The Colour of a Better Day
Or, why we sometimes choose a colour before we choose how we want to feel.
Most of us have reached for a particular colour before an important meeting.
Or chosen a certain sweater on a difficult day.
Or returned, almost instinctively, to a familiar shade when seeking confidence, comfort, or energy.
We often assume we choose colours because we like them.
But perhaps the relationship runs deeper than preference alone.
Perhaps colours become part of the way we navigate ourselves.
Choosing a colour may be less about appearance than about intention.
For centuries, artists, philosophers, designers, and psychologists have wondered whether colour influences the way we think and feel.
The answer, according to contemporary research, is both yes and no.
Colours appear to affect perception, attention, and emotion. Yet their meaning is rarely universal. Context matters. Culture matters. Personal experience matters.
A colour that signals celebration in one culture may evoke mourning in another. A colour associated with confidence for one individual may carry entirely different associations for someone else.
As researcher Andrew J. Elliot notes, colour psychology is not a simple catalogue of fixed meanings, but a complex interaction between perception, experience, and context.
This may explain why our relationship with colour often feels deeply personal.
The colours we choose are rarely only colours.
They are memories.
Associations.
Stories.
A navy coat that recalls a parent.
A bright yellow dress worn during a particularly happy summer.
A shade of green that feels reassuring without us fully understanding why.
Over time, colours accumulate meaning in much the same way places, objects, and songs do.
Image: A woman choosing a bright green dress from her wardrobe. Image generated through AI.
There is another fascinating concept explored by researchers Hajo Adam and Adam D. Galinsky: enclothed cognition.
Their work suggests that clothing may influence not only how others perceive us, but how we perceive ourselves.
One possible explanation is that we attach symbolic meaning to what we wear.
In other words, what may matter is not only the garment itself, but what that garment represents in our mind.
Perhaps colours function similarly.
A colour may become a reminder of a version of ourselves we value…
…capable.
…creative.
…optimistic.
The colours we choose are rarely only colours.
They are memories.
Associations.
Stories.
This does not mean that wearing blue will automatically make us calm, or that yellow guarantees happiness.
Yet it may explain why certain colours feel surprisingly difficult to replace.
They have become part of our internal landscape.
In this sense, choosing a colour may be less about appearance than about intention.
A small, often unconscious act of self-definition.
Just like choosing a book, a city, a piece of music, or an object we wish to keep close.
What may be true for many of us is that certain colours become linked to experiences we wish to revisit, or experiences we hope to create.
A familiar colour may bring us back to a meaningful chapter of our lives.
An unfamiliar one may accompany a new chapter we are about to begin.
Perhaps, therefore, the right question is: “What does this colour mean to me?”
Because the colours we return to, again and again, may reveal something about the person we have been, the person we are, or the person we hope to become.
Which colour has accompanied the most important chapters of your life?
We would be glad to read your thoughts.