Color therapy gemstones may sound to some like a modern, new-age concept; however, color therapy has actually been around for centuries. For instance, in Ayurveda, a natural, holistic system of medicine that originated in India more than 3,000 years ago, each of the body’s seven chakras, or energy centers, is assigned a different color. This helps practitioners determine which color(s) to use in their healing therapies. Color therapy was also practiced in Egypt, China, and Greece more than two thousand years ago.
What is Color Therapy?
Color therapy also called chromotherapy, colorology, or color healing is used to help influence a person’s energies for emotional, spiritual, and physical benefits. Color therapy uses light in the form of color to correct imbalances that can lead to diseases of the body or mind. Proponents of this ancient healing method believe that colors, which are technically lightwaves of specific lengths, can help soothe us when we feel anxious, help energize us when we feel lethargic, and help us attract the things we might be seeking in our lives, like love, success, power and so on.
The color blue, for example, evokes feelings of calmness and serenity, as it’s reflective of the expansive sea and the never-ending sky. Wearing clothing of a preferred color is one way to reap the purported benefits, yet most people probably won’t want to wear the same color shirt every day. That’s where color therapy gemstones come in—jewelry is a much more convenient (and compact) way to wear preferred colors each day.
Color Therapy in Real Life
Jennifer Newton, a Colorado-based jewelry designer, has been interested in color therapy for as long as she can remember.
“Even when I was young, I was keen on certain gemstones, and it always fascinated me how certain colors could affect my well-being,” she said. Today, Newton offers a range of faceted gemstone earrings in colors chosen specifically for their believed healing properties. She’s amassed a number of clients who swear by the earrings—one of them owns at least 10 pairs in different colors, and she chooses the color that matches her mood each day. Newton has also won over a few skeptics along the way.
“Once, at a jewelry show, a woman scoffed at my [yellow] ‘happiness’ color-therapy earrings,” said Newton. “Surprisingly, though, she ended up buying the earrings and putting them right on. Then she came back by my booth later to tell me how she felt an instant positive shift in her mood.”
4 Tips For Using Colored Gemstones in Jewelry Designs
1. Choose Your Color Therapy Gemstones Carefully
To get the most benefits from color-therapy gemstones in jewelry designs, use stones that are natural, untreated, unheated, and unenhanced.
2. Less Is More
In its earliest days, centuries ago, color therapy relied on just the three primary colors—red, blue, and yellow. Those who practice color therapy in modern times have a wide variety of other colors to choose from, but that doesn’t mean the colors should necessarily be mixed in jewelry designs.
When designing color-therapy jewelry, try to stick to one color, to truly focus on the specific healing benefits of that color. If you want to create a piece that uses more than one color, make sure the two colors offer complementary—and not competing— healing benefits. For instance, blue, meant to calm and soothe, can help decrease the heart rate. That means blue wouldn’t mix very well with red; red can increase the heart rate, so it’s used in color therapy to energize and uplift—the exact opposite of calming.
3. Increase the Gemstone Color’s Impact
Although you probably don’t want to use more than one or two colors in a jewelry design, there are ways to double or triple the impact that the chosen color might have on the wearer. Birthstones, assigned to each birth month, are believed to attract good vibes, and each sign of the zodiac also has an associated color. Therefore, someone born in early October who is seeking kindness and protection might feel triple the impact from a pink stone, since it’s also the color of their birthstone, and also the color associated with their astrological sign, Libra.
4. Remember That Color Therapy Gemstones Are Not Scientific
Although color therapy has been practiced for millennia, it’s an alternative treatment and not scientifically proven to cure (or even alleviate) any medical conditions. Even faithful practitioners of color therapy acknowledge that it’s not a magic remedy that’s guaranteed to have any effect—though they’re firm believers, for sure.
“I would love to say that I sell magical jewelry that can manifest exactly what the wearer wants,” said Newton. “But I believe the power is already living inside each person. I know that if I’m ever feeling uninspired and need to get my groove back, I put on red, and I feel a burst because it’s tapping into that place inside me. Then, as I begin to settle into that frequency, I attract more of it.
“Color therapy is essentially the law of attraction in action.”
This story about color therapy gemstones previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Lisa Truesdale.
