The Power of Color: Food, Mood & Dopamine Dressing

Have you ever noticed how the color you wear totally changes your energy?
Throw on black and suddenly you’re that mysterious woman in the coffee shop everyone low-key wants to be.
Wear pink and you’re soft, flirty, maybe texting your ex “by accident.”
Yellow? You’re pure sunshine with a latte in hand.

And don’t even get me started on the weather, when the sky’s clear and bright, I’m like “Let’s conquer the world!”
When it’s gray and rainy? I’m one sad hoodie away from crawling under a blanket (great excuse for baby and puppy cuddles, though).

Turns out, there’s a reason for that. This isn’t just about fashion or seasonal moods, it’s the Power of Color, and she’s been messing with our energy since forever.

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🌀 A Tiny Bit of Color Gossip (History Edition)

Back in the day, Aristotle thought colors came from a mix of black and white and tied them to the four elements: air, water, fire, and earth.
Then Isaac Newton came along doing what men do best, taking something mystical and making it all technical. He split white light with a prism and gave us the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Thanks for the Rainbow 🌈.

But Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, an artist with actual feelings, said, “Hold up. Color isn’t just science; it’s emotion.”
And honestly? I’m with Goethe. Sorry Newton, but my hair dye choices say otherwise.

💡 “When life feels dull, sometimes all you need is a little color to remind you that you’re alive.”

Until I got pregnant, I couldn’t even remember my natural hair color. Every shade I picked came straight from my mood: purple when I felt powerful, red when I needed energy (never again, the bleach trauma is real), and teal/blue when I craved peace.
Walking into Sally’s was my version of therapy. “New color, new me”, and it always worked.

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🎨 How Color Messes With Our Mood (in the Best Way)

Here’s the thing, color isn’t just what we see. It’s what we feel.

Psychologists have proven what we’ve always known: color impacts emotion and behavior.
Your brain reads color like your body reads caffeine, fast, powerful, and mood-altering.

Let’s decode the vibes:

• Red — confidence, energy, courage
• Yellow — optimism, creativity, joy
• Green — calm, balance, grounding
• Blue — peace, focus, trust
• Pink — love, softness, compassion
• Purple — mystical, intuitive, visionary
• Black — main-character energy, power, protection

So yeah, your favorite hoodie color? It’s probably your nervous system’s love language. Basically, your nervous system reads color like your brain reads caffeine.

When I think back, every color I’ve ever dyed my hair wasn’t just a look, it was my mood board on my head. When I felt powerful and badass, I went purple. When I wanted peace, I went blue. When I needed fun, I went pink. (There will be photos. You’ve been warned.)

Color has always been my therapy, the louder my life got, the brighter I became.

Even ancient cultures used color to heal, which brings us to chromotherapy (aka color-light therapy).

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🌈 Chromotherapy 101: Healing with Light

Chromotherapy is the practice of using colored light to restore emotional or physical balance.
Egyptian healers filtered sunlight through stained glass. Ayurvedic medicine connected colors to chakras. And today? We use LED masks, salt lamps, and mood lighting — same concept, prettier packaging.

Modern studies suggest that colored light can affect everything from your circadian rhythm to your mood and stress levels.
Some examples:

• Red light therapy is used to stimulate energy, circulation, and collagen production.
• Blue light can reduce inflammation, lower blood pressure, and promote calmness.
• Green light has been studied for pain relief and migraine management.
• Yellow light is believed to enhance joy and digestion.
• Purple/violet light is said to boost intuition and promote deep rest.

So yeah, that glow from your self-care LED mask? You’re basically doing ancient energy work in your bathroom.

Even if you don’t fully buy into the “energy healing” side, the science of light wavelengths proves one thing: color does affect our biology.

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🥗 Eat the Rainbow: Colorful Food, Colorful Energy

I used to think “eat the rainbow” was toddler talk, a cute way to sneak veggies into mac & cheese.
Turns out, it’s real science.

While working at a naturopathic doctor’s office (and now that my baby is exploring food), I’ve learned that every color you eat has its own superpower. When you mix them, you’re giving your body a spa day and your mood a playlist upgrade.

Each color you eat is a code, your body’s way of feeding your mood, your hormones, and your energy.

