Are you familiar with color therapy? Color therapy is based on the idea that color and colored lights can help impact our overall well-being. According to this idea, different colors can cause some changes in our mood. I find this concept so interesting, especially being someone (Maddie here) who has deals with anxiety and depression. As I was setting up for my new place in Dallas and trying to make changes to the way I would decorate my new home – I kept this concept, along with a minimalist approach, in mind to help decorate my new home in hopes that it would overall have a postiive impact on my well-being!
Have you ever seen Pixar’s Inside Out, with all the emotions of the brain playing out real life characters? If you have ever watched that movie, you will notice that each emotion is portrayed as a certain color. That was a big aha moment for me in realizing how colors affect our mood. According to this article on Neurofied, colors and their emotional associations are rooted in our cultural upbringing. Some of the effects of colors appear across several cultures. Warm colors like red, yellow, and orange evoke higher arousal emotions, such as love, passion, happiness, and anger. Cool colors like blue, green, and purple are linked to calmness, sadness, and indifference. Colors can trigger these arousal states and emotions. Several studies show the impact of the paint color used in offices or living rooms on the mood of people in them.
Using Color Therapy to Help Decorate Your Home
So today I wanted to explore how you can choose colors in your apartment that will positively affect your mood and help you feel more zen in the place you live. If you want a calm/restful feeling, the suggested color is blue or green. You can use multiple shades of these colors and add some of your own personality to it, but by keeping your room or bathroom different shades of blue, it can help you feel calmer. Ivory is also a good color for the bedroom and bathroom as it is calming and elegant. If you need to concentrate, consider brown or beige. These would be good in your office or perhaps the corner of your apartment where you work or study. These colors evoke the feeling of Nature, Wholesomeness, Dependability. If you want to inspire passion and energy in a room, consider reds, yellow, and oranges as these colors evoke Passion, Love, Anger, Energy, Happiness, Vitality, Happiness, Hope, and Deceit. Green is known for evoking feelings of New Beginnings, Abundance, and Nature. What better way to start out on your journey than with an abundant mindset?
Your decorating and color choices do not have to be formal or even cover an entire room, but you can use these color palettes to help you create the mood you want to evoke in your living space. If you have to keep your walls a neutral color, perhaps your bedding can be blue, or you could use an ivory bedspread with blue pillows and add a rug that has blues in it to surround yourself with thoughts of calm and sleep. Additionally, using decorative pieces with the colors that represent the emotions you would want to instill within that room can be helpful in doing so in a more subtle way than painting your walls or purchasing an entire comforter in said color.
Maddie’s Experience With Using Color Therapy
Pink may be my favorite color but when it comes to my bedroom I want to feel relaxed and zen which is why I stick to blue decor.
Despite the fact that I (Maddie here) I am a huge fan of all things pink- I decided to keep my bedroom to a mostly white with hints of blue to promote calmness within my bedroom and in minimalist approach as suggested in my boho minimalist guide. I am someone who really only spends time in my bedroom to sleep so when I enter my room I want to feel those relaxed, zen vibes and a sense of winding down for the day. This has honestly has made a big difference as I have found myself falling asleep in a normal amount of time and less of that revenge sleep procrastination upon entering my bedroom (if you know you know) which has altogether made a significant and beneficial change for my health.
In contrast to the bedroom, I love putting purples and pinks into my living room to give some fun energy. To me pink and purples are fun, flirty and depending on the shade of purple can feel a bit spiritual. This could be personal beliefs but that is the best part of color therapy- it is all up to you and what and how you want to see and feel in your humble abode! So next time you are thinking about your space and changing things up consider how color therapy could help select the decor and colors you will be using 🙂
If you enjoyed reading about our use of Color Therapy- check out our boho decorating items here to get more ideas for creating your perfect space.
