the coloring game too. Trading crayons for colored pencils and fineliner pens, adults have gotten so engrossed in the plentiful books filled with flower gardens, mandalas and intricate animals that this year there was actually a global colored pencil shortage!

What makes the books so addictive? Colorists, as adult coloring devotees call themselves, report that in this age of multitasking, focusing on a singular task with a visually appealing end result can be a highly rewarding activity. Coloring for a period of time a few days a week can serve as an act of meditation, a way to cultivate calm as you focus on the physical act of filling in patterns. There are even some coloring books specifically focused on reducing anxiety, such as PCG Publishing Group’s Stress Relieving Patterns, which includes Zen meditation instructions to follow as you color.

The popularity of adult coloring seems to say something about the moment in which we’re living. Adult coloring books repeatedly appear on bestseller lists, and there are even groups where colorists gather to work on their designs as they socialize. It seems that Basford and other authors of adult coloring books have tapped in to a need to quiet the noise around us and concentrate on creating a picture that will bring us joy. This holiday season, when you find your brain short-circuiting from too much activity, take a few minutes out to color your cares away!