How To Use Color To Heal And Ease Your Grief

When the grieving process begins, it strikes hard. When someone close to you dies, a loved family member or friend, the loss of a family pet, your job, relationship or something that once belonged to you, now gone, forever, there can be feelings of overwhelming pain and grief.

If you have ever worked in the volunteer field on friendly visiting or hospice programs you know that to team up with clients is to provide support so patients can maintain a quality life, with some semblance of normalcy on a daily basis. As well, you lend support to family members throughout the entire process should a patient pass on.

For some, to grieve can feel lonely, isolating and often times dealing with grief can be very personal. In a wave of emotions, your thoughts and feelings bubble to the forefront of your mind. It is during these moments of grief and pain one can actively seek color therapy to reset the balance and harmony in life. Grieving though color can help shift your state of awareness and emotion as a way to release and get through the wall of pain by ‘letting go’.

Find out how you can benefit from using color while going through the grieving process weather it be for yourself or to help a friend in need. Let us look at a three-step process one must come to grips with first.

Step 1. Shock and Denial – Disbelief and feeling numb is what you must overcome through acceptance of a loved ones death.

Step 2. Experience Acute Mourning – You must get through fits of crying spells, feelings of guilt and anger, depression, insomnia and fatigue

Step 3. Solutions to Rebuild – Acceptance to go on, allowing yourself to move forward, reorganizing, returning to yourself, awareness of grief and being able to think about the deceased without feeling pain tells you that you have in fact made great progress in carrying on with living and life

There are countless ways to add color to your life when moving through the grieving process. Top five suggestions;

1. Color Visualizations – Restores your equilibrium in the body, mind and emotions.

2. Color Meditations – Brings energy of the mind to a natural relaxed state of quiet.

3. Color Crystal Healing – Allows you to cleanse, clear, ground, energize, balance, bringing peace and harmony to your body mind and soul.

4. Plants and Color – Red to stimulate and energize, blue for calm, bringing peace and help with communication and expression, purple to balance and sooth the mind to name a few color remedies with plants or flowers.

5. Color Essence – can quickly restore and balance your energy.

Now let us get specific, review how the qualities of color are valuable, and can be used to enhance your emotional state of awareness while going through the grieving process.

Rose – Helps sooth your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wounds providing sympathy and solace. Rose is spiritually revitalizing and understanding paving the way for compassion and support with it’s gentle energy.

Red – A color symbolic of what we need to survive, red brings us into focus and gives a boost of confidence when needed. Allow red to permeate your life when you lack enthusiasm and interest for living, feel insecure, fearful or anxious.

Orange – Used in times of stress, or shock, it returns the body to a state of balance. When you feel unable to ‘let go’ of a situation or something, resentment, lack of interest in surroundings, orange gives you the courage to face your fears.

Yellow – Improves your concentration, allowing you to stay alert. If you feel confused, weak nervous or exhausted, yellow like the light of the morning sun, is stimulating which helps the memory function of your brain, especially for decision-making.

Green – Restores your equilibrium. Fear of the unknown or if you feel the need to let change happen, green is forgiving allowing you to ‘let go’ and move on.

Blue – In times of grief, blue helps us to understand that death and loss are cycles of life. Perhaps you feel agitated, unable to express or communicate your thoughts needing peace or detachment, in the color blue you will find solitude and rest.

Indigo – Has the energy where you can draw from it strength to forgive, find peace and allow time for contemplation and meditation. Indigo is especially good when you seek relief of physical, mental, emotional pain dealing with life issues.

Violet – This is a great color for insomnia and restlessness (tip: a few drops of lavender oil on your pillow at night for peaceful sleep) encouraging the flow of imagination bringing ideas into focus. When you lack balance in life or your body, depressed, lethargic and face many obstacles you need to ‘let go’, you will find unity in the color violet, balancing your actions and mind.

Transitioning through grief often requires people to lend friendly support in a time of need, acting as an advisor or personal confident. Just letting those who have experienced the loss know you care speaks volumes. Listening, as they share their pain, allows everyone to express themselves, so they can forgive, ‘let go’, and move on with daily tasks.

Surrounding yourself with color can ease tensions for yourself and family members allowing room for warmth and love to continue. Color, used as tool in therapy for thousands of years and its application to your life when grieving offers much in the way of re-setting the balance and harmony to your life, improving well-being.

Through the eyes of color processing your grief, remember to acknowledge your pain, make room for change, and look to the future to live a full and happy life. Believe in the possibilities and power of color.