Let me break it down 🍓👇

Color	What It Does for Your Body	The Mood Boost	Examples
❤️ Red	Packed with antioxidants (lycopene, anthocyanins) that protect your heart and boost circulation (PMC)	Energy, passion, confidence	Strawberries, tomatoes, red peppers, raspberries
🧡 Orange	High in beta-carotene + vitamin C for immunity and glowing skin (Harvard Health)	Creativity, warmth, joy	Carrots, sweet potatoes, oranges, pumpkin
💛 Yellow	Great for digestion and mood regulation (hello, vitamin B + serotonin support) (Healthline)	Cheerful, motivated, lighthearted	Bananas, corn, yellow squash, pineapple
💚 Green	Chlorophyll, fiber, and folate support detox, hormone balance, and calm energy (NIH)	Calm, grounded, centered	Spinach, avocado, cucumber, kiwi
💙💜 Blue & Purple	Rich in anthocyanins that boost brain health, memory, and intuition (Baylor University)	Intuitive, peaceful, reflective	Blueberries, eggplant, purple cabbage, blackberries

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When you crave red foods, you might need energy or courage.
When you crave greens, your nervous system wants balance.
And if you can’t stop with orange foods (hi, fall-season sweet potatoes)? Your body’s screaming for warmth and joy.

So no, you’re not just snacking. You’re doing color therapy with snacks.

And if your plate’s been looking a little beige lately (mac & cheese, pastries, coffee — guilty 🙋‍♀️), maybe life’s been feeling beige too.

Eating the rainbow isn’t just nutrition, it’s self-care. It’s literally painting your insides with happiness.

Paint your plate. Season your soul.

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👗 Dopamine Dressing: Fashion as Mood Therapy

Okay, let’s move from the plate to the closet.

I don’t know about you, but my feed is full of dopamine-dressing creators; bold, bright, fabulous women who make me want to burn my all-black wardrobe and start over. (Shoutout to my faves: Sammi, Peyton, Toni, Christina Chaccour y’all are walking serotonin.)

Dopamine dressing is all about wearing joy, because your brain does listen.

Here’s the science-meets-style tea:
The term refers to choosing colors, textures, and silhouettes that lift your mood and spark confidence. It’s tied to enclothed cognition, the idea that what you wear changes how you think and feel.
In one study, people wearing a “doctor’s coat” performed better on attention tasks than those who didn’t.

Translation: your outfit literally changes your headspace.

And yes, color matters. Bright, saturated hues signal positivity and trigger emotional uplift.

After I gave birth, I totally lost my “pink.”
During pregnancy and postpartum, all I wanted was black; for my baby shower, for my baby, for myself. It felt safe, simple, protective. But now? Dressing my daughter in every pastel under the sun reminded me how much I missed color.
She basically has allowed me to be her stylist (we’ll see how long that lasts LOL), she made me fall back in love with pink, lavender, mint, and all the joy I’d muted.

Now I’m slowly rebuilding my closet, and maybe even selling a few of my darker pieces on Poshmark (👀 check my closet!). It’s time for a brighter era.

📢Listen: your wardrobe is part of your emotional arsenal. Dopamine dressing is all about choosing clothes that feel like joy, because your brain does listen.

🎨 Find Your Palette, Find Your Power

Not every shade works for everyone, that’s where color palettes come in.
There are up to 48 color profiles that match your unique skin tone, hair, and eye color.
Knowing your undertone is a game-changer:

• Warm babes: earthy tones (coral, gold, mustard, olive)
• Cool babes: jewel tones (fuchsia, sapphire, lavender)
• Neutral babes: both. Yes, you are so lucky🙄

Once you know your palette, getting dressed becomes therapy. Because color isn’t just for fashion, it’s for your frequency.

💫 The Badass in the Rainbow

Color isn’t just pretty, it’s power.
It’s medicine, mood, and magic all rolled into one.

So next time life feels dull, look at your closet, your fridge, your energy, and paint it back in.
Because you don’t need to have it all together to shine. You just need a little color and a whole lot of self-love.

💡 “The magic is always hiding in the mess, and sometimes, it’s fuchsia.”