Color Therapy for Day-to-Day Healing + Wellness in your Life (HEALING 101)
color therapy
for Day-to-Day Healing + Wellness in your Life
what’s your favorite color?
If you had asked me this question as a kid, I probably would have said passionately and certainly “blue!”, without a moment’s thought. Now, this common, seemingly simple question is something I can’t quite answer anymore. Over the past few years, as I’ve learned more and more about the colors I see in the world around me, I’ve come to realise that I love nearly every one of them, that each is special to me for a different reason.
What I used to see as “purple”, I am now seeing as lavender, as a guide towards a calm and quiet place in my spirit. As indigo, a color of intuitive and mental clarity. As lilac, ceil, and mauve, colors for comfort, protection, and creativity. A word like “blue” represents a collection of hues, different shades, each carrying a distinct personality and offering something special to my life – do you mean clear-ocean-water blue, cloudy-sky-after-rain blue, cotton-candy-blue, or something else?
The thing is, while most of us already have a meaningful relationship with color, we don’t usually pause to think more deeply about what we’re seeing and how we connect to it.
Color is all around us, in every moment, though most of us move through each day without thinking much of it. However, even when we’re not actively reflecting on its effects, color has a tangible influence on our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health – yes, color influences your physical wellness, too!
Want to explore a more personal relationship with color and access the support, nourishment, and guidance it can offer? Here are 3 ways that color therapy – and just developing a greater sensitivity to color, in general – can nurture healing and wellness in your life.
1. eat your colors!
One of the very first places we build a relationship with color is in what we eat – and fortunately, plants provide an incredible diversity of supportive, nutritious colors we can choose from!
What foods do you find yourself most often drawn to, and what physical or emotional things are going on in your health?
Foods with red tones – peppers, raspberries, cherries, pomegranates, beets – tend to interact most with our vital force, with our most fundamental bodily systems, helping blood flow and keeping our energy up and supported while also grounded. Foods of a purple or blue nature – blueberries, grapes, eggplant, red cabbages, blackberries – tend to calm, bring energies down, and help them settle into the body.
Having an abundance of yellows in your diet might help bring your mood and creativity up, but it can also overwhelm your immune system and set you up for respiratory sickness – you might then find yourself reaching for orange juice (even though it isn’t the most efficient source of vitamin C) or grapefruit for the fact that intense orange tones have a releasing, cleansing property that can help to clear congestion and infection. Everything that enters your body moves some form of energy and contributes to your overall condition!
If you take the time to write down what you find and start taking note of patterns with others around you, you will definitely see a number of ways that that the two – the foods we choose and how we feel, more deeply – are intimately connected!
2. keep your colors close!
Similarly, practice being mindful of what colors you keep near you as you move through each day, in your home and work space. What color are the walls? The items on your desk? Any artwork in the space? Also be sure to check your closet – what kind of hues are you wearing each day in your clothing?
If you’re wearing or keeping a lot of white near, you may find yourself feeling focused, but you may also find yourself nervous more easily. Black and grey colors can be supportive if you are needing to feel more comforted, protected, and internally balanced – at the same time, they can inspire feeling disconnected and heavy, if not engaged very mindfully. Earthy browns and greens might already be supporting you without you even knowing it!
Have a project coming up? A light, saturated blue can help you feel more creative and able to communicate your ideas if you are needing support in your work space, keeping your thoughts clearer and focused.
Each of the colors in your space is already affecting you and how you navigate each day, whether you are aware of their presence or not.
Make sure to take the opportunity to reflect on what hues are around you so that you can make choices aligned with your needs and wellness each day!
3. meditate on your colors!
Working with colors isn’t limited to just the ones you can see physically around you – visualisation and meditation techniques can greatly amplify the wellness you feel!
You probably already do this in your mind whenever you hear or come across a color word, but it is also something you can actively practice. If I asked you to think of something that brought you joy or a simple bliss, what would come to mind? For me, I think of bright yellow daisies and daffodils, if it is more of a happy, childlike joy. If I think of joy more in the sense of pleasure, I see peach, or the orange tones of an ice cream bar I loved when I was younger, with the warmth of summer wrapped around the memory.
I use this technique mostly when I am feeling mentally overwhelmed or anxious and it brings me great calm and clarity; I know whatever I need, I can find it. It is also something I can share with others (kids are especially receptive), helping them bring colors that support them into a space – I suggest googling images of your colors as you are practicing visualising! I might use a soft pink to find comfort and ease a pain, visualise a deep green to help receive nourishment when eating, or bring a calm lavender into my thoughts to soothe and calm when preparing for sleep (fun fact: essential oils can make for an even deeper or more intense experience, as they carry their own color energies, as well!).
Allow these colors to sit in your mind, and see if you can get a fuller, more pure version of whatever hue you have in mind and heart.
As you practice this, you will be able to bring up colors whenever you need them. With time, practice, and a bit of curiosity – willingness to explore what feels right to you – you can craft your own set of healing and wellness remedies, all from your mind and spirit.
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AMANI MICHAEL
intuit.hue founder + guide
WANT TO EXPLORE YOUR CHAKRAS + FIND OUT WHAT COLORS ARE FLOWING IN YOUR CHAKRA BODY? BOOK A CHAKRA BALANCING OR GET THE HUES WITHIN EBOOK VIA OUR SHOP – WE’RE WITH YOU ON YOUR JOURNEY TO A FULLER YOU!