Diantha Harris
Diantha Harris, color therapist and author of Simply…Color. She lectures and teaches about color, feng shui and the healing use of color. www.lifepotentials.net.
What’s your favorite color? It’s a question we all have very strong opinions about because colors are powerful in many ways—for changing mood, expressing emotions, even influencing action. While somewhat controversial, a whole world of modern color research has evolved to help marketers and others use color in productive ways.
One of the most recent pieces of research is from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, that assessed how a red or blue background color on computer screens affected the work of 600 students. When the background was red, students responded with greater recall and attention to detail. When it was blue, they became more creative. According to color therapist Jill Morton of Colorcom in Honolulu, Hawaii, a possible explanation lies in the different wavelengths of the colors, causing people to perceive red objects as moving toward us and blue ones as moving away. She speculates that one reason for the finding was that students may have focused more on close detail work simply to get relief from the aggressiveness of the red background…but of course, it’s hard to know for sure.
While modern scientists continue to debate the whys and wherefores of colors, there’s much that can be learned from ancient healing therapies, where colors have revered and established roles.
In the Ayurvedic tradition, it is believed that there are seven energy centers—the chakras—that run from the base of the spine to the top of the head. Each chakra is associated with a specific color as well as emotions and parts of the body…and also with a specific element which in turn carries a certain vibrational frequency that correlates to the visible light spectrum. For example, the Muladhara or Root Chakra (red) is governed by the earth element—red has the slowest frequency of the visual light spectrum and earth has the slowest frequency of the elements.
Diantha Harris, color therapist and author of Simply…Color, told me that color can be used to address challenges on the physical, emotional, mental or spiritual level. The individual chakras can be balanced with color to help particular issues. There are two ways to do this—you can enhance a quality by adding a color…for example, more yellow in your day may bring an increased sense of personal power (represented in the third or solar plexus chakra). You could alternatively use a dose of color to offset a problem. If you are struggling with feelings of envy, you can regain balance by adding its complementary color (red) to your environment. Harris suggests some ways to increase the presence of a chakra color in your life: bringing flowers into your home…adding foods of that color to your diet…wearing it (in socks or underclothes if it isn’t one you like)…or using sheets, towels or blankets of the color.
Briefly, chakras, their colors and associations are as follows:
The colors you need at a given time will shift according to events in your life. There are a number of books and Web sites that have information on color and how to incorporate its healing influence. In addition, you can meet with a color therapist to work on using color to improve your life. Sessions generally cost in the $75 to $100 range and you can find a list of holistic healers including those practicing color therapy at http://www.byregion.net/).