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Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Easy Strategies to Use Colors to Draw Gratitude into Your Life

Color Tips to Draw Gratitude into Daily Living

November is an ideal time to demonstrate ways colors can enhance gratitude, especially since we in the U.S. celebrate Thanksgiving this month.

Updated 10/10/2021




Use Colors for Gratitude



What is GRATITUDE? The definition I like best is that it’s a human quality of being thankful, including readiness to show appreciation and gentleness with ourselves and others.

Several studies indicate that gratitude is a mighty key that unlocks the gates of health, happiness, and leads to increased satisfaction in personal relationships. 

Results of “Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life,” that appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Feb. 2003) suggests that conscious recognition of ones blessings has emotional and interpersonal benefits. 


Another study conducted by Adam Grant, et al., "A Little Thanks Goes a Long Way: Explaining Why Gratitude Expressions Motivate Prosocial Behavior," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (June 2010) indicates when one feels or thinks their efforts to help other people is valued by the receiver, it creates a sense of well-being in the doer. 

In other words, small expressions of gratitude can motivate prosocial behaviors by leading helpers to feel socially valued.
As I count my blessings, I recall many ways colors have helped me experience greater joy, laughter, peace, ease, health, and love, not only at Thanksgiving, but each day of the year.


Family, Friends, Community, and Nature are Things I'm Thankful For

 

The color strategies I share below are simple to implement, and effective when used consistently. Please give yourself a few weeks' time to experience the change. Discover how easy it is to let colors help you more fully tap into the goodness in your life.

Choose to include those colors that resonate with you, and select them for your wardrobe, home décor, and work environment. Learn How Wearing Your Colors Can Help You Feel Great About Yourself.
Exercise in colorful red warm up gear to get your heart pumping and metabolism jumping. This color helps you connect to the excitement of knowing that you’re fortunate to be able to move.
Stretch and think of the color green. It encourages optimism and encourages you to inhale fresh oxygen and ideas. 

Green energy helps you view situations with a new perspective. Green is the color of regeneration and growth. Be happy and feel grateful that your cells are continually rebirthing themselves.
Orange is the color of many essential fruits and vegetables. Remember to include them in your eating plan for vibrant health. See more about Why We Need to Eat Orange Fruits and Veggies Daily.
Health experts agree that eating a wide variety of colorful fruits and veggies helps energize and nourish you. Learn details at 4 Key Reasons to Eat a Variety of Colorful Produce.
Yellow is a happy, mood lifting hue. It’s the color of a joyful spirit. It's naturally associated with the sun, and its life giving, sustaining energies. 

Display yellow flowers in your home or wear a yellow cap or scarf; these are easy ways to incorporate more yellow into your life. Yellow energy may help you feel greater appreciation and enthusiasm for the present moment.
Blue is a calming, spacious color. It is a symbol of sea and sky. Here's Tips for Using Blue and the Throat Chakra to Eliminate Pain. 
Consider visualizing my blue family favorites, Aqua and Aquamarine. These green-blue colors promote a smooth flow of communication. Let them create a sense of expansiveness and tranquility in you. 

Envision aqua and aquamarine, when you’re seated around the Thanksgiving table. These colors encourage serenity and calm. If you need additional color tips read Relax with Aquamarine and Aqua.
Research from the Psychology Department at UC Davis Emmons Lab suggests that gratitude heals, energizes, and transforms lives. That's why it's important to schedule time weekly or daily to write in a gratitude journal. 

To amp up journal writings’ health promoting benefits, use colored pens and markers to record your feelings and thoughts about the gifts in your daily life. If you’re not willing to commit to writing a colorful gratitude list, at least devote time, night or day, to do a mental gratitude inventory.
For example, certain colors warm and open my heart. I frequently write with Pink, Coral, Blue, Green, and Purple to help me envision gratitude for the gifts of sight, hearing, taste, touch, spirituality, and my love of nature and people in my life.
When I journal with colors, it helps slow my racing mind, as I transfer jumbled thoughts onto paper. Journal writing is a safe place to examine and rid myself of dark thoughts and cherish moments of joy. Journal writing increases self-awareness and brings insights about my thoughts and actions.

“How often do you reserve time to engage in a creative endeavor like a crafts project or journal writing? I attest that each time I cook, write, draw, study something new, or do things in a creative way, my gratitude multiplies and my optimism soars.” Nancy Andres

Play, daydream, and let your imagination transport you to a calm place, where you can imagine walking in a green field, or listening to a babbling brook. Better yet, get outdoors to be in nature and feel refreshed and energized. 

