Friday Question – Colors

The Friday Question: How it works

Every Friday we will pose a question for you all to discuss or privately consider. You can engage with it publicly here on the RFAS blog, or you can join our forum (details below) for a more private discussion. You can write it down to think about later, journal about it, or bring it in to a therapy session with you.

If you would like to volunteer to become a moderator and host future Questions, please email us at volunteer@asexualsurvivors.org—or join our forum and post in the moderator volunteer thread. If you just have an idea for a future Question that you want to share, we have a brainstorming topic on our forum.

Something to Ponder Today

The U.S. fall season bursts with warm red and gold colors. In contrast, the whiteness of winter can be associated with blankness, emptiness, death, or purity, to name a few — and those may not be feelings that trauma survivors want in their environment. Looking at your surroundings can feel like looking in a mirror and being upset by what you see. Most of us rely a lot on vision, so color can be a very strong stimulus for us, and how we react to it can say a lot about what is personally important to us.

Color psychology analyzes a lot of common associations between colors and emotions. Blues and cooler colors are supposedly soothing, greens and earth tones are grounding. Many restaurants are painted red with the intention of making customers hungry. It can be beneficial to understand how particular colors may influence or trigger you, since you could see those colors anywhere.

What do different colors make you feel or think about?

• Do you associate any specific colors with specific feelings, in general or as triggers? Do you feel more strongly about certain ones? Is there a pattern to your associations?
• Do you agree or disagree with some common interpretations, such as those on this list?
• How can you decorate your living space with a color scheme that has a positive effect on you? What are some other places (restaurants, malls, etc) that feel safe or uplifting?
• How can you take calming colors with you when you go to places that are uncomfortable?
• How can you dull the negativity of certain colors and emotions by grounding yourself with your other senses?
• How might you ultimately change a color’s meaning from negative to neutral or positive?

You don’t have to answer every (or any!) question, of course. These are just different ways to approach the topic which might be helpful to consider. You can share as much or as little as you like.

On the Forum

• You can discuss this question privately after registering at the forum
• Here are instructions for how to join the forum
• Here’s the invite request form
• You can also still discuss previous questions as well. There is no time limit for joining the discussion.
• Please abide by our rules in both comments and forum posts.

Please note that we are still working things out in the forum, especially technical issues. We are gradually letting people in now who are not moderators or volunteers, but it can basically be considered “in beta” for now. So if you do join, please excuse our forum being a bit of a mess while we get everything tested. There may also be a little bit of a wait time for sending out invites.

Here are a couple of things you should know about posting to the forum:

• All posts are private, and can only be viewed by members
• It is against forum rules to discuss any personal stories shared on the forum with anyone who is not a member without permission of the person who shared it
• You can post as anonymous, once you are a member

The Spoiler Tag

You can hide especially triggering details behind a spoiler tag—which also works in blog comments. Here’s an example:

[spoiler title=’Triggering stuff’ collapse_link=’true’]Explicit/triggering material would go here.[/spoiler]

To make one, just type…

[ spoiler ] ... [ /spoiler ]

…without the spaces. I hope that this helps everyone safely navigate this conversation.