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Summary
On episode 258 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Erica Spiegelman, a licensed therapist and addiction counselor who wrote the book Rewired and later created the Rewired Adult Coloring Book, an adult coloring book for emotional awareness, healthy living, and recovery.
Erica argues that coloring is not just a way to pass time, it is a genuine mindfulness practice. Pairing an illustration with a value word like authenticity, vulnerability, or envy and a short passage of explanation gives the colorer something to sit with and reflect on while they work.
The conversation covers Erica’s own path out of alcohol addiction and into counseling, the 30 day gratitude exercise from her first book, the importance of setting an intention before coloring, and how the practice can double as a calming, screen free bedtime ritual.
Links
- https://ericaspiegelman.com
Key Takeaways
- Coloring is a genuine mindfulness practice. Erica explains that pen to paper work is meditative, stopping you in the moment the same way focused activities like painting, playing guitar, or running can.
- Each image in the book is paired with a value word and a short explanation. Words like authenticity, honesty, and anxious come with a paragraph so the colorer can reflect on where that emotion shows up in their own life while they color.
- Setting an intention before you color changes the experience. Erica has readers decide what they want to understand about themselves, such as where they have not been honest, before they pick up a pencil, rather than treating it as a mindless task.
- A 30 day gratitude practice builds a new mental pathway. Erica compares the brain to a forest: the more you walk the gratitude path, the more it becomes your automatic route, even in irritating moments.
- Coloring can become an effective sleep ritual. Sitting down with colored pencils away from screens and blue light before bed slows breathing and relaxation the way other wind down rituals do.
- Erica’s own recovery shaped her approach. After quitting drinking nearly ten years ago, she went back to school for addiction counseling and later opened her own outpatient center, Rewired, in Beverly Hills.
- She favors an individualized path over a single prescribed method. Erica respects traditional 12 step programs but found the negativity did not resonate with her, so she built her own recovery approach and encourages clients to find their own as well.
- Adults often lose touch with creativity in daily routine. Erica sees coloring as a simple, low pressure way to reconnect with imagination that the demands of work and family can crowd out.
“We are the author of our own lives.”
Erica Spiegelman