How to Use Colors to Change Your Mood

We all have good moods, ambivalent and even bad moods. This is part of life, but did you know that you can use color to change your mood? In most cases people who are interested in using color to change their mood want to change their mood from a negative one to a positive one, and color is one of the best ways to do this. The interesting thing about using color to change our moods is that it is so subtle. In fact most people don’t even realize that when they put on their red suit,they are increasing their feeling of control and power over their lives or that they want to give the appearance of this to others. It is a fact that some colors are more stimulating than others. So choosing your color schemes carefully if you want to use color as a tool to change your mood is crucial. Read on to learn more.

Things You’ll Need:
• A tablet
• A pen or pencil
• An idea of your favorite colors

Step 1 - Make a list of your favorite colors.
Step 2 - Next to each color list the feeling that it gives you when you wear it, or see it. This may be difficult to put into words and some colors may evoke more than one feeling, just do the best you can to put a label to the feeling(s).
Step 3 - Make an inventory of your home. Go into each room and note which colors you or someone else has chosen to decorate a room.
Step 4 - Make a list of each room in your home and next to it, list the colors used to decorate that room.
Step 5 - Next go to your closet and look at each piece of clothing. Make a list with each item and the color it is. Also make a separate list with your accessories and shoes as well.
Step 6 - Compare your list of favorite colors and the feelings they evoke with the other lists.
Step 7 - Now make a list of what you want to be feeling in each room of your home. If the colors in each room don’t match the feeling(s) you are trying to evoke in that particular room then rearrange the items in all the rooms of your home until they do. Replace items and repaint rooms as necessary to get the mood you are looking for.
Step 8 - Now take a look at your clothing, shoes and accessories lists. Are your favorite colors there? Do your clothes give or evoke the moods you need for the occasions they are for? If not begin getting rid of those clothes whose colors make you feel badly or even just ambivalent. Replace them with colors that evoke the moods you want. Do the same thing with your shoes and accessories.

Tips & Warnings:
• Moods are like clothes, they change all the time. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new colors, or to play with the colors you already have to give different moods.

• Don’t go out and spend thousands replacing items in your home or your closet. If you cannot get the moods you are looking for right away with what you already have then begin slowly and carefully replacing items as you can afford to. Even a few new items in the colors you want will begin to shift your mood towards the positive.

• Try to work with what you already have. Chances are you already have items in the colors that evoke the moods you are seeking, so use these items first before going out and buying new things.

• Shop at thrift stores. It’s amazing what kinds of great things you can find at thrift stores. The fact is you don’t have to purchase anything new, check out your local thrift store because you just never know what you might find!

• A few colors and their emotional associations are as follows. Generally speaking red evokes feelings of danger, desire, strength, and even violence or anger, it is very stimulating. Blue evokes feelings of calmness, tranquility, and trust. Black because of its bad reputation evokes feelings of evil, darkness, and unhappiness, although this can vary from culture to culture. In Native American culture the color black represents the womb of Mother Earth and as such does not evoke bad feelings at all. Green simulates moods of vitality, health, calm and soothing, but it is also associated with jealousy and envy. Like other colors yellow has both positive and negative emotional associations. It can evoke feelings of happiness, joy, and hope, but it also has associations with cowardice and jealousy.

• While there are standard guidelines for what sorts of moods colors evoke, be aware that there are people for whom these standard guidelines don’t fit. For example, red tends to be a stimulating color, but for those who have Asian heritage it may in fact be calming as this is a cultural more that those of this culture are taught. So, if you find that blue stimulates you rather than calms you, or that red makes you angry rather than making you feel powerful and on top of things then go with that. Otherwise you may evoke the opposite mood to what you are going for and end up being pretty miserable.

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