Since you were little, you’ve been asked, “what is your favorite color?” Each of us naturally resonates with certain colors. You know that certain colors make you happy, while others agitate you. Some make you feel energized, others calm, and others sleepy. Some inspire, some irritate – and they can all change your mood! You’ve experienced this, even if you were not consciously aware of this happening. Colors can change your mood from happy to bad to worse, or the other way around. It’s the shift from bad to better that is essential to healing.
COLOR IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL
Modern science has confirmed what ancient healers have always known – that the mind is the most powerful healing instrument of all; and since the mind is influenced by color, and since the mind/body connection is essential to healing, consider lifting your mood (and speeding up healing) by choosing healing colors. Colors are said to affect the flow of energy. Some are energizing, some calming, some cooling and some warming. But their greatest impact is on the most powerful healing instrument – the mind.
People suffering from trauma, chronic illness or serious diseases can easily sink into depression. Fear, anger, resentment, guilt, worry, sadness and other emotions are highly destructive. If their dominant thoughts are negative, their healing will be delayed or even prevented. Since what you think about comes about… it’s important to elevate those thoughts to a dominantly happy, optimistic level. Stress also has to be relieved, since it too is detrimental to healing.
Color therapy is one way to achieve this. Even though we talk about people feeling “blue,” certain shades of blue are actually very uplifting and calming. The color blue is associated with peace, tranquility, the sky, water and the ocean.
Which shade of blue should you use, you might ask? That’s entirely up to you (or the patient, if it’s not you). It’s very personal. Color perception is individual, as is the emotional response to colors. Color is a language of the soul. Some people love the lighter blues in blue jeans or a newborn baby’s eyes but dislike teal and royal blue, while others love the bolder, darker shades.
There is no such thing as the perfect healing color. Although certain colors are typically associated with certain areas of the body and physical/mental attributes, if a color does not please you, don’t use it just because you think you should. Follow your intuition when choosing a healing color.
The only rule is – does it make you happy?
Does it make you smile? If you have an aversion, take are to remove it from the healing environment.
In general, these guidelines may help you choose. Both the areas of the body and the color’s associations are listed:
- Pink: Heals grief and sadness. Youthfulness, femininity, gentleness.
- Red: Heart, circulation, blood. Fire, love, anger, passion, energy, heroism, courage.
- Orange: Immunity, sexual potency, chest, digestive system, kidney. Warmth, happiness. Uplifting, balancing, energizing, intense.
- Yellow: Mental clarity, intellect, ageing, spleen. Sun, happiness, good mood.
- Green: General healing color; liver. Nature, youth, alchemy, creative intelligence, healing, tranquility, serenity, peace.
- Blue: Fevers, kidneys. Soothing, harmonious, serene, cooling, calming, rejuvenating.
- Turquoise: Tones the system. Intuition, insights
- Purple: Emotional problems, rheumatism, pain, epilepsy, bone ailments. Nobility/royalty.
- White: Lungs. Purity, cleanliness, consciousness, health, spiritual transformation, peace.
- Brown: Emotional problems. Earth. Calming, comforting, welcoming, reminiscent of hearth and home.
- Black: Not used for healing because of its strong association with death, grief, sadness, misuse of power and negative psychic energy.
- Gray: Also not used for healing because of its association with extreme old age, sadness, depression and death.
So do you have to redecorate your recovery room or home, or wear certain colors? No. You can use the Silva Method techniques to visualize the colors you intuitively feel are most beneficial to your healing – visualize them permeating your body, concentrating on the afflicted areas. Feel the colors work on the problem. For example, feel your circulation improve as the color red saturates your heart; or feel your fevers cool with blue and your chills warm up with yellow.
Color therapy engages the mind in the healing process by eliciting positive emotions. Using healing colors for healing doesn’t require any special skills or mental mastery, only knowing which colors please the patient (or you, if you’re the patient), and using those pleasing colors to stimulate a positive emotion in the brain.
You can also use other Silva Method exercises to manage pain, visualize yourself in perfect health, improve your sleep so your body can do its self-healing, and manage your stress. When you use these in conjunction with color therapy and your preferred primary treatment protocol (conventional, holistic or alternative medicine), your healing will be greatly accelerated.
You are activating the incredible healing power of your mind when you use color therapy. Remember, use whatever color resonates with you – don’t be stuck on the guidelines, just do whatever makes you happy!
