If you’re choosing what to wear, your bedroom colors, or even your lucky charm, it’s useful to be knowledgeable about colors and how they affect your mood. Believe it or not, colors make a huge impact on your and others’ emotions. If you want to paint your office a nice color that will evoke productivity, you wouldn’t want to choose a color that’s too intense or a color that makes you want to drink hot chocolate and sleep next to the fire! Keep reading to learn about a few colors and how they affect your mood.
When learning about colors and how they affect your mood, it’s important to stop and visualize putting these theories to the test. Let’s start with blue. Close your eyes and think of the color blue. No really… close your eyes! Now that you’ve done that, what emotions did you feel? I can bet you felt calm and relaxed! According to psychological research, blue creates feelings of tranquility, calmness, and coolness. Makes you want to hit the beach, doesn’t it?
When I think of the color yellow, I think of brightness, energy, happiness, joyfulness and uplifting spirits! You don’t have to like the color to feel a few of these feelings when you’re around it! Researchers say that many people with a yellow accent wall in their offices are productive because of the feelings of clear thinking and happiness that come with the color yellow. No wonder smiley faces are always yellow!
This fiery color is associated with energy, passion, love, strength, desire, and intensity. I conducted an experiment in my psychology lab in which we had people rate the attractiveness of individuals wearing blue shirts and red shirts. Can you guess which people were rated most attractive? Yep! The people with the red shirts! It’s a fact that when humans see the color red, their hearts beat faster, and their minds translate that physiological response into emotions of intensity and/or passion, which makes them perceive people who wear red to be more attractive! So you know what to wear when you’re trying to snag your next date!
Because orange is a mixture of red and yellow, it’s not surprising that it also evokes a mixture of the emotions that are evoked with both red and yellow! Orange represents happiness, creativity, attraction, warmth, encouragement, and exuberance! Though not as intense as the color red, orange has an amazing effect on our bodies and our mood. When orange is in sight, our brains receive more oxygen, stimulating mental activity. When you have orange around, the feeling of confidence is around as well!
Green represents fertility, growth, freshness, life, balance, and harmony. Green is easy on the eyes and evokes feelings of stability and endurance. Did you know that looking at the color green frequently could actually improve vision? If you wear glasses, I don’t think you’ll get back to 20/20 vision, but who knows! It could happen! Try it and let me know how it works out!
My favorite color! Pink represents health, femininity, compassion, playfulness, romance, and friendship. It evokes feelings of sensitivity and love. Many of my friend’s don’t like pink, but they can’t deny the tranquility they feel when they walk into my semi-pink office! Did you know that the color pink was placed in many hospitals, prisons, and health care facilities to help dissolve anger and encourage the feelings of calmness and love? Cool, isn’t it? That’s why I love pink!
Purple represents royalty, nobility, luxury, mystery, and dignity! When I think of luxury and elegance, purple always comes to mind. Image going to a royal ball with beautiful, mysterious people all around; there’s classical music playing in the ballroom with cathedral ceilings. What are you wearing? A deep purple floor length dress? I knew it!
Colors have moods associated with them, so the next time you have to choose a color for decoration or clothing, think about the effect it has on mood. Pick one of the colors above; tell us what emotions you feel when you think of it! Don’t be shy!