You open the wardrobe doors and it starts: The blue two-piece? No. The yellow dress? No. The green smock? Yes!
Why the green smock? Okay, you’ve not worn it for a while, but neither have you worn the blue two-piece or the yellow dress. Is it just chance that you’ve picked it that day, or, is there more to it than that? Of course, there is, some thought must have gone into it. So, what has driven that thought?
Colour – There’s more to it than meets the eye. You don’t just see it; it seems you can also feel it. “green with envy”, feeling blue” or “red with rage”; everyday expressions about your, and everybody else’s mood and state of mind. These are well known and well used phrases, so wouldn’t it be good to really understand them, and why colours are involved. It would, at least, help you understand why you picked the green smock.
Let’s be clear you can’t live without colour, or light which is its basis. To be technical for a moment light is energy, or to be formal electromagnetic radiation. It comes in waves just like sound, and the sea for that matter. So, it has frequency and vibration. That frequency and vibration is absorbed by your body. Different types of light are distinguished by different frequencies and these are interpreted by different parts of the body. The range of visible light frequencies are interpreted by your eyes as colours. On the other hand, the frequency of non-visible ultraviolet light is absorbed by your skin, and the effect is your suntan.
Your body, and mind, react to frequency and vibration. Think of yourself on holiday, a nice warm Mediterranean beach, and you go into the sea to cool down. The frequency of the waves is few and far between. You just bob up and down, nice and relaxed. Then the wind picks up and the frequency of the waves change. They come in rapid and fierce succession. You’re being buffeted around; you’re stressed and uptight. A change in frequency has changed your mood. The next day you’re back on the beach. Not venturing into the sea this time but sitting on a lounger soaking up the sun listening to a local radio station playing soulful music, such a relaxing and soothing sound. Then the programme changes, now its sharp rock and roll music and it grates on you and puts you on edge. A change in frequency has changed your mood.
Colours have different frequencies and vibrations, so it follows that a change in these not only produces the different colours but can affect your mood.
Colour has fascinated mankind throughout the ages. From the empires of the Egyptians, Aztecs and Incas to the scientists and philosophers of ancient Greece. Long before modern science can now explain colour and light in terms of empirical measurements man has known that colour was meaningful to us. It went beyond being explained by any science. Colour gave us life. The seasons changed with colour. Our bodies changed by the influence of colour. Then how could something so all-encompassing not have an effect on how you think. What was true for the ancients is still true for us today. Time has passed, empires and civilisations have crumbled but colour remains. Just as the ancient Egyptians and Greeks absorbed the frequency and vibration of each and every colour, so we do today. The knowledge and understanding, acquired through the ages, of colour and how it affects us is still with us.
That knowledge is used in your everyday life, but maybe you don’t realise it. Research has been done to show the effect of different colours in different contexts and situations. The outcome of this research show how we are conditioned to give a predicted or required response. The results are then used, without you knowing why, to prepare you, to purchase a particular product.
Don’t be put off by this. You, like all thinking beings, have a mind that is complex. It can lead you to make logical and rational decisions, then do things that you feel you have to do, and also make decisions or carry out some action for which you have no explanation for. Conditioning is just one aspect of these processes. You could say that it helps you set out a model, template or baseline from which your actions and decisions are developed in everyday life.
Just as the language of words are heard and interpreted, or taken in from the written page, that language has a recurrent rhythmical beat, not unlike a frequency, that influences how you understand it in your mind and then act. So, in that same regard, colour with its rhythms and frequencies, has its own language. A language that you may not be fluent in, but a language nevertheless that translates into your thoughts, feelings and actions.
You choose your words when you speak, and that choice can vary from day to day and from situation to situation. Also, it will be influenced by your state of mind. Language and words spoken to you will impact on your feelings and mood. The language of colour is no different. You could say that you pick and choose your colours based on the situation and your mood. The same when you receive the language of colour.
Individual colours, like individual words, can be ascribed what would be the equivalent of a meaning. The understanding of these meanings gives you the language of colour. As you see all visible colours so each of their meanings are reflected within you. You have the language of colour.
This colour language can be expressed through your mood and your feelings. The choice, and use, of particular colours can then bring about that expression.
USING COLOUR FOR HEALING & RELAXATION
Our mind and or thoughts are powerful tools which we can use to create visions of what we want and how we want to feel in life.
If you’re anxious, stressed, in need of peace use the cooling, calming blue, indigo or violet in your clothes, décor and visualisation. To empower, energise, motivate and feel confident, veer towards the warm colours of red, orange and yellow which will also inspire and move you towards your goals. Matters of the heart, claustrophobic feelings and panic attacks that require balance and equilibrium can be achieved by using, the colour green. Soothing, healing and love can be generated with pink. Visualise the gold and become aware of the knowledge and wisdom of the ancients.
Allied to this language of colour is your personnel attraction to colours and colour combinations. You may have heard the saying” red and green should never be seen except upon an Irish queen”. This association, or preference, for certain colours in tandem moves the language of colour a stage further and such choices of combinations can be made and analysed by those trained in the language of colour. This analysis can reveal things about you that you may have buried but which can still surface to blight your enjoyment of life, and unnecessarily limit your potential to develop as you should.
Developing your understanding of your colour choices and their language can go some way to explain the effects they have had on your life to show who you are. Probably more importantly that understanding can help you make effective changes to your thinking and how you use the language of colour to create a happy, successful present and so lead to a better-informed future.
In short you can use this knowledge to explain why you picked the green smock, and maybe more importantly, understand yourself and others better and improve your life.
Think Colour!
Alison Demarco offers The Language of Colour guidance and advice to realise where you could really take yourself…