Hi #BeautifulAndCapable. In today's blog we will discuss JOY and the power of healing through COLORS. Sounds unbelievable, but colors truly do affect you in your every day life and aid in how you experience the world around you and feel inside. I hope you find this video inspiring, helpful and that you learn how to be more intentional with colors that surround us and ultimately - how to bring more JOY into your LIFE.

As you know, color is what I am passionate about, and I get to express that passion through my jewelry designs. I want to bring in some experts in fields of health, spirituality and fashion, and share with you why color is so important in our lives, what it means to us and all around us, and how to use it to create a life you want.

In this webinar, I got to sit down with this amazing woman, Dr. Arlene Dijamco, who dedicated her life to healing. As her journey in a traditional medical field has unfolded, she focused this year on sharing her diverse multidimensional knowledge through podcasts, bringing experts from varies fields focused on non so traditional healing practices, and drawing direct connections how we can truly heal our bodies and minds. 

And of course, we connected over colorful jewelry and decided to create this forum to share with you!

We began this conversation with talks of color and how it correlates with JOY. Joy is an intangible feeling of positive emotion that makes you smile or even make some of us dance. There are multiple elements we discuss that contribute to the feeling of JOY. I have always felt the spark of joy in my creations, just as right colors, shapes and textures meet and balance, and feel that joy transferred to the person that wears it, and it expends as people that see it on feel that joy as well. 

Dr. Arlene has reminded us about one of the top watched TED Talk of Ingrid Fetell Lee: Where joy hides and how to find it. In her talk, Ingrid describes joy and it's source in a very unique way. So, why do some things seem to create such universal joy? In her captivating talk and her book Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness, Ingrid Fetell Lee reveals the surprisingly tangible roots of joy and shows how we all can find (and create) more of it in the world around us. 

In her own words: "Have you ever wondered why we stop to watch the orange glow that arrives before sunset, or why we flock to see cherry blossoms bloom in spring? Is there a reason that people -- regardless of gender, age, culture, or ethnicity -- are mesmerized by baby animals, and can't help but smile when they see a burst of confetti or a cluster of colorful balloons. We are often made to feel that the physical world has little or no impact on our inner joy. Increasingly, experts urge us to find balance and calm by looking inward -- through mindfulness or meditation -- and muting the outside world.

But what if the natural vibrancy of our surroundings is actually our most renewable and easily accessible source of joy?

In Joyful, she reveals how we can harness the power of our surroundings to live fuller, healthier, and truly joyful lives. Bright, vivid, expanding colors have this whimsical feelings that tends to flood our bodies with joy. Balance and harmonization are more key elements that effects joy, deciding where certain objects go or watching an aspect of nature grow all affect this feeling. These elements give us child like emotions which brings out an essence of pure happiness which is the feeling I want everyone that enters my store to feel. I always say that when you enter my store you feel like a kid entering a candy shop."

In our talk, we share some ideas you can implement easily in your own home and your everyday life. Each color has it's own feel and creates different dynamic of our physical and energetic bodies. Bright colors tend to energize, and for example, blue and green shades improve your Cortisol Levels, fueling your Adrenal Glands and allowing your body to balance and heal. If you want to energize your body - bright colors, like yellow and orange, but in the evening it is recommended to desaturate and use more muted, like brown and grey.

*In our next talk, we will share some thoughts on chakras as part of healing (see my 7 chakras blog and shop Chakra Gift Boxes)

Growing up, I lived in a world that had limited color, and had always allowed me to be brave and experiment with color combinations only based on my own feeling of balance. I feel colors play together and can sense if that balance is filled with joy. I created my very own world of color which I believe it shows in my designs. 

What color does to a young mind is truly MAGICAL!

Publicolor is an organization created by Ruth Shuman, a pioneer in using design to engage disaffected youth in their education, that implemented a project to bring color to to a school in an effort to improve the livelihood and test scores of students.

  Shuman hit on the deceptively simple—yet incredibly successful—idea that one can fundamentally improve students’ attitudes and engagement by improving their learning environments. Shuman changed the prison like classrooms into something colorful and inviting that had a lasting impression on the students, this project didn't only affect the school but also the community. 

Color can be a powerful factor in healing, especially right now. With quarantine and fears, I am sure some of us are going through a mix of emotions and fears, and I believe that adding the colors below will help and give you that boost of positive energy you are looking for. We are all in this together and COLOR is your best friend!

Since the day we were born, we have learned to place objects, colors, and emotions in particular categories. And although our eyes can perceive thousands of colors, the way we communicate about color – and the way we use color in our everyday lives – means we have to carve this huge variety into identifiable, meaningful categories. These categories can change during our lifetime as we are influenced by everything around us. 

I invite all of my readers to go through the colors and ask themselves: 

"How do they make me feel?" 

Find out what each color personally means to you and if you find yourself falling in love with those colors - place more of them into you life. It could be a painting, shoes, a lamp, or jewelry, anything of that color that makes you feel positive. 

"Wear Color, Surround Yourself with Color and Discover Your Happy New World!" Anna Balkan