Color Therapy 101: Introduction + Red

When you think of red, what sort of emotional response does it elicit within you? One of passion, rage, anger? One of lust? One of discomfort, awkwardness? Love, perhaps? Power?

Upon thinking of these responses, it’s really hard to disassociate the chakras and what their typical color and meaning assignments are. Thus, we will begin to see how color therapy can be used to help remove energetic blockages.

Starting with red, chakra colors follow a typical rainbow pattern up to the top of your head. The red is the root; orange is sacral; yellow is solar plexus; green is the heart bridge; blue is throat; indigo is the third eye; violet is the crown.

When I was a young girl, I couldn’t stand the lower chakra colors — red, orange, and yellow. Actually, I couldn’t stand green, either. I was all about the other end of the spectrum — blues, indigo, dark violets, blacks, and to a lesser extent, deep whites.

I remember when I was about in the 7th grade and a friend declared she loved my style. She thought it was amusing that one day I could get away with wearing all white, and the next day I could wear all black — and it wasn’t weird.

As with all of us, I would choose to wear colors depending on how I felt.

As my psyche and persona developed into high school age, the black became more of an enveloping color to to cloak me in safety — hello, Goths, or Emos, or whatever you’re called now — there’s a reason why you gravitate towards black.

Black absorbs all colors, and it helps you work through your highly emotional, and empathetic, states. It keeps you safe.

As I got older and began to study chakras, I realized why I preferred the colors I had always gravitated towards — these darker, deeper colors. To this day, lighter colors, pastels, still sit a little ill with me — and I am desperately trying to make yellow work within my lifestyle (but that one is a little harder, too; it sits not just on an emotional plane for me, but also physical — I am yellow-toned, and yellow eerily washes me out into a state of nonexistence!).

Red itself, though, was evasive for probably over 30 years of my life.

Red represents the color most frequently associated with the lowest chakra — the root. Literally think of the sciatic nerve rooting down from your spinal column, reaching down into the ground. Red is on the visible spectrum, and it moves at a much lower speed of frequency.

When all is well, you feel grounded, stable. There is security and stillness. You feel like you belong, and you damn well deserve to belong. A key phrase might be, “I am.”

However, if your root chakra is imbalanced – as mine was as a child – you don’t feel stable, and the very thought of gravity is terrifying. You simply want to lift off, and get away from wherever you currently are — and I’m using the word loosely – planted.

It could also be over-stimulated, in which case you might become too content, too lethargic, too close to the ground. You might imbibe in too much red protein, and begin to vibrate at a lower frequency. You might become overweight, stagnant.

So red, this color associated with this root chakra, might be a major deterrent. It may stimulate your senses and simply be too overwhelming. It might activate you, and make you extremely jittery.

If you find that this is the case, and no other color bothers you — then you might want to actually work with the color red and not avoid it.

In small doses, of course, especially since it IS such a stimulating color.

Here are some suggestions for you to try:

Gather red flowers, red stones for decoration inside your abode. Place them in groups within your vision; don’t start with too much, but subtle differences your body systems will take alert towards. Continue to add to the piles you’ve chosen, until you realize you don’t notice them anymore.

Stone suggestions: ruby, garnet, bloodstone, red jasper. Flowers: roses, carnations.

Wear these slick, red glasses like the ones I offer to students during my Introduction to Color/Light Therapy classes — and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS by not keeping them on too long. You are literally filtering in the red light into your retinas.

WEAR RED. This is probably the most simple to do, and your body systems will absorb the color. I have a tendency of wearing a red hoodie anytime I get sick — it’s like my body is absorbing the frequency to heal up more efficiently.

EAT RED. Grapes, apples, red meat if that’s your thing.

KNIT IN RED! (Like I’m currently doing, for my son’s Hallowe’en Spider-man costume!)

I think you get the idea.

To find out if you could use some color therapy in your life in regards to your chakras, a google search will pull up some chakra tests.

Here’s one I just took, which was super quick and easy.

And just so you know, it said my sacral chakra is off. Which is perfect, as our next chakra and color to look into will be… orange!

For further consideration regarding red color and/or light therapy, think of infrared lights, lasers. Think of how these treatments are already embedded into our society without second thought. More and more studies are being conducted regarding different colors and/or light therapy, beyond what we take for granted as normal. There are even studies that red light therapy helps with migraine headaches!

Let this series start your journey into color therapy! Read books, check out blogs, check out studies. You can even find a color therapist for more personal guidance. But above all, enjoy!

❤ This rich world of hues can be used as an added wonder into your daily life. ❤

I hope you enjoyed this little blurb about the color red… the next color in this series will be orange, so stay tuned!