You see, the lady loves to dance.

As she approached 80, she still went ballroom dancing many evenings during the week. So when her children asked her where she wanted to celebrate her 80th birthday, she immediately told us - the Savannah Moon, the same ballroom where we celebrated her 75th birthday. For an avid dancer and active person, it had to be so. The only difference five years later was that guests were asked to dress in ruby red - the official color for 80th anniversary celebrations. And so we planned for, and held, a birthday party - a party long on food, short on speeches and full of dancing.

If dancing is the secret to a long and healthy life, then perhaps we should all learn to dance many nights away. I remember that at our son's wedding reception last year, guests marveled as she led the dance floor in a line dance set to a fast-tempo Latin beat. People much younger could barely keep up with her. It was one of the highlights of that evening. In return, for her birthday party, my son serenaded her with a classic Filipino ballad.

We were only too happy to indulge her love of dancing and life in general. I, in particular, was happy to join her celebration. As my mother-in-law and as my surrogate mother after my own mother died at an early age, she had shown me many acts of kindness. I was equally glad that our children and our daughter-in-law were able to join us on this trip to the Philippines. We all learned from her the way to a long and happy life, surrounded by family and friends all dancing to her beat.

"I cut myself off from the world," said a schoolteacher, in August. "I find myself in a bubble."

They're not talking about cigarettes or wine, let alone anything more illicit. Hundreds of thousands of stressed-out people across France have recently taken to an unlikely means of relaxation: coloring books for adults. The books first came into vogue in 2012, when the publisher Hachette released Art-Thérapie: 100 Coloriages Anti-Stress, a collection of mandala-like designs that promised adults "relaxation support." It was such a success that Hachette launched a series, which has since sold nearly 2 million copies.

Offerings from other publishers include Jardin Secret, a collection of intricate floral patterns, and Inspiration Bollywood, a book of paisleys. Yves Saint Laurent has released a coloring book, as has Hermès, which for $160 offers 12 pages of designs, including a fox dressed as a courtier and a fez-adorned fish sporting traditional Turkish garb.

Many coloring converts have hailed the books as a way to take their minds off workaday concerns. One run-down student blogged last September that she'd turned to coloring for relief from tension headaches and eczema. Another woman told a reporter that coloring allowed her to mentally escape "the hubbub of my open-plan office"-it had even replaced her smoking breaks, she added.

Research suggests there might be something to the idea of coloring as a means of stress relief. A 2012 study in the journal Art Therapy found that art activities such as coloring mandalas significantly reduced anxiety. And if any country could use some help reducing anxiety, it's arguably France: The French are by some measures among the most depressed and stressed-out people in the world. In 2009, a rash of workplace suicides led the government to ask companies to hold "stress negotiations" with their employees. A 2011 study sponsored by the World Health Organization found that France had a higher lifetime rate of major depression than did any of the 17 other countries surveyed.

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