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Best Stress-Relief Gift: How To Use CMY Cubes Colour Therapy To Lower Anxiety and Improve Focus
Chandana BalasubramanianChannel the healing power of colour therapy to lower stress, centre your thoughts and increase your focus with CMY cubes.
We lead extremely busy lives today. It can be very tough to juggle relationships, family, work, home, health, and other priorities. Being pulled in many directions can place a significant amount of stress on us and negatively impact our physical and mental health.
Sometimes, we may need a little help to soothe our stress and the nervous energy that builds up inside us. These instances can be due to facing uncertainty, making difficult decisions, dealing with new responsibilities, or handling a sudden crisis. During these times, we can use all the help we can get.
Are toys good for anxiety and stress?
There is, of course, no substitute for nutritious food, exercise, meditation, and getting enough sleep. But stress-relief toys and accessories can offer some relief when we need them.
Focusing our attention on a colourful object's sensory and visual aspects can be meditative and ground us in the present. This is why, in recent years, stress-relief accessories have become incredibly popular gifts for the holidays – for loved ones, colleagues, employees, or even yourself.
But not all anxiety-relief toys are the same. CMY cubes, for example, leverage the proven strength of colour and light psychology to help calm us down, slow our breathing, and lower anxiety.
CMY cubes provide colour therapy at your fingertips to help infuse positive light and energy.
Studies show that red can improve performance on tasks that require greater attention to detail, and blue enhances creativity.
What is colour therapy? How does it work?
Colour therapy is a form of therapy that uses colour and light to treat mental and physical health conditions. The field is based on the fact that different colours have been proven to affect our bodies and minds in various ways. It is also known as chromotherapy.
How do colours impact mood, stress levels, and focus?
Colours have been proven to influence our emotions and behaviour in different ways. For centuries, ancient cultures assigned specific colours to impart meaning to rituals and ceremonies. More recently, there is a growing body of research to understand how colour affects us and the power of colour therapy.
As early as the 1970s, researchers found that colours can alter our heart rate, blood pressure, and breath1. One of the reasons why is that our eyes distinguish between colours based on their wavelength. We are also conditioned from childhood to respond to certain colours in different ways.
Red or Magenta
Many of our colour associations come from nature. For example, the colours like red and magenta may remind us of flushed faces and make our hearts beat faster. A study evaluating 60 years of competitive sports results found that wearing red helped athletes win more games. Red was shown to uplift the players' confidence and affect their competitors subconsciously2. Colours in the red spectrum like red and magenta can help us improve focus and performance on tasks that require greater attention to detail3.
Blue and Green, or Cyan
Our eyes are especially sensitive to shorter wavelengths like green, blue, and cyan (the colour between blue and green) on the light spectrum. This may be why these colours affect us more. Additionally, many of us associate light blue and cyan with a sense of calm because it makes us think of clear skies or peaceful water bodies.
The colour blue is known to enhance creativity4. Exposure to blue light or cyan can also help make us more alert and enhance our performance on tasks that need sustained attention5,6.
Similarly, green is another colour that helps us feel better. The act of exercising in nature is known as 'green exercise.' It is known to have a positive effect on our physical and mental health. A study showed that green plays a significant role in stabilising mood during green exercise, compared to red or grey7.
Different colours, particularly green, even impact our memories. When people were given a list of emotionally-charged words in different colours, they could recall positive words written in green better8.
Yellow
Yellow light stimulates our brains. Research shows that exposure to yellow light can make people feel more likely to participate in vigorous activity9. Research from the Pantone Colour Institute shows that people instinctively associate yellow with sunshine, warmth, happiness, and even playfulness.
White versus Black
Colour even impacts how we perceive the taste of food! When people ate mousse presented on a white plate, they perceived the taste to be more intense, sweeter and preferred it to the same mousse served on a black plate10.
Combining colour therapy with sensory stress-relief to lower anxiety and improve performance
How to harness colour psychology to help you calm nervous energy and deal with stressful situations? CMY cubes offer you the principles of colour therapy blended with the soothing benefits of sensory stimulus.
CMY stands for Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow – three powerful colours of the spectrum in one tool designed to help calm your nerves, improve focus, and spark your imagination.
An added bonus from CMY Cubes
They're just fun to play with. Spin your CMY cubes around in your hands or observe them in different lights as they sit on your desk. Stack an octahedron or a dodecahedron on top of a cube for an endless variety of stunning combinations. 'Shape connoisseurs' can even add an icosahedron and tetrahedron to your collection.
Read reviews from our satisfied customers to learn more about how CMY Cubes can help.
[1] AL-Ayash, A., Kane, R. T., Smith, D., & Green-Armytage, P. (2016). The influence of color on student emotion, heart rate, and performance in learning environments. Color Research and Application, 41(2), 196–205.
[2] Hill, R. A., & Barton, R. A. (2005). Psychology: red enhances human performance in contests: Psychology. Nature, 435(7040), 293.
[3] Mehta, R., & Zhu, R. J. (2009). Blue or red? Exploring the effect of color on cognitive task performances. Science (New York, N.Y.), 323(5918), 1226–1229.
[4] Mehta, R., & Zhu, R. J. (2009). Blue or red? Exploring the effect of color on cognitive task performances. Science (New York, N.Y.), 323(5918), 1226–1229.
[5] Cajochen, C., Münch, M., Kobialka, S., Kräuchi, K., Steiner, R., Oelhafen, P., … Wirz-Justice, A. (2005). High sensitivity of human melatonin, alertness, thermoregulation, and heart rate to short wavelength light. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 90(3), 1311–1316.
[6] Lockley, S. W., Evans, E. E., Scheer, F. A. J. L., Brainard, G. C., Czeisler, C. A., & Aeschbach, D. (2006). Short-wavelength sensitivity for the direct effects of light on alertness, vigilance, and the waking electroencephalogram in humans. Sleep, 29(2), 161–168.
[7] Akers, A., Barton, J., Cossey, R., Gainsford, P., Griffin, M., & Micklewright, D. (2012). Visual color perception in green exercise: positive effects on mood and perceived exertion. Environmental Science & Technology, 46(16), 8661–8666.
[8] Mammarella, N., Di Domenico, A., Palumbo, R., & Fairfield, B. (2016). When green is positive and red is negative: Aging and the influence of color on emotional memories. Psychology and Aging, 31(8), 914–926.
[9] Han, S., & Lee, D. (2017). The effects of treatment room lighting color on time perception and emotion. Journal of Physical Therapy Science, 29(7), 1247–1249.
[10] Piqueras-Fiszman, B., Alcaide, J., Roura, E., & Spence, C. (2012). Is it the plate or is it the food? Assessing the influence of the color (black or white) and shape of the plate on the perception of the food placed on it. Food Quality and Preference, 24(1), 205–208.