Imagine a world without color. Imagine if nature had only black and white shades in her paint brush instead of the gorgeous colors of the spectrum. There would be no glistening green grass, no brilliant blue sky, no turquoise waters. Instead, all of those would be black, white or shades of those. Life would be drab, dull, lifeless. Life without color is unimaginable.
Your Emotions
But black and white are merely about what you see. What about what you feel? How you experience something? Colors affect your emotions more than just your sight. They are the reason you feel blue some days, exuberantly orange on other days and passionately red on yet other days.
Colors are representations of your emotions. They paint your every day life with colors from the entire gamut of the spectrum.
Emotions are a domain reserved only for humans. You are distinguishable from the animal world because of your ability to experience emotion. To feel ups and downs. To laugh at something, to cry at something else, to be enthusiastic about something, to be depressed at something else.
Emotion is wired into you. Of course, it is not to the same degree that all of us are wired. Some less, some more, but it is there. You may hide it, try to avoid it but it is within you 24/7.
Your Favorite Color
Which is your favorite color? Is it passionate red, earthy brown, warm blue or calm green?
Try this
What color is your car? What shades of color are the shirts you always wear? What color is your phone and of course it's case? Why did you
choose just those colors and not others?
You may have noticed that earlier I attached adjectives to colors. Brilliant blue skies, glistening green grass and so on. They are not merely decorative, they are deep rooted in the world of color and in the universe of your emotions.
You probably like the color brown because you like earthy things. You are not for the flashy orange or the passionate red. Color preferences are linked as much to personality types as to emotion.
Color is a world without boundaries. It is a world that makes human beings human - with faults and yes emotions. Your emotions have their own colors. Research has proven an inextricable connection between colors and emotions. This is why the mere sight of a flaming red Ferrari invokes fire and passion. Or the blue and white roundel of a BMW invokes awe. These are brand cults which have successfully proven that indeed colors can kindle emotions like no other.
Colors and Your MoodsColors affect moods. Moods are one of the most common manifestations of emotion. You are in some mood or the other every waking moment of the day. Your motivations are driven by what that mood represents. Each of those moods has a color equivalent. You could say the spectrum symbolizes the entire range of your moods.
In design context, colors are known to be warm or cool. Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow, and variations of those three colors. These are the colors of fire, of fall leaves, of sunsets and sunrises, and are generally energizing, passionate, and positive.
Warm colors reflect passion, happiness, enthusiasm, and energy.
Cool colors include green, blue, and purple, are often more subdued than warm colors. They are the colors of night, of water, of nature, and are usually calming, relaxing, and somewhat reserved.
Cool colors give a sense of calm or professionalism.
At any given point of time in a day you will experience emotions representative of either warm or cool colors.
Try this right now
What is your mood right now? Which color does it represent? Is it warm or cool? Go on, find out. I promise it will be an eye opener.
Banishing the Blues
Color is not a passive element merely reflecting emotion and moods. It has the strength to alter your mood. From a "feeling low", depressed state it can elevate you into one of energy and positive thinking.
You see, color brings with it an entire mechanism of motivation. It's job is to tug at your heart strings and make you upbeat, happy, pleasant.
Colors lift your spirits and grant you a celestial dose of energy and hope. They mold mind sets.
Let me leave you with this thought.
Notice (not just see) the colors that abound in your surroundings. Feel your mood resonating with those colors.
Make color your cheer leader. Life is too precious and short to ignore this energy source.