Notice how fast your feelings of gratitude expand. Then, get in touch with your state of mind as you visualize your favorite color, appreciate the wonder of watching the sunrise or sunset, laugh with friends and family, relish reading a good book, jump in a stack of leaves, or have a ball as you wade through a puddle of water. 



I'm Grateful for the Public Library, One of My Favorite Places to Visit


Give yourself permission to be more childlike and beat a drum, dance, or sing. Take a moment to breathe deeply and feel the love and gratitude all around and in you.
An attitude of gratitude is fundamental to wellness. Let colors smooth the way for you to improve your health, relationships, and sense of well-being. What color or colors are gratitude colors for you?
My personal experience and research conducted since 1997, when I became a Health and Lifestyle Writer, shows color vibrations bypass human reasoning and work at the cellular level. 

Colors have a subtle way of attracting gratitude into our body, mind, and spirit.

When you put together a list of what you’re grateful for, it swings your vibrational frequency into a higher state. Whenever your focus on gratitude, you identify what is already abundant in your life and you become even more thankful.

“I have made an effort to incorporate more colors into my gratitude practice. This simple action heightens my sense of thankfulness and delight.” Nancy Andres

On a personal note, someone I lost contact with several years ago, came back into my life. I’m kicking up my heels and filled with joy. I envision the color pink, soft coral, and green, as I reflect about this gift, and I’m excited to be discovering this person anew.



I'm grateful for the People in My Life!


I've also learned to appreciate people who challenge my patience, or stir up my peace of mind. I grow wiser as I figure out how to be more direct and kind as I own my power, respect people and their right to be themselves, and detach with love.

What are things or people you’re grateful for?
Do you journal? If you do, which colors enrich the process of naming and/or writing about what you’re grateful for? Please let me know.

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14 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this! Im always looking for new ways to incorporate gratitude into my routine. :-)

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    1. Thanks so much.How do you remember to put gratitude into your routine now? Maybe it would help me and my readers to learn something new? Please clue us in.

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  2. A lovely post Nancy! I am a neutral and grey tone person, lol. I just love greys and whites and I dress in them as well! Sometimes I add pops of colours by adding pink shoes or a scarf... All of your tips are wonderful, being grateful is a great attitute to have!

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    1. Thanks Katrin. True what you mention about your color preference. I notice your website is in that color scheme. Gray in the right shade can be a very relaxing color. I fact, one of the walls in my family room is a lovely shade of gray. It compliments my light wood furniture so well and makes me feel serene. Have a wonderful Sunday and be well.

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  3. HI Nancy,
    Good article. I am amazed at how much colors do affect our moods and how having cheerful colors as I call them can be calming and relaxing. I always loved to wear bright colors when I working in an office - even if I worn black and gray and always like to add a scarf, pin or turtleneck pullover to add color such as red or bright pink. I also notice how the colors of your walls make a difference - I have most of my walls a light blue and some a light pink or peach. I also like to add silk flowers that are bright and that always make me feel happier especially in the winter when it is so drap and cold outside. I can't imagine life without color. I found your studies very interesting. Thanks for sharing all this great information. Sharing. Have a healthy, happy & blessed day!

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    1. Thanks so much Marla. Yes, colors do affect our moods and having cheerful colors can be calming and relaxing. Scientific research reflects this and we are all the better for it! Be well and enjoy!

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  4. What a great post Nancy. I learned years ago from my feng shui teacher the importance of colors for our well being. It is amazing how your mood may change by simply change the color you choose for walls or even for clothes. I love to be surrounded by colors in my daily life: flowers, fabric, paint... they cheer me up!

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    1. Thanks Pili. My research and life experience using colors certainly bears out what you say about being surrounded by colors in your daily life. That's why I say...Lead a Colorful Life!

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  5. We all have something to be thankful for!! Thanks so much for linking up at #AThemedLinkup 4 for All Things Thanksgiving. Shared.

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    1. Thanks Dee for commenting, hosting #AThemedLinkupforAllThings Thanksgiving, social shrares, and reminding me that we all have something to be thankful for. Have a beautiful Sunday. oxox

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  6. Love this particular post. I do keep a gratitude journal, but I have not incorporated color or texture to it. I do incorporate color and stickers to my planner, so why not my journal? I have lost someone close to me however, I am so grateful we crossed paths. He truly touched my heart. I was sort of dwelling in the black zone but this article has made me realize how blessed I was for the years of friendship so I now color our friendship and my gratitude for it in blue because we both so loved the ocean. Thank you for this.

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    1. And your comment touched my heart as well. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Nan

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  7. A great topic for November - being grateful for our blessings. Pinned and shared!

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    1. Thanks Carol for the comment and support. It means a lot to me. Happy November and lead a colorful life.

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