Learn Which Colors Affect Your Moods

Psychology of color: how it can help bring you in the right mood!

by SYLVIA

“The deepest and truest secrets of colour effect are invisible even to the eye and are beheld by the heart alone”

Johannes Itten

Isn’t colour just the most wonderful thing?  Doesn’t a place look that much nicer when you add a bit of colour?

Colour can also really influence your mood. And as such you can use it as a tool to influence it. We tend to pick our clothes each morning for the mood that we are in. If I am feeling particularly happy I will normally choose something colourful to wear. And if I”m feeling a bit down, I will probably want to hide a bit from the world and would go for something black.

But what if you did the complete opposite?

Instead of choosing the color matching the mood that you are in, go for a colour that will enforce the mood that you want to be in.

Now I know that this can be very hard to do, because if you are feeling depressed the last thing you want do is to appear happy. But if you are determined to not let that depresssive mood get the best of you and rule your day, try to do it anyway.

 Go for something with yellow instead of the all-black outfit. It is very hard to keep feeling depressed or sad when you are wearing yellow. Just like it is very hard to feel depressed if you stand up straight and hold your head up high.

So let’s have a look at what effect certain colors have on you, so you can pick the right color for the kind of mood you want to be in.

Black

Black is the color of authority and power, stability and strength. It is also the color associated with intelligence (think of the black robe you wear at graduation). It’s a somber color sometimes associated with evil. In the western hemisphere black is associated with grieving. Black is a serious color that evokes strong emotions; it is easy to overwhelm people with too much black.

Wear it to feel powerful or mysterious

White

For most of the world this is the color associated with purity (wedding dresses); cleanliness (doctors in white coats) and neutrality. In some eastern parts of the world, white is associated with mourning. White is associated with creativity (white boards, blank slates).

Wear it for more mental clarity.

Gray

Gray is mostly associated with the practical, timeless, middle-of-the-road, solid things in life. Too much gray leads to feeling mostly nothing; but a bit of gray will add that rock solid feeling. Some shades of gray are associated with old age, death, taxes, depression or a lost sense of direction. Silver is an off-shoot of gray and often associated with giving a helping hand and strong character.

Wear it to feel more solid.

Red

Red is the color of energy. It’s associated with movement and excitement. People surrounded by red find their heart beating a little faster. Red is the symbol of life and, for this reason, it’s the color worn by brides in China. Red is used at holidays that are about love and giving (red roses, Valentines hearts, Christmas, etc.)

Wear red when you want to have lots of energy and confidence.

Pink

Pink is the true color of love . Pink is the most calming of all colors. Think of pink as the color of romance, love, and gentle feelings, to be in the pink is to be soothed.

Wear pink to feel more loving.

Blue

Blue is a a calm and restful color.  Seeing the color blue actually causes the body to produce chemicals that are calming. However, some shades (or too much blue) can send a cold and uncaring message. Over the ages blue has become associated with steadfastness, dependability, wisdom and loyalty (think of the many blue uniforms). People tend to be more productive in a blue room because they are calm and focused on the task at hand.

Blue is good to use when you want to calm yourself or be more intuitive.

Green

The color of growth, nature, and money. A calming color also that’s very pleasing to the senses. Dark forest green is associated with terms like conservative, masculine and wealth. Hospitals use light green rooms because they too are found to be calming to patients. It is also the color associated with envy, good luck, generosity and fertility. It is the traditional color of peace, harmony, comfortable nurturing, support and well paced energy.

Use green to feel more relaxed and ease your anxiety.  If offers a sense of renewal and harmony.

Yellow

Cheerful yellow is the color of the sun, associated with laughter, happiness and good times. A person surrounded by yellow feels optimistic because the brain actually releases more seratonin (feel good chemical in the brain) when around this color. It is the color associated with optimism. It has the power to speed up our metabolism and bring out some creative thoughts. Some shades of yellow are associated with cowardice; but the more golden shades with the promise of better times.

Wear yellow to feel more optimistic, mentally stimulated and creative.

Orange

The most flamboyant color on the planet! It’s the color most associated with fun times, happy and energetic days, warmth and organic products. It is also associated with ambition. There is nothing even remotely calm associated with this color. Orange is associated with a new dawn in attitude.

Use orange to stimulate activity and socialization.

