What Color is Your Mood Today?

Growing up, most children never learn labels for their feelings, making it hard for them to express what was going on inside. But most kids did have crayons, and they drew out their emotions freely.

Remember when you colored what you saw and imagined without any cares or instructions? You picked colors that represented how you truly felt in that moment.

Remember when you drew a tree and it was purple? That may have been your favorite color that day, or week, or hour, or it may have just been how you felt about purple.

When clients are uncomfortable writing their feelings down in a journal, often it’s because they don’t have words yet for feelings they’re still processing. In that case, I suggest they pull out their trusty box of Crayolas and get back to work like a kid again.

It’s ok if you’re feeling blue, or any other color. Just pick a crayon and start coloring. Feeling uncertain? Just scribble words or plain colors across the whole page. Feeling happy? Sad? Confused? Angry? It isn’t art therapy; I’m not asking you to make a masterpiece. It’s just expressive and can be abstract.

Ultimately, you may surprise yourself with how informative this exercise can be. The most important thing in the process is to color until you feel finished. Maybe it takes a few seconds, maybe it takes a half hour; the goal is to show yourself the color of your mood… today.

As always, take good care,

Dale