Have you ever worn a red suit to an important meeting, painted your kitchen bright yellow, placed a jaundiced newborn under the blue bili light, or simply stopped to marvel at the beauty of the blue sky? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ve already used the applications of color therapy — the use of color to help the body balance itself.

From the Egyptians, Chinese, and Tibetans to the Native Americans and Aborigines, ancient peoples believed in the therapeutic powers of color. Egyptians used what are believed to be color-healing rooms — recently discovered by archeologists — whose construction allows the sun’s rays to split and fill the room with the colors of the spectrum.¹ Greeks used colored ointments, plasters, and flowers to restore balance to the four “humors,” or bodily fluids — blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. In 1037, an Arab physician named Avicenna cautioned people about the possible dangers of color treatments, suggesting that a person with a nosebleed shouldn’t gaze at red because it could stimulate further bleeding, while blue was soothing and reduced blood flow. Indian Ayurvedic medicine believes to this day that man is surrounded by seven layers of color, comprising one’s own electromagnetic field or aura, that change with one’s mental, emotional, or physical state.²

A Rainbow of Discoveries

More recently, over the past two centuries, red light was used to prevent scars from smallpox; tuberculosis patients reportedly benefited from sunlight and ultraviolet rays; and in 1940, Russian scientist S.V. Krakov established that red stimulates the sympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system, while blue stimulates the parasympathetic part. According to one nursing website, it was an observant nurse who first noticed that the newborns who were closest to the window were less jaundiced. By the 1960s, white light replaced blood transfusions as the treatment of choice for neonatal jaundice — and today, blue light is the most common, effective treatment. The blue light penetrates the body, breaks down the bilirubin, and facilitates its excretion in the urine and stool.

Today, there are many ways we can knowledgeably harness the powerful vibrations of colors and reap the physiological, psychological, and emotional effects:

• Observe the colors in your surroundings and the varieties in nature.
• Decorate your home or office with curtains, bedspreads, rugs, pillows, or paint. Create a “color room” with fabric by getting seven different-colored sheets to use as drapes. Layer them on one or more walls with a drawstring-style curtain rod. Change the color of your mood as quickly as you pull back the curtains.
• Buy colored lightbulbs, which are available from many stores. Use these in existing light fixtures, or try goose-neck lamps to direct the color.
• Take a “color bath.” This relaxing method allows you to bathe your body in the energy wavelength of the chosen color. Organic products are available that color the bath water and don’t stain your skin.
• Wear colored sunglasses. There’s nothing quite like looking at the world through rose, green, blue, or other colored glasses. This experience is very different from observing color.
• Remember that color influences your mood What you choose to wear affects your own body/mind/emotions while sending a message to those who see you.
• Try using essential oils. The inhaled effects complement the color. Lemon essential oil stimulates a bright, cheery feeling in the mind and body, as does its yellow color.
• Use creative visualization to picture colorful scenes for your desired effect. Then imagine with each breath that you are breathing the color deep into your lungs and throughout your entire body.

What Is Color?

Color is visible white light split into different energy wavelengths vibrating at specific frequencies. These wavelengths appear to us as color because of the capacity of an object to absorb or reflect the energy. You may remember hearing that white reflects all colors, while black absorbs all colors. An apple is red because it absorbs all colors except red.

Color is perceived through the eye. When light energy falls upon the retina, it’s converted into nerve energy (electrical impulses) that causes the eye to “see.” When color enters the eye, it stimulates the pituitary and pineal glands to release neurotransmitters that ultimately affect the endocrine system glands, and various parts of the body. If they don’t get a balance of every color, hormone production can be inhibited or accelerated depending on the imbalance.³

Colors are the only vibrating waves of the electromagnetic field that we can see. Sound, heat, and radio waves all vibrate at a lower frequency. Color, like light energy and the sun, penetrates the body through the skin, influencing body processes like aiding in the manufacture of vitamin D, for instance. However, color frequencies vary in their prominence at different times of the year. In winter, we get less orange and yellow, but more blue rays. This imbalance can make us feel “too blue,” which is the reason why some people get SAD, or seasonal affect disorder.

The use of color is even more effective at different times of the day. Yellow, orange, and red — although more necessary in the winter — are most effective during the day, while blue, indigo and violet — cooling influences in the summer — are powerful in the evening, as they help calm us for sleeping.

To be healthy and feel balanced, we require energy from the full color spectrum. Visible light is made of colors and the sun contains them all. Therefore, the most effective form of color therapy is simply to get out in the sun. In today’s uncertain, stressful times, as we indulge in the therapeutic realm of color, we can at least be certain that color therapy is more than meets the eye.

Diane M. Grandstrom, RN, BSN, CCRN, is founder and owner of Aromatherapy Plus, Reading, PA.

References

1. Gimbel T. The Colour Therapy Workbook. Rockport, ME: Element Books; 1997: 7.

2. Graham H. Discover Color Therapy. Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press; 1999.

3. Wills P. Colour Therapy: The Use of Colour for Health and Healing. Boston, Mass: Element Books; 1999:14-17.