White
Intro:
White is purity, innocence, wholeness and completion
Just about everyone has heard of surrounding people with the “White Light of Healing and Protection.” White light raises the vibration of one’s consciousness and the body, bringing harmony in all aspects of one’s life. Directing white into to a part of the body that needs healing is one of the fastest ways to bring about healing.
The colour white is colour at its most complete and pure, the colour of perfection. The psychological meaning of white is purity, innocence, wholeness and completion.
In colour psychology white is the colour of new beginnings, of wiping the slate clean, so to speak. It is the blank canvas waiting to be written upon. While white isn’t stimulating to the senses, it opens the way for the creation of anything the mind can conceive.
White is totally reflective, awakening openness, growth and creativity. You can’t hide behind it as it amplifies everything in its way.
White is a colour of protection and encouragement, offering a sense of peace and calm, comfort and hope, helping alleviate emotional upsets. It creates a sense of order and efficiency, a great help if you need to declutter your life.
White offers an inner cleansing and purifying of your thoughts, emotions and, ultimately, your spirit, refreshing and strengthening your entire energy system.
In other cultures it is traditionally related to death and mourning. In these cultures death usually means the end of one life and the beginning of another, moving forward to a new life, so the colour psychology meaning of new beginnings still holds.
White forms a duality with black, and is such an opposite reflection of what black represents. Where black is feminine, white is considered masculine. Where black is evil, white is considered good. Where black absorbs, white reflects.
Positive and Negatives:
Positive keywords include: innocence, purity, cleanliness, equality, complete and whole, simplicity, immaculate and neat, self-sufficient, pristine and open, new beginnings.
Negative keywords include: sterile, stark, fastidious, empty, isolated, cautious, plain, distant, unimaginative, critical and boring.
While there are very few negative connotations to white, particularly in western culture, too much white can be cold, isolating and empty. It implies a feeling of sterility, detachment and disinterest, providing little stimulation for the senses.
Preference for white: White points at innocence, purity, virginity, cleanliness, freshness, simplicity, nothingness, oneness and completion, truth. In certain cultures white is the colour of death and mourning.
Aversion to white: A person who has an aversion to white colour is foremost or solely interested in ‘realistic’ and tangible things, not in illusions or things that are beyond seeing or understanding. Knows and accepts the own imperfection and does not wish to achieve perfection.
Healing Qualities:
Healing properties: White is the perfect colour; for it is all colours, in perfect balance and harmony. It is the colour of the awakened Spirit; the light of perfection; the light of the Cosmic Consciousness, the Divine Light.
White rescues us from the dark. It is the white knight, rescuing the damsel in distress. Symbolizing a clean slate, we can envisage anything with white. White is clean and clinical, giving an impression of efficiency and organization.
How to use:
White is used in many medical practices such as dental surgeries and doctors’ rooms as an indication of cleanliness and efficiency; however it also can give the feeling of sterility and coldness of emotions and may lead patients to think the doctor or dentist won’t relate to them on an emotional and personal level. It can be too clinical and sterile.
White may indicate the completion of a cycle in your life – you may find you have a desire for white clothing or white in your surroundings at a time when you are moving in a new direction in your life – for example, planning an overseas trip for the first time, or moving house after a long time in one place, or in seeking a new relationship or a new career direction.
Many people use white to recall their youth and innocence. It reminds them of a time when their lives were easier and less complicated.
Too much white can cause feelings of isolation and emptiness; it can be too pristine and immaculate, making you feel as though you can’t make a move for fear of upsetting it or creating a mess.
Grey
Intro:
The colour of detachment, indecision and compromise
The colour grey is an unemotional colour. It is detached, neutral, impartial and indecisive – the fence-sitter.
From a colour psychology perspective, grey is the colour of compromise – being neither black nor white, it is the transition between two non-colours. Being both motionless and emotionless, grey is solid and stable, creating a sense of calm and composure, relief from a chaotic world.
In the meaning of colours, grey is conservative, boring, drab and depressing on the one hand and elegant and formal on the other, yet never glamorous.
Grey conforms – it is conventional, dependable and practical. It is a colour of maturity and responsibility, associated with the grey hair of old age. It will never be the centre of attention, the dynamic leader or the director – it is too safe and toned down.
It can stifle and depress energy but it is also the stable base from which the new and positive can come.
It has a steadying effect on other colours with which it comes into contact, toning down the stronger and brighter colours and illuminating the softer colours. Rarely is grey a perfect mix of black and white – it often has elements of other colours such as blue, green, pink, mauve or yellow within it which lift it and energize it
Most people are indifferent to grey- it relates to the corporate worker in the grey suit – conservative, reliable, formal and independent and maybe boring.
Positive and Negatives:
Positive keywords include: reliable, conservative, dignified, neutral, impartial, professional, mature, intelligent, classic, solid, stable, calming, sudued, reserved, elegant, formal and dependable.
