Wishing You a Festive Holiday Season

Heartfelt wishes for health, joy, and peace this festive holiday season !

Journal Prompts to Ease Stress of Holiday Season

Guilt-free Vegan Holiday Meals to Savor 

Hanukkah a Mini Guide to the Jewish Holiday

Eco-Friendly Moves to Green the Holidays

Thanks for your visit. 

Please know I'm grateful for you. 

Before you go, please comment in the space provided below. 

How do you plan to celebrate this year? 

My hope is we choose to be optimistic and 

envision better times ahead!

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Use Color Ideas to Cultivate Happiness

Research shows when we see certain colors, our brains release feel-good chemicals that impact us on a physical and emotional level. A study published in the October 2019 issue of  Journal of Environmental Psychology indicates YELLOW is usually the color of happy, joyful emotions. 

Happiness improves our sense of well-being. However, the study also revealed not all people associate yellow with good vibes. 

Those who live close to the equator and in climates with a scarcity of rain, find yellow less attractive than people who live in cooler, rainier climes.

To illustrate, look at the color wheel below. It is a visual representation of the broad range of hues in the visible light spectrum. 

RED, ORANGE, and YELLOW are three colors that appear next to each other on the color wheel. For additional details about the origin of the color wheel and its creator, Sir Isaac Newton, look here. 

Warm colors often evoke feelings of happiness, optimism, and energy. Warm hues make rooms and objects appear smaller, because they make them look closer and create a cozy feel. 

Warm hued paint colors, carpeting, or furniture makes spaces look more intimate. A word of caution. A big concentration of warm color can be overwhelming, and may even stimulate aggressive emotions. To offset this, pair warm tones with neutral ones.

ORANGE is a bright warm-toned color. It's the color of many healthful, tasty fruits and vegetable.

Orange energy supplies a dose of emotional support. Its power helps us feel creative, enthusiastic, and perky.

RED is an energizing warm-hued color. It speeds up metabolism and inspires excitement, passion, and love. Red reminds us of heart health. For heart disease prevention tips see this. 

PINK is next to red on the warm hued area of the color wheel. It evokes feelings of gratitude and admiration. The color pink carries with it the meaning of elegance and grace. It reminds us of sweetness and tender loving care.

Dark pink is the variation of pink that is often used as a symbol of gratitude and appreciation, and is a color I love to wear.

Another factor that influences our color preferences is unique to each individual. Colors work at the cellular level and bypass thinking. Color likes and dislikes are subjective, and often are affected by our life experiences, mindset, and feelings.

When we interact with someone (a loved one or even stranger) or participate in something that is meaningful to us, we are likely to remember and associate it with the colors we saw. 

Colors can make our surroundings, peoples' body language, and sounds, smells, textures, and moments vivid, and our memory of them long lasting. 

A quote that appears on the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health (NIH) Website follows. 

"Colour is believed to be the most important visual experience to human beings (2). It functions as a powerful information channel to the human cognitive system and has been found to play a significant role in enhancing memory performance (3)."

How many of the warm hued colors mentioned above bring you pleasure? 

When I wear bright pink I feel optimistic and lovable. Red reminds me of romance and I associate it with the sweet aroma of fresh roses just picked from my garden. Orange lifts my spirit as I envision a gorgeous southwestern sunrise or sunset. Yellow makes me think of fun times and sunflowers and popcorn. 

Cool colors are often more subdued than warm ones. Cool colors recede and appear to be farther away from the observer than warm ones. Cool colors include green, blue, and purple, and variations of those three colors. 

BLUE is a favorite color for a large segment of the world population, and is slightly more popular with men than women. Blue is the only primary color within the cool spectrum.

Blue is a great stress buster, and letting go of tension helps us feel happier.

Use Blue for Self-compassion

GREEN is a cool-hued color that helps us establish a pathway for renewal, expansion, and flexibility. It promotes growth, balance, good health, and abundance. 

For colorful ideas about ways to enhance your lifestyle with green see this. Some shades of green take on elements of yellow, and uplift our spirit.

PURPLE possesses some of the attributes of red, so it's a less subdued cool color than the others. 

Wear a light shade of purple (lavender) to calm hyperactivity. 

Connect with Crown Chakra Energy and its corresponding color of purple to Integrate Mind, Body, and Spirit and feel centered and peaceful.

Warm and cool toned colors can help us feel greater happiness. Let's cultivate those that appeal to us. 

There are so many ways to use colors to attract goodness into our lives. Decorate, don, and envision colors. To spice up our day, let's visualize happy kids in colorful hues dancing (see first illustration above). 

Cultivate colors to feel content, nurtured, and increase happiness!

 Before you go, don't forget to comment below. 

Which colors help you feel happy? Please explain.

If you like what you see, please share the love on social media. When you do, please put a link back to this post.

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Budget Friendly Activities to Inspire Joy

For today, I sense it's better for my overall health to focus on things that help me remain calm, carry on, and inspire joy in me.

This post has been updated 1o/15/23

You probably need an encouraging word or two yourself. That's why I offer 

Budget Friendly 

Activities to Inspire Joy

Refresh with plants, greenery, flowers 🌴and nature

Plants improve air quality, by exchanging stale air in our homes and offices with fresh oxygen. Plants are natural humidifiers, preventing or easing irritation to eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. According to a NASA study some plants even filter out toxic materials. 

