Just like each note of music or alphabets, there is something else that has a deep association with our emotions – the colors. A whole range of experiences and emotions can be related to colors and there’s more than just a vague, generic meaning to it when we say “I still got the blues” or “golden days of our lives”.
Now, many of us might have associations to colors that are particular to us such as associating red to an old roof of a house at the street we grew up in or the brown boots that laid untouched in the attic for years. However, colors do have emotional connections beyond personal associations which are universal to all of us. Let’s find our more.
1. Yellow – the color of hope
The lighter hue in the spectrum, yellow reminds us to be cheerful. Resonating with the logic side of the brain, the color stimulates the faculties of logic and clear perception which makes us hopeful of the days to come. It’s easier to be effortlessly happy in the sunny afternoons of autumn, with leaves strewn around the steps you take and dandelions tossing their heads in the breeze – you can’t argue that the tone of the scene you just imagined was yellow.
It’s liberated, cheerful, gleeful like an open armed child. Many poets have described yellow in sprightly, enlivening and effervescent poeticism . Take Emily Dickinson for example who writes, “Nature rarer uses yellow….Yellow she affords,Only scantly and selectly, Like a lover’s words.”
2. Orange – The color of vibrancy and vitality
Although as gleeful and joyous like yellow, there is something more intense about orange. If yellow reminds us of the warmth and fervency of sunshine, orange reminds of the glaring center of the sun. However, it is not as alarming as red. It generates a sense of optimism in us as we look upon the color, almost instantly, uplifting the spirits. We associate uninhibited outlook and eagerness to socialize and engage in frolic at the sight of the color.
The color stimulates the brain and makes us more enthusiastic, eager for action and at the same time, remain friendly in temperament. Even if you don’t like eating oranges, you’d love to see a sight of a basket full of freshly plucked oranges. It is the vibrancy of the color that rejuvenate us and fills our body with vitality.
3. Red – The color of adventure and then, power and passion
The color that flows through our veins, the color of life force, red is what we associate with physical needs, our basic human instincts and our strive to survive. The sight of the color energizes us, entices us and even seduces us. We associate intense passion with dark red, the kind of passion that dilutes the demarcation between virtue and sin. We romanticize overstepping restrictions, which is also symbolized by red, and submitting into pleasures of guilt.
But then again, red triggers caution in our head. Some of us may be drawn to the danger while others may think better. The color provokes our emotions in many ways. It demands attention, turns heads, ignites fervent emotions. However, it also reminds us of blood war and no one puts it better than Wilfred Owen when he writes, “Red lips are not so red as the stained stones kissed by the English dead.”
4. Blue – The color of clarity
We associate blue with clear perception. After days of vagueness, agonizing doubts and the grey scale of gloom brought upon by hopelessness, we suddenly, sometimes in serendipity and sometimes with effort, start seeings things as clear as the bright blue sky. On a clear day, as we look up at the blue sky, the pale, serene bluish dome which almost transcends to the white tufts of cloud, seems almost benign. Yet, it’s not indifference we see in that sublimity.
We perceive acceptance, wisdom and and calm resilience. However, in such quiescence, we tend to think of old times, get a little nostalgic and that’s perhaps where the ‘blues’ comes in. Then again, ‘the blues ‘ is not irritable, inconsolable depression. It still has perspective and most of the blues musicians and songwriters are extremely insightful in their art.
5. Green – The color of being alive
Have you ever walked into the woods, looked up to see the enchanting sun rays quietly making their way down through the dark green leaves of trees? The sight of a green avenue with sun shinning upon them, making them glitter as emerald, the crystal droplets of dew dripping through the sieve tubes of green leaves like Your love flows through my veins, the freshly drenched foliage in rain – they all remind us of life, of being, of existing in repose, in a pacific serenity.
The color appeals to our softer, more subtle sides. It is the color of harmony, creation of life, growth, prosperity and abundance. The color soothes us, keeps us off greed and hunger for power and authority for a while. We are drawn more to nature, it’s way of existing without seeking more than needed, at least for some time.
6. Violet – The color of ambiguity
Violet has the essence of both red and blue in it. We associate a strange mix of passionate energy and spiritual inclination with the violet, the two major aspects of red and blue. We associate the color with fantasy, surrealism and day dreams. We find violet in the hypnagogic hues of twilight or the alluring lilac trees against a green meadow.
It is the color that daydreamers associate with escapism, consciously or subconsciously. The color is often associated to mystery and even magic. Many psychics claim that people who are in the practice of occult have a violet aura. It is believed that people with violet aura are often found in professions like futurists, astro-physicist, performance artists, astronauts and photographers.
7. Indigo – The color of enchantment
Almost like purple but a little deeper, it is the color between blue and violet. You can find the hue in the midnight sky and many believe Indigo to be the color of our solar system. Not all of us are sensitive to the color in the spectrum.
However, the ones who are generally associate self awareness with the color. It is said the color is a bridge between the infinite realms of existence and life and it makes some sense as we imagine the vastness of the midnight sky meeting the roaring ocean at the horizon – an assemblage of the color Indigo, one celestial, the other earthly.