Yellow..your friend or foe?

Some questions for you to ponder....

Are you 'self aware'?
Do you acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses?
Do you know when people are showing you the mirror of your soul?
Can you distinguish between what is 'your stuff' and what is not?
Do you have objectivity about yourself?
Do you love your mind?
Do you have a sense of your own uniqueness?
Do you learn easily?
Can you concentrate?
Are you open to new ideas?
Are you an independent thinker?
Do you allow the laughter to bubble to the surface?
Do you really know how to be lighthearted and fun loving?
Do you often fell tight or restricted in the stomach area?
Are you nervous and fluttery...butterflies in the tummy sort of feeling?




This is one of the hardest 'colours' to fully step in to.....self esteem with out excessive ego...freedom from worries and fears...standing happily in who we are and the letting go of confusion... come on then...who's game to let their yellow shine?

Will a golden tone create a golden age?

Watching the colour trends throughout history is very revealing and says a lot about what is happening for humanity.




As an example, when we look back at times of economic depression and insecurity ,
such as the 30's and 40's we often see browns and greys featuring heavily in furnishings and fashion.






The 60's came in with a wild explosion of orange and lime...colours that relected our newfound sexuality (orange)and sense of adventure (lime). This was an era when we felt a lot more comfortable talking and openly communicating (orange) about the taboo subjects (sexuality and emotions - orange) that were kept behind zippered lips in the sedate 50's.



The 70's featured a vast array of purple tones which spoke of a time of revolution...of seeming chaos that followed on from the 60's.








The 80's saw a lot of women choosing deeper red shades (physical energy) for clothing and accessories as they asserted themselves in the traditionally male workplaces and institutions (remember the 'Dallas' style extra wide shoulder pads!!!!)


Colour trends change much more quickly now. We are able to go out and find just about any colour we want although trends are still set. We have recently seen a return to the neutral browns, greys and stone colours and guess what?..... here we are again in that place of worldwide economic uncertainty.



It was really heartening to read the press release from Pantone recently that declared the colour of the year for 2009 to be Mimosa - a striking yellow with slight golden tones.





Here is an excerpt from the press release (highlights in bold by me!)


"Pantone Selects Color of the Year for 2009: PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa

Mimosa Embodies Hopefulness and Reassurance in a Climate of Change CARLSTADT, N.J., Dec. 3, 2008 - Pantone, an X-Rite company (NASDAQ: XRIT), and the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, today announced PANTONE® 14-0848 Mimosa, a warm, engaging yellow, as the color of the year for 2009.
In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow. "The color yellow exemplifies the warmth and nurturing quality of the sun, properties we as humans are naturally drawn to for reassurance," explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®.

"Mimosa also speaks to enlightenment, as it is a hue that sparks imagination and innovation."

Best illustrated by the abundant flowers of the Mimosa tree and the sparkle of the brilliantly hued cocktail, the 2009 color of the year represents the hopeful and radiant characteristics associated with the color yellow.



Sounds good to me!

The Rainbow Road to Happiness.

Red

Live your life with passion and energy!

This road leads to an exciting life.




Orange

Examine where in life you are co-dependent…relationships, habits, beliefs, substances and work towards understanding inter-dependence and independence.

This road to leads to honest relationships.




Yellow

Learn, learn, learn! You are never too old to learn something new.
This road leads to expansion and understanding.

Green

Make decisions from the space of your heart.
This road leads to love (given and received).



Blue

Blue Be truthful in your communications.

This road leads to your highest expression.



Indigo

Trust your intuition.

This road leads to guidance you can trust.

Violet

Allow yourself to always be inspired and use your imagination!
This road leads to connection with your purpose.



Explore all these roads and they will lead you to the gift of the rainbow
and a life lived to the fullest potential!





All contributed content © Leanne Lonergan

Favourite Colour votes are in!

There was a total of 66 votes and here are the results.
Definitely not an all conclusive study but an interesting exercise no less.
Most of the votes below came from artists and crafters from Etsy.
(The color palettes you see below were put together on ColorLovers. Definitely a site that is top of my list!)













