By: Lara Endreszl Published: Sunday, 29 March 2009
Everyone knows the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” that was almost left out of the final cut of the classic movie The Wizard of Oz, but the powerful message that the song conveys is one that sticks with the viewer and can promote wonderment and an incredible longing for something else, something better than what you have. The end message from the movie, however, is that when you finally get what you want, you realize you had it all from the start.
Everyone knows the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” that was almost left out of the final cut of the classic movie The Wizard of Oz, but the powerful message that the song conveys is one that sticks with the viewer and can promote wonderment and an incredible longing for something else, something better than what you have. The end message from the movie, however, is that when you finally get what you want, you realize you had it all from the start.
The rainbow is a general symbol of hope and in ancient mythology a spiritual pathway between earth and the heavens. When scientist Sir Isaac Newton discovered in 1666 that white light breaks into a specific wavelengths of color when directed through a prism, the explanation of the rainbow was born. Readers of HealthNews might have already read about the idea of color as an influential part of their lives, but to go further in-depth, color therapy has been changing people’s moods for thousands of years.When Newton realized that every color cannot be split again into any other colors, the acronym ROYGBIV was created to help people remember the seven unchangeable colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Although other colors such as pink, orange, or brown can be made by mixing two of the seven, the wavelengths themselves cannot be altered. What can be altered, however, is your behavior in or around certain colors.The holistic belief dating back centuries from countries such as India, China, and Egypt, is that each separate color wavelength corresponds with a certain energy which can be positive or negative.
Each of the seven colors matches up to the seven main energies of the body, also known as chakras. Since complementary and alternative medicine is all about balance between the energy of the body and the earth as well as the spiritual world, the chakras must all be lined up in order for health to be optimum inside the body. If each color is assigned a different region of the body, naturally color therapy would help to stimulate the chakras to align and recreate harmony.
For example, here are some of the primary “rainbow” colors, followed by their main focus physically and psychologically, as well as a few symptoms or conditions it may help:
RED – life strength, stimulation, sexuality; red represents the fire of passion as well as anger as well as the circulation of the blood; red can be irritating or exciting or powerful; anemia, pneumonia, and paralysis can all be treated with red.
GREEN – balance, calm, progress; green is soothing and reflects natural growth and healing and can be both beneficial and tiring; green enlightens friendships and peace and hope as well as love and can also be an aphrodisiac; green is also the color of inexperience and youth and represents envy and jealousy; green can treat colds, asthma, malaria, and ulcers.
BLUE – communication, willpower, peace, and faith; blue can stimulate metabolism, slow the heart, and be used as an antiseptic; blue like water is cooling and emotionally calming and therefore helpful in meditation as well as conflict mediation and relaxing the mind; blue quiets the rest of the other energies in the body in order to treat epilepsy, glaucoma, headache, and various throat troubles as it is specifically associated with the throat chakra.
The best way to incorporate color into your life as part of color therapy is to surround yourself with nice things that you associate with positive thoughts or memories or bright colors that can brighten your day. For example, use softer lights in your home instead of fluorescent, use colored lights in certain parts of your house or colored lampshade, use paint to spruce up your walls, and always remember that natural colors are the best for keeping a calm energy flow throughout the space.
If you rent your place and cannot use paint, wallpaper, or install different light fixtures, focus instead on decorative items like pillows, bedding, curtains, or your closet.
Whether it’s a lava lamp, mood lighting, a black light, the color of your shower curtain or wall paint, the colors of the things we surround ourselves with matters because it conveys the mood we are in when purchasing or the mood that we want to be in upon seeing/wearing/using that object.
Color therapy may seem like a bogus, out-of-left-field holistic idea, but take a look at your wardrobe, your friend’s house, or your favorite restaurant and note people’s moods and behaviors; you may just be surprised at what you notice.
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