As I prepared to go to work on my last day as a teacher of textile craft, I wanted to look good. That was my main concern. So I put on one of my favorite dresses. Since it was a cold day I also wore a sweater beneath the dress.
It was red. Brilliant red.
My day turned out to be very stressful. As I had expected, many of my students needed to finish their craft projects. Christmas holidays were coming up and some things were to become Christmas gifts. Seeing how unhappy some of the kids were when they didn’t have enough time, I offered to help get them finished.
My stomach was in a knot as I hurried between classes, sewing machines, a super quick lunch, a new class… working as fast as I could in every break.
When I came home I was totally exhausted. Burnt out.
As my mind began to slow down a few hours later, it dawned on me that my choice of color that day had been absolutely terrible. The brilliant red, that I had even worn closest to my body, surely added stress to an already stressful day. Considering my own sensitivity to stress, it was actually the worst color I could have chosen. If I had made a conscious choice, I would have tried to balance the energies that day. By wearing something blue instead, I had helped myself to a calmer mood.
Having studied and worked with colors, and how we are affected by them, for more than 30 years, one would think I’d be the first to know how to dress right. How to dress consciously. But we are surely put together by different parts. The part of me that had taken the lead that morning was Miss Vain, whose focus is always to look as nice as possible.
Red is a very nice and warm color for Christmas though…
Happy Holidays!
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