Summary

The website content discusses the psychological impact of colors on personal resilience and mood, advocating for the intentional use of colors in personal spaces and attire to enhance one's sense of well-being and self-expression.

Abstract

The article "Colors Connaisseurs" delves into the significance of colors in personal expression and their role in building resilience. It suggests that colors can be used as a tool for communicating one's personality and emotional state, as well as for creating a positive environment at home or in the workplace. The author shares personal anecdotes about using orange elements, such as sunflowers, to stimulate energy and good vibes. The piece also touches on the challenges of modern technology, which can overwhelm and distract, proposing that colors can help reclaim mental peace and focus. Resilience is framed as a form of mental toughness and adaptability, with the author providing tips for managing worries and maintaining personal goals. The article emphasizes the importance of being present and observing color transformations in nature, which can lead to personal growth and a more open, optimistic personality.

Opinions

Colors have the power to influence mood and energy levels, with orange being a specific example that combines the positivity of yellow with the intensity of red.
The modern world's technological advancements have led to an overload of information, which can be mitigated by mindful practices such as observing and integrating colors into one's life.
Resilience can be cultivated through intentional color choices, which serve as a form of self-expression and a statement of individuality.
The author believes in the concept of "the worrying list" as a method for controlling anxiety and maintaining focus on personal goals and creativity.
Wearing a color outside of one's comfort zone, like a pale-yellow shirt, can be a small but significant step towards building confidence and resilience.
The article promotes the idea that allowing one's favorite colors to change and flow over time can contribute to an open and adaptable personality.
The author quotes Eliott Erwitt, suggesting that color has descriptive power, while black and white is more interpretive, implying a preference for color's ability to convey clear messages.

Colors Connaisseurs

Few thoughts on resilience

Think about red lights versus green lights when crossing the street. Easy, right?

In our personal lives, a powerful tool to express ourselves for our inner comfort, but also to communicate with others where we stand and how we are is The Use of Colors: to bring and shout out our personality, today’s mood, this moment. To enrich our home, our office, our car, our toy (for those of us who still have one of those…)

Sunflower, curtains and the color men won’t wear

My thoughts today are not about color therapy, although for sure it deserves looking into. It is a vast field of research, self-help, and sometimes even small tricks of getting instant help. I remember how many, many years ago, I decorated my favorite room with orange elements, mostly fresh flowers, to wake up with good energy every morning.

Instant tip: My therapist back then explained that orange has the power and the booming energy of red, but red’s too-much and too-obvious is calmed down by the optimism and the lightness of yellow. And this is how orange brings a solid amount of calm, good energy. By the way, if you wanna try this gimmick of redecorating with fresh orange, use sunflowers in June-July and switch to calamondin trees towards cold season.

Every coin has two sides

A few ideas about resilience

I believe it’s important in nowadays crazy-as-hell-everything to steadily grow our resilience, to make ourselves stronger for these unpredictable times that we are living. I don’t have wars and sanitary crisis in my mind today. Even before all that, unpredictable was the norm. I’m usually “blaming” technology for this feeling of walking on moving sands, as it has brought into our lives huge amount of information, connectivity and learning opportunities, but, as every coin, it has two sides. The other side of the technology coin is too much of everything.

Instant tip: I was watching Jay Shetty the other day while explaining that the simple thing of waking up and opening our phones to instantly start navigating between apps and notifications is like the equivalent of waking up with 10 new people in our bedroom, all of them talking about something and struggling for our attention and reaction.

Tough stomachs have more fun

Growing our resilience is not only about giving back to our brain the peace of mind, the silence, the empty box that technology managed to sort of steal, but it’s also going to help us focus on our goals, hobbies and lives better.

Resilience is basically about learning to have a bit of tough stomach and clearly expressed will, in front of ourselves and in front of others. Resilience is about the elasticity of our mood and desires: whatever happens, I’m finding it easy to get back to myself. I won’t let the morning notifications change what I have planned for today, I won’t let an unfortunate interaction change my mood and for sure not the opinion I have of myself.

Instant tip: Resilient people are also doing a small exercise that’s called “the worrying list”: when you are in a good state of mind, feeling maybe creative, or powerful or just good and it happens (because it often does) that a worrying thought comes to your mind, learn to park it. Put it on the “worrying list” that you promise yourself to deal with later. You must deal with it later in order to be true to yourself, but the advantage of this exercise is that you control when to worry; the worry, the anxiety doesn’t control you and you don’t let it ruin your creative or powerful or good state of mind.

Uniforms grow puppies

One easy and for sure fun way to slowly learn resilience is to express yourself through colors. Use them to say something about you and grow your resilience while probably feeling brave in some circumstances in which it seemed as you dared to expose yourself. Yes, there were critical eyes around you…or maybe there actually weren’t!, but you would have expected them to be. Still, you dared to overstep somehow the predefined limits and you got serenity when succeeding. Challenging the status-quo, the norm, doesn’t need to be or to feel inadequate or rude; there is all the time a middle line, a moderate approach that allows you to express yourself more while still feeling appropriate. Using colors as a resilience baby-steps lesson is really fun.

Imagine: You wore today a pale-yellow shirt instead of a white one and you felt stressed, you were the only one getting out of the norm, you were expecting people to give you the side-eye. After couple of hours, without even noticing, you forgot that you were stressing about it, you got used to how and who you were in that moment and you felt your spine confidently straightening up a bit more. You became aware that today you smiled more and you felt how your eyes were smiling too.

Transformation

As I’ve been a “color-practitioner” for years, without being necessary able to provide a definition of that, I noticed that observing how colors actually flow around us in nature and letting them do the same around and inside us opens up a person. Helps.

First, to observe the colors around you, mainly in nature or in other people, means to be present. Which is a most-wanted skill that nowadays we are trying to reach through meditation, yoga, aromatherapy and even some weird-towards-not-so-nice habits of substance abuse. However, when you are able to be present in the moment, you charge yourself with happy energy, your brain feels relieved from stress and the people around feel you connected and involved. Being able to be present while observing color transformation in nature allows you to understand and acknowledge the world around you. You simply internalize the information that leaves after rain have a brighter green.

Secondly, if you let the colors you like and you use to change over the years, meaning you let them flow in your life as they do in nature, you shall notice that it also transforms your personality to the more-open. In other words: don’t be blunt, don’t be stubborn, accept that “never say never” might be true. Letting and accepting your favorite colors to transform or to entirely change through the years, the seasons, the moods, helps you develop an open personality and a more smile-happy-optimistic self. Once you have that as a main part of who you are, it means you are more resilient, mainly by not being afraid of showing the world who you are.

From the smarter: “Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.” Eliott Erwitt

In a typical spring day, you may want to let yourself drawn in the story of a not-so-princess that found her not-so-prince: Fairy Tales Might be Overrated. It’s very dear to me!

Since I mentioned earlier that I’m a color practitioner, you can imagine that I’m also drawn to trying some different stuff or more stuff every day… It’s like a passion for not sitting still, I guess. So, for a week or so, I have this new “feature” on my pink head: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rainidiy. Please remember that I drink only straight espresso, but if you push me for a latte, I’ll take it with coconut milk and salted caramel:) Smile today!