Curing With Colors
Ever wonder why yellow is a common color for pads of paper? Or why we say, “I feel blue” when sad or “I saw red” when angry? Find the answers to these questions and more in The Five Minute Healer by Mary Capone and Janet Rupp (Johnson, 2002). Along with other simple self-healing advice, you’ll learn that color is not just what we see; it describes how we feel and think and can affect our moods, impressions, and overall health. Take this quiz to see how much you know about the therapeutic qualities of color.
1. What color should you wear while writing a personal essay?
2. What color tablecloth might help you eat less at mealtime?
3. Why is it beneficial for students to take notes on yellow pads of paper?
4. What is a good color for an overactive child’s bedroom?
5. What color handkerchief might it help to use if you are coming down with a cold?
6. What color should you wear to a party to avoid a hangover the next day?
7. Why are blueberries the perfect recovery treat after a long run on a sunny, summer day?
Answers
1. Wear blue to inspire creativity and promote truth telling.
2. Cover your table in green or brown to suppress your appetite. Stay away from orange, which does just the opposite. Perhaps that’s why orange is associated with Halloween (think candy) and Thanksgiving (think feast).
3. The color yellow purportedly stimulates memory and mental processes.
4. In addition to promoting creativity, blue calms and soothes. The color can lull an overactive child to sleep.
5. Red allegedly eases cold and asthma symptoms, promotes circulation, and increases energy.
6. Purple is said to protect against alcohol overindulgence.
7. Blue comforts tired legs and feet and cools the body.
—Pamela Emanoil
