Color-up your life

Let’s get some color into our lives and bring us a smile.

It’s enough to see the immediate smile that comes to our faces once a colorful bouquet of flowers welcomes us as we enter a room in order to understand the definite effect that color has on us, whether consciously or sub-consciously.
Who doesn’t love looking at the rainbow that appears in the sky after the rain. People stop to look at this colorful phenomenon which completely colors-up the gray wintry sky.

Colors surround us, everywhere we go and whatever we do, whether it’s at the office, at our home or outside. Each place we stay at withholds a myriad of colors; the walls, the furniture, the objects, the clothes, the make-up and even the food we eat. Moreover, skin color (dark, light) or hair color (which we vary according to our mood or heart’s desire), everything has a color and a shape that is more/less appealing to us.

Advertising, like media advertising on TV or on the internet uses how color affects the way we think and act a lot, in order to make us buy a certain thing, do something or avoid doing something else. Meaning, color has an emotional effect on us, and certain colors can either encourage or prevent us from doing something. Of course, some of our reaction to colors is completely sub-conscious, which supports the idea that the brain itself responds to colors as well.

We also use colors to express our feelings with phrases like “I’m green with envy”, “I’m seeing red” for anger, “I’m feeling blue” when you’re down, “black heart” to describe people who are mean or heartless etc. All these examples are enough to demonstrate in an unequivocal way that colors do hold a certain meaning in our lives.

Let’s take, for example, the color red
Sheril Kirshenbaum in her book, “The science of kissing”, brings up psychological findings that show that by merely looking at the color red our heart rate goes up and our pulse gets accelerated, therefore causing us to feel excited or breathless.

As it turns out the color red works on our brain both biologically and culturally. In many human cultures around the globe red color represented a tradition of demonstration of power and wealth. In ancient China, Japan and Africa it was used to demonstrate one’s properties and social status. In ancient Rome the most powerful citizens were called “those in red”. Even today, businessmen wear a red tie in order to demonstrate confidence, while the celebrities at the Oscars or other ceremonies walk on the red carpet.

The anthropologist Brent Berlin and the professor of linguistics Paul Kay have studied in 1969 twenty languages and determined that the two first colors to be named were the color black and the color white (which are apparently the most important ones since they help determine the day and the night), the color red was the third.

Men and women alike respond to the color red in each other. In both cases the man or woman wearing a red piece of clothing will be considered more desirable than those around him/her wearing other colors.

The ancient Egyptians had much knowledge on the power and influence of color; in their grand temples, like The karnak Temple, there were halls of color, where they conducted researches and trials on the usage of color as a healing method.

Those of us who work with Chakras (energy channels in the body), in the Indian, Chinese and Japanese teachings, know that each energy channel is represented by a color and that that color is supposed to bring balance to a physical place in the body in case of a disease or some kind of imbalance (the colors range from gold/silver, purple, blue, pink/green, yellow, orange and red/black).

Color by its most simple definition is the quality of light at different wavelengths. Each color has a different wavelength which separates it from the other colors and allows the eye and the brain to translate that wavelength into the color it represents.

When I treat people I definitely also integrate colors
Let’s take migraine for example, It consists of sharp and unbearable pains that have many origins and variety. If we define pain as something warm (pain expresses itself by accelerating the flow of blood to the area and physically warming it up) and the person with the migraine wore a red shirt that day (considering that red is a warm color), do you think that the pain that person felt grew? And if we take something blue (which is considered a calming cold color) and place it over the painful area..will the pain get better?
Admit it! Even logically there’s a great chance it will, right?!
Now let’s imagine we woke up on the wrong side, with no mood or desire to do anything, what will improve our mood more? The colors black and gray? Or yellow, pink, green, orange etc.?
Let’s think what will make us feel more optimistic that day? Wearing something colorful or something gray/black?
Or if for example we have to go to an important meeting, what will inspire more credibility and transmit strength? A black and white suit or a colorful one? Black and white of course! And if we add a bit of red to it we are all set to exude confidence and proudly represent ourselves at the meeting.

And what would happen if a woman undergoing insemination or fertilization (or any kind of process whose role is to cause pregnancy) were to sleep in colorful bedding or put on some colored underwear that stimulate implantation (green, pink, orange)? After all, no one can see what’s under the clothes, and the color does its job anyway and encourages the body to help itself.

Think about it, if color affects us so significantly, until there’s literally no area in our lives in which we’re not exposed to it, why not utilize it to our advantage consciously?
Let’s put the color blue where and when it hurts or when we just need some peace and quiet.
The colors green and pink to make it easier when we’re very hurt emotionally by something or when we’re sick.
The colors red, yellow or orange when we’re not well, to help the body in the healing process or in processes of change and moving forward.
The color purple when we want to think and plan correctly.
The colors black, white and a bit of red when we want to demonstrate strength and confidence.
And even all the colors together when we’re just looking for happiness.

After all, it can only help...so why not try?!