Negative keywords include: indecisive, non-emotional, indifferent, boring, sad, depressed, lifeless, lonely, isolated
Preference for grey: Very neutral and indifferent, non-expressive. It can be deliberate, but also lifeless, fixed, depressed and apathic. Reserved, cool people; unwilling to expose themselves or to have obligations. Grey can be refined and tactful.
Aversion to grey: A person who has an aversion to grey may prefers to be straight to the point, no time for political and tactical attitudes. Demands clarity, a knowing where one stands.
Shades:
The closer grey gets to black, the more dramatic and mysterious it becomes. The closer it gets to silver or white, the more illuminating and lively it becomes.
Light grey is soothing and calming. It enlightens, saves and rescues those in difficult life situations.
Dark grey is conventional and constrained. It is serious and solemn, inflexible and strict. It relates to self-denial and self-discipline
Healing Qualities:
Neutralizing negative influences, erasing or cancelling situations, causing stalemates
How to use:
Too much of the colour grey creates sadness and depression and a tendency to loneliness and isolation. Add some colour to change this.
Grey is impartial and dispassionate, it doesn’t take sides. So it could be used in a negotiation situation. It is the transition between two non-colours, neither black nor white. It takes the middle ground, neither one way nor the other.
Grey is reserved, quiet and conservative. It has a steadying effect on other colours around it. So great in a situation where you would like to fade into the background.
However, be careful using it, being non-emotional, grey can appear indifferent, uncaring, cold and aloof.
Black
Intro:
Black is mysterious and protective, the colour black relates to the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, and as a result it creates an air of mystery. It keeps things bottled up inside, hidden from the world.
It creates a barrier between itself and the outside world, providing comfort while protecting its emotions and feelings, and hiding its vulnerabilities, insecurities and lack of self-confidence.
Black is the absorption of all colour and the absence of light. Black hides, while white brings to light. What black covers, white uncovers.
Black is intimidating, unfriendly and unapproachable because of the power it exudes.
It can prevent two-way communication because of its intimidation. The salesman wearing all black will make a lot of sales, but no friends! It radiates authority, but creates fear in the process.
Black implies self-control and discipline, independence and a strong will, and giving an impression of authority and power.
Affluent and success orientated women often choose black as it can give an impression of elegance, sophistication and confidence.
Black is often associated with sexiness and seduction, as in the temptress in sexy black lingerie creating an air of mystery and intrigue. It can also imply submission to another similar to the priest wearing black robes in submission to God
Black is considered the antithesis of colour and is absolute in its nature.
Symbolically, it represents death in its passivity and eternity, as well as the dark
elements of the psyche or human behaviour.
Positive and Negatives:
Positive keywords include protection and comfort, strong, contained, formal, sophisticated, seductive, mysterious, endings & beginnings.
Negative keywords include aloof, depressing and pessimistic, secretive and withholding, conservative and serious, power & control, sadness and negativity.
Black can close us to the positive aspects of life, forcing us to look at our disappointments and the black or negative aspects of our life. It can create a fear of the future.
Preference for black: Symbolizes seriousness, darkness, depression, death, mourning, mystery, secrecy, occultism, a standing apart from or revolting against triviality, provocation, underground, underworld, things that have to remain hidden, nothingness as the great source of all creation, the need to keep your energy with you. Black is a colour for extremes, everything and nothing. People who foremost trust themselves. People who like black may be conventional, conservative and serious, or they may think of themselves as being sophisticated or very dignified
Aversion to black: A person who has an aversion to black may have fear for the unknown, or fear for the abuse of power. Desires to become free from all kinds of dependency, blockages, hindrances; to throw off shackles.
Healing Qualities:
Black is power and control of the self and others. It creates fear and intimidation. Black is the unknown. It is secretive, keeping a lot buried inside, unwilling to show its real feelings. Black is the end, but the end always implies a new beginning. When the light appears, black becomes white, the colour of new beginnings. In colour psychology this colour gives protection from external emotional stress.
We all use black at various times to hide from the world around us in one way or another. Some of us use it to hide our weight; others among us use it to hide our feelings, our fears or our insecurities.
How to use:
It can be Formal, dignified and sophisticated, as in the little black dress and the formal dinner suit. Black sets itself aside from others with its heavy and intense energy. It keeps others at arm’s length.
Black absorbs negative energy. It is useful to carry something black with you to protect you from harm and negativity when traveling or when going about your usual daily activities outside your home.
Teenagers often have a psychological need to wear black during the stage of transition from the innocence of childhood to the sophistication of adulthood. It signifies the ending of one part of their life and the beginning of another, allowing them to hide from the world while they discover their own unique identity. It is important they go through this stage but a worry when it continues on into adult years if they continue to wear black to the exclusion of other colours.
Too much black can cause depression and mood swings and create a negative environment. Combined with white only, it can create an argumentative atmosphere.
It is best to use some colour with black to lighten and brighten its energy.
Don’t forget that you can always re-watch the video to remember details about the colour