Colour Psychology
Understanding Colour
Colour is an intimate part of our lives. Our clothes are colourful and we eat colourful food. Colour has a profound effect on us on all levels - physical, mental, and emotional. We are in a world where colour dominates our lives, from reading signs on the road to identifying ripe fruit by its colour. We tend to use colour to describe our physical health, moods, and attitudes. For example, we often refer to “feeling blue”; “being green with envy”; “having a golden opportunity”; “being red or purple with rage” etc.
It is seldom that we experience a colorless existence. If we do, we experience symptoms of deprivation. For instance, inmates in prison environment who are confined to dark solitary cells usually emerge from these with certain psychological disturbances. As human beings, we need both light and darkness just as seeds need both darkness to germinate and light to grow.
Using Light and Colours
When light is broken down into different wavelengths, we experience different colours. It is like holding a prism up to the sunlight; it will display a rainbow on the opposite surface. The seven colours of the rainbow are only a fraction of the light spectrum.
Our eyes translate the energy of light into the nervous impulses, which the brain then interprets as colour. Visible light is part of a wider spectrum of energy that surrounds us and comes from the sun. Visible light is made up of colours that we know as the rainbow.
Those energies outside our conscious colour vision are not visible to us but we are still sensitive to them. Light and the constituent colours do have a strong effect on both mind and body. All physical, mental and emotional levels respond to colours whether we are conscious of them or not.
The Effects of Colours
Each colour has an individuality and its own wavelengths and vibrational frequencies. For example, blue activates the parasympathetic nervous system which results in a calming effect and is often used for hyperactive children. A lot of thought goes into the selection of shades of colours based on the intention and functionality of a room, a piece of furniture, a painting, or even clothings. So one would use blue to calm anxiety disorders but not if the particular individual is prone to depression. On the other end of the spectrum, red activates the sympathetic nervous system which results in stimulation and increased energy whereas magenta brings deeply held conflicts and emotions to the surface.
The applications and usage of colour psychology is limitless because we live in a world full of colours.
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