How to Know if Color Therapy is the Right Healing Remedy for You

Also known as chromotherapy, using colors to help heal your body, mind, and spirit is an ancient technique. Throughout history, healers have used tools such as colored light, gemstones, crystals, candles, colored fabric, and even lasers to stimulate or soothe various chakras (energy centers) where there may be energy blockages or weaknesses.

Physically, we are more immediately affected by color than by any other healing medium. This is because light travels many, many times faster than sound, and we feel on a cellular level the effects of light and color many millions of times faster than physical movement or touch. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second; the speed of sound is a relative snail's pace at 736 miles per hour.

When a color - or rather, our brain's interpretation of a color - reaches our conscious level, our emotions are duly affected, because our cells have already responded. Before we can even name the color that is affecting us, we have already been affected.

With this in mind, it's easy to see how we can be profoundly influenced by the colors with which we surround ourselves.

Here are some beginning tips and self-searching questions for working with color therapy in your life.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• An open mind

1. Take note of the colors in your surroundings. What colors dominate your surroundings?

2. Take note of the colors you use to define your body. What shades dominate your clothing?

3. Across the spectrum of the rainbow, do your colors tend to fall into "warm" - reds, oranges, yellows - "cool" - blues and greens - or "neutral" - black and white?

4. Note the presence of complementary colors, if there is one - those colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel, such as purple and orange, or yellow and blue.

5. Determine whether there are any colors that you feel strongly toward or against.

6. If you feel strongly using color imagery in this way, you may be very receptive to using color therapy in your healing process!