Color is Transformative

It is magical. It is transcendent.

Ask anyone who's lived in the Pacific Northwest or New Zealand's South Island about the effect of color on mind and spirit. Listless flat gray skies move in like not-so-welcome houseguests who come for three days but stay for a month -- not only sucking color out of the atmosphere but our psyches as well. Days, feet and minds drag.

But, oh...when those gray skies decide to pack up and catch the next 'Greyhound' outta' town -- and the sun deigns to show its face once again -- we are warmly reminded that the reason nature has provided us with color is to feed our bodies and our spirits.

Color... the effect produced when lights strikes an object and then reflects it back to the eye... energies of differing light frequencies that the eye perceives as nerve impulses -- which our brain then translates into colors -- so simple, yet so complex.

Whether we think of in this way or not, each one of us has a personal relationship with color. Color can make us feel happy, glad, joyful, giddy, wistful, melancholy, sexy, pensive, wicked, tranquil, somber or at peace.

For example, warm colors -- those with longer wavelengths such as red and yellow -- stimulate the heart and nervous system, so we feel excited or anxious. Cool colors -- those with shorter wavelengths such as green or blue -- ease the brain, so they're more restful.

"There is conclusive medical evidence that color affects all our vital functions, biorhythms, body clock, hormone levels and ability to deal with stress," says Suzy Chiazzari, color therapist and author of The Complete Book of Color."

Color nourishes our whole system, supplying a vital energy that is an essential and wonderful part of life. Most of our reactions are, however, unconscious and it is only when we start to use the qualities of color in an informed way that we can harness this wonderful vital force to improve the quality of our life and our well-being.