Using Color to Tap your Subconscious
By Whitney Ferré, author of ‘The Artist Within,
A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit’

Have you ever thought about how you could utilize color in your surroundings to enhance your business, stimulate sales or conversation? 

You have heard of sports teams who would paint the visiting team’s locker rooms pink.  The idea is to lull the other team into such a complacent mood that they are not effective competitors.  I have read that a home adorned with pink is going to evoke feelings of caring and compassion.   Exactly the energy with which you would like to infuse your opposing team! 

A red front door on your home is supposed to bring prosperity.  Red is also supposed to stimulate the appetite and create an environment in which people feel predisposed to spending money.  Red promotes high energy and sociable environments.  I tend to like both of those qualities myself and currently have a red living room in my home and a red dining room in my wine bar in Nashville.  How appropriate!

Regardless of what the experts say, the most exciting thing for me is how color makes you feel.  Color can be used to create harmony in your life.  Color is another way in which your artist within speaks to you.  It is another language of the right brain.  We each have our own palette.  You may not be aware of it yet.  Colors are different for everyone, but we all notice and are affected by color.

In the book Creating Sacred Space With Feng Shui, Karen Kingston shares a quick overview of color personalities: “RED activates and draws attention.  BLUE cools and relaxes.  GREEN heals and revitalizes.  YELLOW enriches the emotions.  BROWN is grounding but can be too heavy.  PINK is the color of love.  ORANGE stimulates hunger.” 

I also loved learning that warm tones (oranges, reds, rusts, earthy browns, creams, etc.) in our living space are flattering to our skin tone and more forgiving, especially in the bedroom, for instance.  Our complexion finds greater harmony surrounded by warm colors rather than cool colors.  This tid-bit I picked up from a news show covering set designers for popular TV sitcoms.  The designers would of course choose colors that would flatter the actors and create an appealing canvas for us out in TV land.

How can you use color to create harmony in your life?  When I first opened The Creative Fitness Center I would often retreat to the upstairs studio space solely because it was painted hues of blue and white, colors that invoke peace and tranquility.  I would be worried about the bills to pay, the low class enrollment or the rusted electric box.  I would be experiencing a moment of doubt, a dip in my faith.  Something had derailed my “Little Engine That Could”.  The cool, ocean colors would instantly calm me and give me a greater sense of peace.  I would lie down on the Mediterranean blue carpet, arms outstretched, gazing at the ceiling and just breathe.  The blue reminded me of deep breaths, ocean waters, the endless sky and all the possibilities represented to me by the depth of the sea and the expanse of the heavens.  I found harmony within the discord.   I was able to re-enter the busy space downstairs with a shift in perspective, one that gave me a boost of courage to continue to meet the day.  You can do this same thing even if you don’t have a blue room.  If you are feeling stressed, simply pull out a set of markers, crayons, pastels or watercolors and pick out your favorite color.  Cover a piece of paper with doodles in this color.  As your mind focuses on the shapes and color you will make a mental shift.  If you need energy, doodle with some red or orange.  If you need to relax, you may want to pick blues or greens.  Feeling confused or lost?  Green is the color to bring you back down to earth.  You’ll find if you don’t think about it, you will pick the color that makes sense for the change you want to create in your mood.

Think about the beginning of your day.  When you enter your closet to select your clothing, what do you think about?  Comfort?  Your activity for the day?  Do you look at the colors?  Is it a red day or a beige day?  Do you gravitate toward that “power” tie or bright colored suit on days you want to make an impression or express self-confidence?  Think about it tomorrow morning.

Creativity Workout - Cover a Page With Color
Explore how color can affect your mood and stimulate new ideas and perspectives.  Here is the creative workout: you only need some blank paper and a set of crayons, pastels or markers.  This is a GREAT workout to use at work, before a songwriting session or with your family around the kitchen table.  All you are going to do is give yourself a chance to do nothing but look at a color for five minutes.  After all the thoughts that rush through our brains minute to minute, spending 5 minutes looking at a color as it appears on your paper in twists and turns, squiggles and dots is a dramatic shift in your thought process.  Just like in the Scribble Drawing or Energy Drawing workouts at the beginning of the book, you can’t help but to have different thoughts and ideas come out of your head.  Feelings of being overwhelmed, apathetic, hopeless or plain tired are replaced with new ideas, a new approach, or new feelings.  Your mind can’t help but make the shift from left brain thinking to right brain thinking after scribbling color on a paper.  Your artist within loves color and will start to chatter away in your right brain if you give her the opportunity.  Your artist within has an idea that has been waiting to get out.  Let’s open up the line of communication with a crayon and a piece of paper.  Try it!

Whitney Ferré on Blend Radio
Discussing the impact of color, Whitney was a featured guest on Champagne Sundays variety and entertainment radio, airing live on June 14, from 11am – 1pm PT. To meet the rest of the guests and listen to the entire show, please click here. To listen to Whitney's interview, please double click on the Play Button below.



Creatively yours, Whitney!