Purple

Purple is royalty. A mysterious color, purple is associated with both nobility and spirituality.  It stimulates the brain activity used in problem solving. However, when overused it is associated with putting on airs and being artificial. Use purple most carefully to lend an air of mystery, wisdom, and respect.

Wear it to feel spiritual, calm and creative

Brown

This color is most associated with reliability, stability, and friendship.  It’s the color of the earth itself. It is also associated with things being natural or organic. In India, however,  it is the color of mourning.

Use it when you want to feel wholesome and stable.

Think of colour as another tool you can use to influence how you feel. When used effectively it can really brighten up your day.

“Colour is a means of exerting a direct influence on the soul. Colour is a keyboard, the eyes, the hammers and the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another purposively to cause vibrations in the soul.”

Wassily Kandinsky

Color-changing Tattoos Monitor Health

Another use for colors!

Color-changing tattoos aim to monitor blood sugar, other health stats

MIT researchers are in the early stages of developing biosensing tattoo inks with the hope that one day they might help monitor blood sugar levels and other health data.

 MIT MEDIA LAB

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For many people with diabetes, keeping tabs on blood sugar every day is expensive, time-consuming and invasive, but researchers at MIT and Harvard are exploring a creative new approach that could one day help make things easier: biosensing tattoos.

The scientists have developed special tattoo ink that contains chemicals that can sense blood sugar levels, pH, and sodium. When blood sugar goes up, for example, the glucose sensing ink changes from blue to brown. When a person's salt levels increase, the sodium sensing ink becomes a more vibrant green under UV light. When alkaline levels shifts, a pH sensor changes from purple to pink.

The DermalAbyss ink – still in what scientists call the "proof-of-concept" stage – alters its hues in response to changes in the fluids inside a person's body, MIT Media Lab researcher Xin Liu told CBS News. It literally becomes an interactive display.

"People with diabetes email us and say, 'I want to try it out,'" Liu said. 

But the technology is still in the very early research stage, Liu points out, and has only been tested on pig skin samples, not living, breathing animals – let alone humans. Liu said there are a lot of unknowns in testing it on living skin, including questions about allergies, accuracy, and durability.For someone with diabetes who has to prick their finger multiple times a day to test their blood sugar level, or who wears pricey blood glucose monitoring equipment that can be cumbersome during activities like swimming, glancing down at a tattoo to check if blood sugar has dropped or spiked could be a lower-maintenance approach to health monitoring.

"It will take a long time for anything practical to go to market, but it [the technology] evokes imaginations and opens up possibilities," said Liu.

For some, the idea of a decorative new tattoo that reflects your body chemistry may be appealing. But mostly, the scientists say the goal is to make monitoring of health data easier, safer and as accurate as possible. 

"People want to understand what's happening in their bodies," Liu said. 

Certain Colors Entice Home Buyers to Pay More

Houston homebuyers consider a variety of factors when making their purchasing decision.

They look at location, scrutinize floor plans and discuss features of their new home. But often, something as simple as paint color can help make or break a deal, as well as sway home prices, according to a new report.

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Homes with light blue bedrooms sold on average for about $1,856 more 

PAUL TAKAHASHI / Houston Business Journal

Zillow Inc. (Nasdaq: Z) recently released its 2017 paint color analysis report, which looked at more than 32,000 photos from homes sold across the country. The Seattle-based online real estate firm found that certain paint colors can help sell a home for more money while other colors can take a hit on the sale price.

In Houston, pink is a popular color choice for bedrooms, particularly kid’s rooms. In fact, pink bedrooms are most common in the Bayou City, according to Zillow.

However, pink bedrooms can often negatively impact a home’s sale price. On average, homes with pink bedrooms sold for about $208 less than homes with more neutral colors, according to Zillow.

On the other hand, homes with light blue bedrooms sold on average for about $1,856 more than homes with other colors, according to Zillow.

Some color choices can sway home prices a lot. A light powder blue or periwinkle-colored bathroom can fetch $5,440 more on a home, while an off-white or eggshell white-colored bathroom can subtract $4,035 from a home's sale price, according to Zillow.

