Suffering from bedtime blues? Why not try a warmer hue?
You probably already know that taking a long bath, going for a walk or writing in your journal are great ways to relax and unwind before bed — but, sometimes, you just don’t have the time or the energy.
Oliver Niño, a spiritual coach and celebrity energy healer, knows we’re all busy — which is why he teaches his clients how to relieve their anxiety before bed with an easy technique that only takes a few minutes: color therapy.
“Color therapy is when you’re going to bed or when you’re meditating and you’re imagining different colors coming down and filling you up,” Niño, who wrote the new book “Do This Before Bed: Simple 5-Minute Practices That Will Change Your Life,” told The Post.
It’s been practiced for centuries — going back to when ancient Egyptians built solariums on the premise that light and color had healing properties. An alternative medicine, it is also featured in Indian ayurvedic treatments.
Also known as chromotherapy, color therapy is based on the belief that colors have different energies and can provoke emotional responses in good and bad ways.
It is believed that green is associated with nature, peace and acceptance.
Red, the color of fire, can illicit anger but also excitement; yellow is associated with sunlight and positivity; orange is thought to stimulate appetite; and while blue might get you down, this water color could also be sedating before bed.
The precise emotion that a color elicits can also vary by individual, which is why Niño recommends experimenting to see what works for you.
For example, next time you’re tucking yourself in for a great night of sleep, try visualizing being imbued with the color white.
“Imagine white coming down from the sky, filling you up, and you just go round robin, between white, purple, gold, blue,” he said. “You’re gonna find that one of the colors that comes up will cause you to feel more tranquil and peaceful.”
Other people, he says, prefer to imagine themselves getting wrapped in gold or other colors.
“It’s just figuring out how you respond to them and which one’s the best one to use,” he said.
Color therapy is often employed in breathwork — you might be asked to imagine inhaling white, positive energy and exhaling dark, negative energy — as a way of cleansing your aura before bed.
It’s a technique Niño himself employs as a way of creating a barrier between his work life and home life and treating his house as a sacred space.
“Before I go into my house, I’m like, ‘This house is a place of positive energy — all the drama I’m going to leave behind outside the house,’” he explained.
Then he imagines white light coming down from the sky — and he is cleansed.
