Colour my life

It can be the happy yellow of a sunflower, the deep purple of an aubergine, the red

of your favourite dress or the pink of a dawn. In some way colour has a way of

making us feel a certain way. Colour therapy, also known as chromotherapy, is a

form of therapy that uses colour and light to treat certain mental and physical

conditions. It can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians who used sun-filled

rooms with coloured glasses for therapeutic purposes, while Indian ayurvedic

medicine claims that the application of certain colours can correct imbalance in our

body’s chakras.

Although the practice of colour therapy is still mainly frowned upon by Western

medicine, many believe that different colours are indeed able to impact the body in

different ways.

· Red: Red is used to energise or invigorate a person who might be feeling

tired or down. If you are however already tense and stressed, it just also

be the red flag that triggers the bull.

· Blue: Chromatherapists use blue to try and influence depression and pain.

Darker shades of blue are also thought to have sedative properties and

may be tried for people who experience insomnia or other sleeping

disorders.

· Green: Green is the colour of nature, and according to chromatherapists,

it can help relieve stress and relax a person.

· Yellow: Yellow can be used to improve your mood and make you more

happy and optimistic.

· Orange: Orange, much like yellow, can be used to elicit happy emotions

from people. The bright warm colour is also thought to be able to stimulate

appetite and mental activity.



The most obvious technique of using colour therapy is through sight by letting the

person look at a particular colour in the hope that it elicits the desired response in

the body. The other is to directly reflect specific colours on certain parts of the body.

Colour therapists believe that colour can enter our bodies either through our eyes or

skin. Each colour we can see has its wavelength and unique frequency. Each unique

frequency has a different effect on people and is used for different purposes. Warm

colours are typically used for stimulating effects, while cool colours are used for

calming effects. Considered a type of alternative medicine treatment it claims to

help with a variety of conditions ranging from stress, sleep disorders, anxiety and

aggression to skin disorders. No significant evidence or research currently exists to

support that colour therapy can be used solely as an effective treatment for any of

these conditions.

Every person on the planet has a unique way of looking at and experiencing life

which means it isn’t always the case that certain colours elicit specific emotions

from people. Because human beings are unique, the effects of certain colours may

differ from person to person. For one person red may symbolise passion and love,

for another rage and anger. What you might find calming or soothing, might just be

the colour of another person’s anxiety or sadness. While colour can have an

influence on how we feel and act, experts found that these effects are subject to

personal, cultural and situational factors.