Here are the colors to choose and to avoid when selling a house, according to Zillow:

Kitchen:

• Do: Blue — Homes with a light blue to soft gray-blue kitchen can sell on average for $1,809 more
• Don’t: Yellow — Homes with a straw yellow to marigold kitchen can sell on average for $820 less

Bathroom:

• Do: Blue/Purple — Homes with light powder blue to periwinkle bathrooms can sell on average for $5,440 more
• Don’t: White — Homes with off-white or eggshell white bathrooms can sell on average for $4,035 less

Bedroom:

• Do: Blue — Homes with light cerulean to cadet blue bedrooms can sell on average for $1,856 more
• Don’t: Pink — Homes with light pink to antique rose bedrooms can sell on average for $208 less

Dining room:

• Do: Blue — Homes with a slate blue to pale gray-blue, or navy blue with white shiplap dining room can sell on average for $1,926 more
• Don’t: Red — Homes with a brick red, terracotta or copper red dining room can sell on average for $2,031 less

Living room:

• Do: Brown — Homes with a light beige, pale taupe or oatmeal living room can sell on average for $1,809 more
• Don’t: Blue — Homes with a pastel gray, pale silver to light periwinkle blue living room can sell on average for $820 less

Home exterior:

• Do: Gray/Brown — Homes with a mix of gray and beige, or “greige,” exterior can sell on average for $1,526 more
• Don’t: Brown — Homes with a medium brown, taupe or stucco exterior can sell on average for $1,970 less

Front door:

• Do: Gray/Blue — Homes with a navy blue to dark gray or charcoal front door can sell on average for $1,514 more

Paul Takahashi covers residential and multifamily commercial real estate, as well as education, for the Houston Business Journal.

Technically enhanced bacteria wired with color vision create artwork

Bacteria may replace artists replicating artworks in the future---does that scare anyone but me? BBL

Genet

The DNA-basThe RGB system involves only 18 genes.

BETH MOLE - 

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Fernandez-Rodriguez et al.

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With genetically engineered color vision, gut-dwelling bacteria transform into vibrant artists—though their work is a bit derivative.

In a study published in Nature Chemical Biology, MIT researchers wired Escherichia coli with a synthetic network of 18 genes that allows them to sense and respond to red, green, and blue. Once excited by the colors, the genetic circuitry activates and inspires the bacteria to produce corresponding pigments or fluorescent proteins. Mats of microbes then turn their petri dishes into canvases, creating vivid replicas of patterns and artwork.

Right now, the bright bacteria simply demonstrate how far synthetic biologists have come in genetic tinkering. But, in the future, the researchers, led by MIT’s Christopher Voigt, hope that the RGB microbes could find a variety of applications. “Colored light offers many channels to pattern cells to build tissues or materials, control cells at a distance, or serve as a means of communication between electronic and biological systems,” Voigt and his colleagues write.

• Colored images (inset), including this lizard pattern, were projected onto plates of bacteria containing the RGB system.

• Researchers tested individual color detection using a Mario image. Here, they're testing out the red light detecting system.

• A green Mario shows the green system working.

• And a blue Mario test.

•  Fernandez-Rodriguez et al.

• The fruit, zoomed in and auto-contrasted in Photoshop. The scale bar is 1 cm.

• An additional RGB plate, enhanced a little with Photoshop.

• The fluorescent RGB system. (a) Color mask used to generate images. (b) Bright field view of the image. (c) Overlay of RFP, GFP, and BFP channels in false color. (d-f) Grayscale images of the RFP (d), GFP (e), and BFP (f) fluorescence channels. In the grayscale images (d,e,f), a lighter pixel indicates greater fluorescence in the given channel. The scale bars are 1 cm.

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In 2005, the researchers came up with a four-gene system that allowed microbes to recreate black-and-white images. In the new study, they go all-out, using the 18 genes plus a collection of genetic tricks, tools, and programming strategies.

The resulting rigged germs contain biological light sensors—which are found in some plants, fungi, and cyanobacteria. In the system, red light is sensed by a hybrid kinase sensitive to 705nm wavelength light. Green is picked up by a cyanobacteria sensor that flicks on with wavelengths at 535nm. And blue is detected with another hybrid kinase sensitive to a wavelength of 470nm.

With the light switches flipped, genetic machinery fires up and begins decoding a meticulously engineered string of genes. This produces either pigments or fluorescent proteins.

The researchers spread the RGB bacteria across agarose plates—dishes containing bacteria food in a gel. Then, they projected color images onto the plates for 18 hours, allowing the bacteria to create their colorful replicas.

“Fully harnessing the spectral range of light sensors simultaneously in individual cells provides many knobs by which cells can be controlled rapidly and spatially and from afar,” the authors conclude.


(The article above was created by Beth Moore)