Live Inspired!
Inspirational Color Quote of the Week: Colors Puce, Lavender, Blue, Periwinkle Blue and White Favorites “My favorite name for a color is “puce”… It’s a hideous color. But I love the word… But my favorite colors are lavender, purple, periwinkle blue, and white.” — Elizabeth Taylor (actress/entertainer) What do you think? Well, it’s not all about thinking, is it? Sometimes it’s simply about what you feel/like. So what’s your favorite color and how come? What else would go on your list of favorites? People? Places? Thinking about favorites (or even just very strong likes) is important because we don’t enough focus on what’s positive and what’s most meaningful to us. We like to go negative. We like to go with what hasn’t worked. But they say what you focus on expands; so it follows that if you focus on the positive, you’ll find ways to get more of it. And for the most part, Elizabeth Taylor is setting the example. Ok she isn’t mincing words when she lets us know she thinks the color puce is “hideous.” Well, as part of another conversation altogether, let’s acknowledge that strong feelings, regardless of their direction, are important to voice! Mostly though, she’s keeping the focus positive. She likes puce because she likes the name, and she lets us know that she likes a range of other colors. At the same time, she’s pointing us toward another important thought, one that sometimes gets lost in translation and one that we don’t always want to acknowledge. She’s reminding us that even when we’re focusing on things we like and those we truly count as our favorites, it’s not about being Pollyanna positive, and it’s not always 100% the way we want! each of us (whether we focus on them or not) can generate our list of favorites; let’s say favorite people. Does that mean that those individuals 100% satisfy our needs? Does it mean that we like absolutely every last thing about each of those individuals, never feeling upset or irritated even with our best friends? Hmm, it’s ok to like something a lot and still acknowledge that things aren’t and don’t have to be completely perfect? And there’s the other side of the coin too, which can be even harder to accept. Among things we don’t like, it may not be all negative. I am sure we can all think for example of individuals we strongly dislike or disagree with. Not hard to come up with that list, is it? But think for a minute. Does that mean that everything about each of those individuals is “bad?” Does that mean they have absolutely no redeeming qualities or no attributes we respect or admire. If you think about it, that’s probably not the case. You completely disagree with the views of hypothetical Person X, but she is thoughtful and articulate about expressing herself. Person Y talks too much and gets angry too easily, but he is also unusually kind and generous to his friends. By taking time to “analyze” puce and to separate the color (which she thinks is hideous) from the name (which she loves) Elizabeth Taylor, even if she probably wasn’t trying to, is teaching us a couple of important lessons. Hey, there isn’t always an all good or an all bad, and realizing that can truly shift and change the nature of our relationships, making them easier to handle. And there’s one last point too. On what are you basing your judgments when you label something as negative or positive/bad or good, and how much thought has gone into your assessments? We can’t know what image was in Elizabeth Taylor’s head when she decided puce was a hideous color. After all, puce is a combination, in shades, of colors including purple, brown and red. Well the colors Elizabeth Taylor says she really likes include purple and periwinkle (a blue/purply color). A little more time and you never know: as a color which in some shades can come pretty close to some colors she really likes, Elizabeth Taylor might just let us know that puce after all isn’t so bad. And with the groundedness of a color like brown linked to the passion of purple and red, in the end, there sure are a lot of reasons to focus on things that are our favorites and things we really like. How do these ideas resonate with you, and what are one or two actions you could take in the next day or so on that basis?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am a Life Coach, a Color Wisdom Card Practitioner, and yes, even a Professor (political science, State University of New York at Albany). I use the Color Wisdom Cards to support clients in exploring priorities and taking concrete actions to stay on track with the goals they set. Because in my own life I have overcome a lot of self-doubt, I want to work with people towards more confidence and self-empowerment. You can do it! What is it you want to do? Categories
All
Archives
June 2021
|