By changing the color of the walls in an apartment or house, we can also adjust our emotional state. Several secrets.
To cheer up, change the environment, keep warm or protect ourselves – for these and other reasons, we “change” our house today almost as easily as we used to update our wardrobe. Dozens of interior design magazines and TV shows about renovations have taught us not to treat the color of the walls as something unshakable. And if we cannot afford a full-fledged “change of scenery”, then anyone can repaint at least one wall. Those who dare, suddenly notice: a visual change in space changes something in ourselves.
Hear your desire. “The gray sky five months a year made me literally hibernate,” admits 36-year-old Olga. – But one day I decided to repaint the wall in the hallway – to make it rich burgundy. And now every morning I like to drink an energy cocktail. Inna calls repainting the walls her seasonal therapy – her kitchen changes colors from hot pink to orange or pastel. “Bright warm colors – shades of yellow and red – will cheer up and invigorate an active, emotional, cheerful person,” explains psychologist, specialist in the field of psychodiagnostics Lyudmila Sobchik. – And vice versa, they will quickly tire the one who is pessimistic, prone to reflection and contemplation. So the choice of colors helps to realize our desires and psychological state.
Read more:
- The Science of Color: Iridescent Perspectives
Get support. Colors affect us not only visually. In an experiment by British physiologists, participants were left with their eyes closed in rooms with different wall colors*. It turned out that red and yellow colors accelerate the heart rate, and blue causes a state of relaxation. Since at home we are the most open, relaxed, defenseless, the aura of flowers affects us more than, say, in the office. This means that the right color in the apartment is able to support us, correct the internal imbalance, enhance those qualities that we especially need.
Awaken your intuition. Experimenting with color, you can take a fresh look not only at home, but also at your life. “I was in a big fight with my brother,” says Inna. – She painted the walls to distract herself. And when I finished, I suddenly realized that I wanted to talk to him: the right words literally sounded in me. Oleg says that he spent a long time choosing shades for the bathroom and suddenly came to the solution of a complex scientific problem. “Working with color activates the right, creative hemisphere of the brain and sharpens our sensory-emotional perception,” explains Gestalt therapist Maria Lekareva-Bozenenkova. “It’s no surprise that painting can give us answers to questions we’ve only been able to approach logically before.”
* V. Elkin “Theater of colors and melodies of your passions” (Petropolis, 2005).