No matter how down we feel, research reported on the National Institute of Health (NIH) Website indicates spending time in green spaces including parks, backyards, a plant nursery, or walking in a field of wildflowers elevates mood and even adds years to lives.

If we can't go outdoors, a simple way to commune with nature is to recall a moment from the past when we were hiking, rock climbing, biking, running, or strolling in the great outdoors. 

Using our imagination helps us recall fun times and associate sounds of a bubbling brook, children laughing, or the pleasing aroma of a pine forest with joy. 

We can take our fantasy further and visualize birds or butterflies flying about, conjure up animals strolling in their natural habitats, imagine people gathered at a picnic or tennis match, or see ourselves with our friends and relations, frolicking in an ocean or lake. 

Tilling the soil and planting seeds or potting plant cuttings we get from a friend, are low cost activities that bring joy. Studies show that spending quality time outdoors can reduce stress, is good exercise, and refreshes mind and spirit.

Focus on Heart-opening Journal Writing 📃

Put pen to paper and journal about small personal or career victories. We need not discount any effort. The tiniest step forward can be designated as the success of the day.

Journal to make a list of kind, caring expressions we would use to comfort a friend. Then use them on yourself.

Practicing loving-kindness helps prepare us for a time when we forget we can use gentle words to comfort ourselves. 

For more self-compassionate ideas, read this from Dr. Kristin Neff.

An additional journal activity for joy is to write this phrase in a journal... "I am enough just as I am." For extra coaching on this read 9 Practices to Help You See You are Enough.

In the evening, devote a few minutes to recount all the good things that have occurred during the day in a journal. 

Grasping a pen or colored pencils in our hand rather than using an electronic device, is a tactile way to wind down before bedtime, as well as ground us.  

Ending each day with a grateful heart, helps us sleep better and encourages pleasant dreams. 

Accept Responsibility for Joy Now 😄

Some may blame other people for their current unhappiness, or think happiness is dependent on things like losing weight or falling in love. 

Others base their happiness on praise and recognition from the people in their lives. They find it difficult to take pleasure from their own accomplishments or be thankful for those things that are working in their lives, unless someone else approves. 

This is a BIG mistake.

Accepting responsibility for our own joy means seeking healthful ways to tap into joy, and going after them.

Joy depends much more on our own sense of personal value, than it does on other peoples' opinion of us.

When we make an effort to discover which things we love to do and do them, we are well on the way to a joyful life! 

If we already know what inspires joy in us, we need to do it more often. 

"We can never overdo joy. " Nancy Andres😎

True joy is not dependent on whether we are on our own or live with a partner or family. It springs from inside.

The art to true happiness lies in finding enjoyment in simple things like savoring that first cup of coffee or tea in the morning or laughing, because we're wearing our favorite pair of sneakers.

Try this. Observe what happens to your outlook, when you consciously give thanks for food, shelter, and clothing. Also, set aside time to relax, act silly, and find pleasure in just being. Note how your body as well as your mind responds.

Joy is also a by-product of self-discovery. When we learn from our experiences, mistakes as well as progress become opportunities to grow.

Joy can spring from risking to try a new thing, or doing the same old same old. It depends on our mindset.

The pandemic has been an eye-opener for many of us. COVID-19 has given us a chance to notice our frame of mind, when we're left mostly to our own devices

Personal happiness improves when we feel self-confident. Being comfortable in our own skin helps us recognize our gifts, talents, areas were we still need work, and love ourselves wholeheartedly. 

For peace of mind, I make a decision to let go of fear and surrender to how outside circumstances unfold.

I believe that if we trust ourselves and our judgement, and appreciate the people and circumstances in our lives, we’re better able to sense the Universe is taking care of us all. 

Living simply and joyfully makes our lives sparkle and feel heart centered.

Consistent self-care activities help us build emotional flexibility and  sense joy, even on challenging days.

If life seems too hard or lonely, we don't have to tough it out alone. It's healthy and self-caring to share our pain with a friend, support group, spiritual counselor, or therapist. No one needs to feel isolated. Read What to do when you don't think you can afford therapy. 😓

Please comment below (no links in your comment please, as I won't be able to publish it that way).

I read every comment and appreciate your visit. 💗

Do you think you're generally a happy person? Please explain.

Share your thoughts, feelings, and ideas about how you reduce stress and what brings you the most joy. 

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Happy Holidays Dear Colors 4 Health Blog Readers

I wish you love, health, abundance, and serenity in the New Year.

Be well and live mindfully.

One way to be more mindful is to Start with Mindful Eating.

Next, use ideas in this post to recognize you are enough and it's wise and healthy to be your own best friend. 




Warm Wishes for the Best Year EVER.

Please comment below and reshare on social media. I appreciate the visit, and hope you'll come back soon. 

Visit Colors 4 Health in the New Year. My blog will offer epic lifestyle tips and  show you awesome ways to  use colors to your advantage in 2020. 

Here's one example from a blog post about rainbow colors now.

Here's my parting gift... a link to a youtube video recording of Celine Dion & Josh Groban Singing "The Prayer."

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