colour personality

What’s your colour personality?

What challenges are you facing right now?  How can you meet them in the most productive manner?  The answers might come in a surprising way – through the use of colour.

Theo Gimbel, President of the International Association for Colour Therapy and author of The Book of Colour Healing says that we can gain a great deal of self-knowledge by the colours to which we are attracted. “Our responses to colour are governed by deep-seated associations, which have been either conditioned by our experiences or inherited from our past,” he explains. From way back into childhood we have built up associations with particular colours, perhaps connected with happy, sad, frightening or any number of other experiences. This is the basis of colour psychology, a curiously precise art.

Colour therapists use simple tests to give detailed information on your basic personality and how you approach life. The test works by allowing the subconscious mind to pick out the colours which best express the feelings and intuitions which are generally kept hidden from the conscious, waking mind.

Psychologist Robert Millett-Dew is in total agreement. He uses colour psychology in his practice as he finds it gets to the heart of the problem, often without the client having to say, or even know, their problems. “I use colour as a way of communicating with the subconscious as most clients are not aware of the actual problem, only the symptoms they experience,” he explains. The colours Millett-Dew uses are different from those suggested by Theo Gimbel but the principle remains the same. He says that simply by a client’s choice of colours he can tell a large amount about their current situation, their problems, and the psychological factors underlying the problem.
So take the colour test for yourself – and see what the coming months have in store.

THE EXERCISE
Look at the chart below.  Choose the three colours that you prefer at this particular moment. Don’t stop to think about it; let your intuitive mind do the work, and choose your colours straight away, rather than allowing your judgement to interfere. Forget about your “favourite” colours and any associations various colours have. Pick the three colours that hit you AT THIS MOMENT and make a note of the order in which you pick them.

colour personality

THE ANALYSIS
• The first colour you pick represents your basic personality; the essence of who you are.
• The second one relates to your present condition: your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. This colour reflects your deep, subconscious needs – and your major challenges for the year ahead.
• The third colour indicates your possible next step; what you could do to bring you to a new level of personal well-being in the year to come.

YOUR FIRST CHOICE
• RED: You are an initiator, a pioneer, a creator. Active and physical, you need to harmonise your emotions with your undoubted sense of logic in order to obtain the equilibrium you seek in life.
• ORANGE: You are naturally joyful and ebullient. Sometimes you get tired through over-activity. You need to listen to yourself, learn to be still, and trust your basic instinctive nature.
• YELLOW: You constantly seek information. You are good with words and can be dominating. Your work probably carries responsibility.
• GREEN: Yours is a personality full of balance, although you sometimes lack spontaneity through over-caution. Neat and efficient, you have an affinity for natural materials.
• TURQUOISE: You are imaginative and full of fresh ideas. You make yourself clear, are popular, and can deal with demanding situations. You have insight and are spiritually orientated.
• BLUE: Gentle by nature, you are also reliable. You make people feel secure. You value truth and honesty. At times your inward searching is too self-absorbed, making you isolated.
• VIOLET: A mixture of red and blue, you are spiritual but also very grounded. You are aesthetic, artistic and you enjoy ceremony. However you do not always feel sure you will achieve your vision.
• MAGENTA: You are a kind person, co-operative and friendly. Often this colour denotes great maturity, with a deep understanding of life. You are quite likely to be working in the caring professions.

YOUR SECOND CHOICE
• RED: Your challenge is to energise yourself, but without exhausting your resources. You need to avoid being dominated by other people and to work on expressing your own warmth and friendship.
• ORANGE: Your greatest challenge is to make time for yourself, and to find stillness in body and mind.
• YELLOW: Your challenge is to think about your physical body, not just your mental ability, so you can express your energy in the most useful way.
• GREEN: Your main challenge is to express your emotions, and to come to terms with any old emotional hurts. You may be acting out of unfulfilled needs – be honest with yourself.
• TURQUOISE: Learn to control the demands of others and give yourself time to reflect. You may need to cleanse your body, mind and emotions in order to avoid toxification and illness.
• BLUE: Your strength lies in your knowledge and your silence. But your challenge is to express yourself more directly – this way you will avoid inertia and melancholy.
• VIOLET: You are likely to be in a position of authority so it may sound strange that your challenge is to ask for acknowledgement for what you do. But if you don’t you may feel negatively towards your responsibilities. Keep going.
• MAGENTA: Your challenge is to balance giving and receiving – you tend to neglect your own needs. Learn to receive as well. Nurture yourself. Respect your own needs.

YOUR THIRD CHOICE
• RED: You would love to be lively and active, but you feel too exhausted. Try to replenish yourself and calm down your system.
• ORANGE: You may have inwardly withdrawn from the world. It’s safe to be more courageous and confident – be willing to take more risks than usual.
• YELLOW: You need to work out how to expand your mind, perhaps through education. You need to bring a sense of optimism into your life. A holiday in the sun could help.
• GREEN: By making more contact with people, you will be able to lift your spirits and feel more valuable, less serious. Your sense of guilt and inertia will also diminish.
• TURQUOISE: You welcome the challenge of change as part of a personal transformation. However be aware that this might also produce fear, turmoil and upset.
• BLUE: Be flexible enough to take a more earthly, practical attitude towards daily life. Use relaxation to restore yourself, but not simply as a means of escape.
• VIOLET: Violet encourages you to use your creativity, and to share it with others. Practice using your innate capacity for faith, intuition, and wisdom.
• MAGENTA: As you strive to blend the basic life forces (symbolised by red) with spiritual power (violet), you risk developing a grandiose self-image. Let go, and allow the gentle part of your nature to shine.

 

 

The colour test is taken from The Book of Colour Healing by Theo Gimbel (Gaia). It is a shortened version of technique which was devised in 1985 by Dorothy and Howard Sun of Living Colour.

 

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