COLOR THERAPY Change the color and change your mood

Which Color Do You Associate With... Happy? Pure? Good luck? Good tasting? Dignity? High Technology? Sexiness? Mourning? Expensive? Inexpensive? Powerful? Dependable? High quality? Nausea? Deity in your culture? Bad luck? What is your favorite color? What is your least favorite color?

History of Color Therapy Ancient Egyptians and Greeks built the first temples based on light and color. Use of color became prominent in Chinese and Indian medicine U.S. interest in color therapy became prominent in the late 1800s and was developed in 1878 by Dr. Edwin Babbitt

What Is Color? In 1666, Sir Isaac Newton discovered that when pure white light is passed through a prism, it separates into all of the visible colors He found that each color is comprised of a single wavelength and cannot be separated any further into other colors

COLORS The human eye can see 7,000,000 colors Color can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions Certain colors can be eye irritants, cause headaches and wreak havoc with human vision Other color combinations can be soothing

What is Color Therapy? The use of lights and colors to treat physical and mental ailments Wavelengths of light stimulate different hormones in the body Hormones affect certain physiological processes in the body Blind people can feel the effects of color therapy Unborn babies can detect changes in light

Color Therapy Session Begins and ends with the color white The use of color to increase energy, to calm you down or to balance your body

BLUE Blue is a depressant, can help reduce nervousness, soothe illnesses, treat pain Blue can relax, calm, tranquil, refresh and cool Lowers pulse rate and body temperature Described as favorite color by lots of people and most preferred by men Can also create feelings of sadness or aloofness People are more productive in blue rooms Weight lifters can lift more weight in blue gyms

BLUE Blue is an appetite suppressant Weight loss plans suggest putting food on a blue plate, painting your kitchen blue or putting a blue light in your refrigerator Except for blueberries, nature does not create blue foods Our ancestors avoided blue, purple and black foods because they were potentially lethal

RED Empowers, stimulates, dramatizes, competes Symbolizes feelings of intimacy and passion Associated with anger, heat, fire, the sun Red means stop or caution In all cultures, red has the fastest and most powerful effect on human emotions Used as a stimulant: raise the heart rate, blood pressure, and produce energy

GREEN Green represents fertility, renewal, spring, nature, good luck, jealousy Green is a sacred color to Egyptians and Muslims Green is the most restful color for the human eye Green has healing power, it can soothe pain - many hospitals use green Calming color - often used in schools and workplaces Green found to increase reading ability

GREEN Suicides dropped 34% when London’s Blackfriar Bridge was painted green Teething infants may calm down when placed in a green environment Green dilates capillaries and can make you feel warm If you’re exhausted, take a bath in a green bathroom It encourages emotional growth

Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride by Jan Van Eyck, 1434 In this painting, the green wedding dress symbolizes the bride’s fertility The bride is imitating pregnancy to indicate her willingness to have children

YELLOW More light is reflected by bright colors which causes excessive stimulation of the eyes Bright lemon yellow is the most irritating and fatiguing color to the eye Yellow is the most visible and cheerful color Yellow is the first color the human eye sees Used to get attention, ex. yield signs, crosswalk signs, yellow highlighters, yellow legal pads Yellow is the symbol of deity in many global religions

YELLOW Can also create feelings of frustration and anger People are more likely to lose their tempers in yellow rooms Babies cry more often in yellow rooms Can increase metabolism

Orange Increases energy levels Used to heal the lungs Cheers you up, create excitement Friendly, welcoming, enthusiasm Commanding color Stimulates appetite, conversation with others Makes you feel charitable

Purple Comforts and spiritualizes Creates feelings of mystery Draws out intuition, wisdom Color of royalty and wealth A study shows that people spend more money in stores that have purple in the store Thought to alleviate skin problems

BROWN Evokes a sense of strength and reliability Can create feelings of sadness and isolation Brings to mind feelings of warmth, comfort and security Natural, down-to-earth

BLACK & WHITE In many Asian countries, the color of mourning is white In China, white is inappropriate for a wedding gown In India, most brides wear white with a touch of some other color If an Indian woman wears pure white, she is inviting widowhood and unhappiness

BLACK Black reflects no color Black can increase sense of strength, fear, paranoia, claustrophobia and suspicion Black is a powerful color, projects authority ex. tuxedos, corporate buildings, formal documents

WHITE Represents purity and innocence Creates sense of space Reflects all other colors Used to begin and end a color therapy session Hospital workers wear white to create sense of sterility

PINK Soothing Calming Lessens aggression, anger Increases feelings of hope Pink jail cells Pink locker rooms

Buffalo Police Take Colorful Approach to Inmate Control AP: Buffalo, NY June 11, 1997 The Buffalo police department painted jail cells Pepto-Bismol-pencil-eraser pink The American Institute for Biosocial Research said, “Several inmates placed in a pink holding cell showed no aggressive behavior... research indicates the pink can cool aggression.” The research also said several young inmates were reduced to tears inside soothing pink walls

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RED A company markets red contact lenses for chickens The company claims chickens that wear the contact lenses are happier, eat less food, and lay more eggs The theory is that chickens are seeing a blue after-image so they lose their appetite