Yellow - NO VOTES

Grey - NO VOTES

White - NO VOTES

Pink - 1 VOTE

Black - 1 VOTE







Scarlet/Coral - 1 VOTE

Gold - 2 VOTES

Brown - 2 VOTES

Lime - 3 VOTES

Magenta - 3 VOTES





Red - 4 VOTES

Indigo - 4 VOTES

Orange - 5 VOTES

Turquoise - 8 VOTES

Violet - 9 VOTES






Green - 9 VOTES
and the WINNER IS...........Blue with a resounding 12 VOTES


But what does this all mean?

Our favourite colours are influenced by many things including our culture, society, family and peer groups.

Our reaction to different colours can also come from experiences that we associate with colour.

Perhaps a teacher or carer that you didn't like constantly wore a particular colour or you were forced to wear a uniform of some sort which brings unpleasant associations for you.


One story I have heard speaks of a fellows aversion to blue.


According to the story this fellow had been involved in a train crash and had been lying injured in one of the twisted and wrecked carriages for some time.

All he could see was a blue light (some sort of emergency exit light or the like) shining near him.

He became totally adverse to blue after this as his thoughts associated this colour to his experience in the train.

Sometimes we can have an intense aversion to a colour but it's logical cause is unknown to us...perhaps it comes from an early experience that has been repressed and buried.



I once had a student in one of my classes who really had a strong dislike of blue also.

After we delved into this for a while and explored the deeper symbolism of the colours, she came to understand that she preferred to be surrounded by people who were highly independant and self sufficient and that were energetic and motivated (all things that relate to a 'red' person - which was her favourite colour) and that blue represented for her the antithesis of this.



I followed a thread recently in the forums on Etsy where the majority of people commenting noted their dislike of the colour yellow.

This shows in the results of the this poll also.
Yellow is about us being in our own 'power' free from the fears that hold us back!


The following quotation is from Marianne Williamson. To be precise, it is from her 1992 book, "Return to Love" (hardcover p. 165, paperback pp. 190-191):


"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?" ....


This a perfect example of our 'yellow' fear of letting our light shine.


From most of the sources I have read the fact that the poll has shown blue to be the favourite colour does not surprise me.

Blue is constantly quoted as the worlds favourite colour. A sweeping statement I know but I can't find any evidence to the contrary.


Blue is about the nurturer and carer within us. It is also about saying 'yes' to what comes our way (good or bad).

Through blue we seek peace and calm and a certain sense of co-operation. It has connotations of reliablity and trustworthiness which I guess are traits we would all like to embrace....

Spinning wheels of colour energy…

Lying within each and every one of us are receptors and transmitters of colour. These ‘devices’ are called chakras.
There are seven main chakras and each one of these equates and responds to a different colour of the visible light spectrum and is responsible for a different function. They are the spinning ‘wheels’ or vortexes of the subtle anatomy system and in fact get their name from the ancient Sanskrit word for wheel.

The chakra system is an energy system that has been recognised by Eastern culture for many centuries and each chakra is traditionally depicted as a lotus flower with a different colour and a different amount of petals. The petals represent the vibratory rate of each chakra and correspond also to the different vibratory rate of each colour.

The seven main chakras of the human body consist of;





Base chakra – red – our connection to our physical body and life.







Sacral Chakra – orange – our emotions







Solar Plexus Chakra – yellow – our thoughts and mind function







Heart Chakra – green – our feelings and centre for love









Throat Chakra – blue – our self expression and communication






Brow (Third eye) Chakra – indigo – higher mind function








Crown Chakra - violet - our connection to our higher consciousness and inner wisdom



The chakras act in two ways – they both draw in and give out energy and act to sustain us physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Working with colour as a therapist is all about working with the chakras and the colours of the spectrum to bring vibrational balance back to the energetic system of the living being.

Every part of the body from the bones and organs right down to the smallest cells at a microscopic level has a different vibration and consequently a different colour vibration to match.
The chakras are a system that can be likened to a complex set of gears – one is dependent on the next for the system to work.

They can become dysfunctional by being overactive, under-active or blocked which in turn can lead to the manifestation of a range of physical, emotional and mental conditions.

The ideal is to catch the imbalance while it still exists at an emotional or mental level and before it manifests into the physical.

We can pick up a clue as to what colours we need at any given time by becoming aware of our colour needs, what colours are we currently attracted to and what is our reaction is to the different colours in our world.