Research shows that colours have a profound effect on your mood, emotions, and behaviour. They can energise you, making you move and think faster, and they can also help you feel more relaxed and improve your concentration.

For example, experiments show that pink helps to calm anxiety; it has also been discovered that blood pressure rises when a person is exposed to red light, and reduces under a blue light. Consider the colours that you wear and surround yourself with - even a tiny change can make a difference to how you feel.

Red

Feeling tired? Getting a cold? Wear red socks, gloves or a scarf. Stimulating and strengthening, red encourages appetite and restores vitality. It's the colour we associate with passion, sex, ambition, courage and extroversion. (Ever wondered why men notice 'the lady in red'? It's because red is also the longest ray in the visible spectrum, meaning it makes a greater impression on the retina.)

Pink

If you're feeling drained by other people, this colour has a harmonising and balancing effect. Pink is the colour of unconditional love and caring, of affection, compassion and sympathy; it helps you to be open to receive love as well as give it.

Orange

Are you disorganised? Surrounding yourself with orange items at home and at work - tea towels, candles or even a cheery mouse-mat - helps you to feel more focused and competent. Similar to red, in that it is stimulating, orange creates a nurturing sense of warmth, comfort, and positive energy. It also has anti-depressant properties and promotes hope and optimism.

Yellow

If clarity of thought is what you need, wearing yellow will help you to be more rational. Research shows that yellow has a direct effect on intellectual capacity and self-expression, which is why schools use it in classrooms. Inspirational and uplifting, it lightens mood, and helps you to concentrate and communicate.

Green

If you are unsettled, wear green to regain equilibrium. It is the colour of nature and symbolic of growth and fertility, it is also said to have healing qualities. According to colour psychologist Dorothee Mella, green is an excellent colour to wear if you are in a state of transition, perhaps moving house or ending a relationship, as it enhances perception and self-knowledge and will help soothe nervousness.

Blue

Have you got a presentation to make? Wear blue, the colour of authentic, clear communication. Calming and relaxing, blue creates a sense of serenity and vision, which is why it has been traditionally used in art as a symbol of truth and higher wisdom. The shade is important: dark blue confers a sense of emotional stability and self-reliance, and is a good choice for decision-making. Lighter blues encourage creativity, imagination and perception. And, if you struggle to wake up in the mornings, consider painting your bathroom aqua, the ideal colour for alertness.

Purple

Soothing and settling to the nerves, purple has been much used in religious and spiritual practice because it is a colour thought to enhance psychic abilities, including clairvoyance – that’s why purple was such a fashion statement in the 1960s, being associated with the awakening of all sorts of 'new age' thinking.

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