Lincoln Daily News 2026-27 Health & Wellness Magazine Pg.27 nothing really to do.” She wrote that they tried to take him to bingo, ice cream, and errands, but those activities did not fill the entirety of the day. Several months back, a family friend introduced the idea of coloring to Davis as an activity to help keep him active. He was initially dismissive of this idea, saying that he “threw it back in their face.” He thought that he would not be able to do it and wrote it off. After considering it, Davis decided to give it a try, and has been on a roll since. In the past two and a half months or so, Davis has completed over 70 pictures, hanging each one on the wall of his room. Pickett even stated that they had to rearrange his room to get all of the pictures put up. Davis says that, when he gets started, he does not think, he just colors. He picks a color at random to start with, and then matches the rest of the drawing to that initial color. That leads to some unique color choices, like birds that are mostly orange and yellow, or flowers sporting both warm and cold colors on their petals. Davis says that coloring is something that has helped him pass the time. It’s “something to do. Something to keep you busy.” It’s more than that, though. Davis showed that he has been able to stretch out his fingers more than he used to. Before, Davis said, they curled back some, but now they can almost completely extend again. He said that it has helped improve his outlook. Pickett has noticed the impact it has had on her father. She shared that there have been times that Davis’ nurses have come in to give him medicine or dinner. In some instances, those where Davis is “furiously” working on his coloring, he has informed the nurses that he is too busy. “He gives us beautiful things to look at,” Pickett said. “It’s food for the soul.” The journal Nature Medicine published a study on the association between elders having hobbies and positive outcomes in their lives. The study looked at people from sixteen countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. What the researchers found is that, for people aged 65 and older, engaging in hobbies kept them from showing symptoms of depression. It also had a positive impact on their selfreported health, their happiness, and their life satisfaction. It seems that the science is in Davis’s favor and he is definitely on to something. Hobbies do not have to be coloring. They can be reading, knitting, or anything else that engages
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