It’s okay to choose that colorful rain jacket for your dog, and yourself
I didn’t know growing up would mean the sudden increase of grays, whites, blacks and *insert other neutral color here* pieces of clothing in my closet. That it would also mean, when I close my eyes and imagine the interior design of my dream home, how modern, minimal, and B&W it would be.
It’s like I hit a certain age and suddenly my first reaction was to reject my curiosity with colorful items or obscure things I used to love as a kid. You know, these sort of items and things:
But what’s the big deal?
I’m with you ― yes, what’s the big deal? Shockingly enough, it wasn’t me opening my lack luster closet or gasping in horror at the thought of my minimal interior design vision for me to realize this mattered. The realization hit after visiting one of my friends and noticing the pop of color hung, draped, placed, pinned, and laid out around her place.
While it was nothing too extreme, seeing this started to unravel a piece of me that missed doing the same. Like any true friendship, I began picking her brain on why this was and what drove her decision-making process, secretly hiding the fact that I was too afraid to do the same.
In short, she started to explain a TED Talk by Ingrid Fetell Lee that inspired her to make these changes in her life. In the following TED video, Lee reveals the surprisingly tangible roots of joy and why color and the obscure items described above are so important to our mental health and overall happiness.
Now why should I choose that colorful rain jacket?
1. Being joyful doesn’t mean you’re childish, feminine, unserious, or self-indulgent.
“From the moment I first started studying joy, it was clear that the liveliest places and objects all have one thing in common: bright, vivid color. Whether it’s a row of houses painted in bold swaths of candy hues or a display of colored markers in a stationery shop, vibrant color invariably sparks a feeling of delight.”
― Ingrid Fetell Lee, Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness
I’m afraid to choose bright, vivid colors for myself because the same three questions would swirl around my head.
- “Does this make me look like a kid?”
- “Do I stand out too much?”
- “How can I fit in wearing that?”
Grabbing that one black sweater or gray turtle neck became a easy way to silence those questions and feel like others will automatically accept my tastes. It was the easy way out.
However, I can’t deny when surrounded by bright, vivid color the amount of joy, happiness, and delight I felt. A feeling best summarized after visiting the Color Factory in NYC one summer, and how easy it was to silence the three questions above and embrace my child-like imagination.
I’m searching to find a balance of embracing that feeling of joy with bright, vivid color, recognizing it’s not that challenging to incorporate in my life. I just need to let go and not hold myself back.
2. It can change your behavior and the behavior of others.
“Bright color operates like a stimulant, a shot of caffeine for the eyes. It stirs us out of complacency. The artist Fernand Léger related the story of a newly renovated factory in Rotterdam. “The old factory was dark and sad,” he noted. “The new one was bright and colored: transparent. Then something happened. Without any remark to the personnel, the clothes of the workers became neat and tidy. They felt an important event had happened around them, within them.”
― Ingrid Fetell Lee, Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness
Putting on my research hat, I am drawn by one specific case study shared by Lee explaining how the use of color can change behavior.
Publicolor is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City that engages high-risk, low-income students ages 12–24 in a multi-year design-based programs to encourage academic achievement, college prep, job readiness, and community service.
Ruth Lande Shuman founded Publicolor when she was affected by seeing so many public schools that looked more like institutions than facilities to foster creative thinking and learning. She recognized that schools need environment change.
It’s a fact that students learn better in beautiful surroundings, even more so when they are the ones creating that environment.
Publicolor turns prison-like, hostile school environments into warm, welcoming student-centric environments. At the end of each project, students are left with a newly transformed building, a new sense of community and a much greater sense of safety.
We can do the same in spaces we spend the most time in. I’m starting to add small pops of color in my bedroom that has now become my WFH office, what about you?
3. The next big thing will be a lot of small things.
“I’ve found that just saying the word “treehouse” causes people to smile, no matter their age. It is like a password to the inner child’s sanctum, a place both exotic and familiar, a place of memories and dreams. The treehouse doesn’t bring us to the highest elevations. It doesn’t offer the broadest vistas. Yet even a shabby, ramshackle tree shelter — a few old boards held together with bent nails and a rope ladder — will radiate more joy than the swankest hilltop estate.”
― Ingrid Fetell Lee, Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness
As I wrap up my thoughts, I realize we’re surrounded by a lot of small things that can bring us joy. We’re just needing to look a little bit closer or have people in your life to remind you ― like my friend reminded me with her vibrant place and how I’m trying to remind you with this article (whoa, full circle).
With that same friend who shared this whole new world of color, we occasionally text each other random things we see that bring us joy.
So, yes, choose that hot pink Christmas tree, colorful rain jacket, vibrant street painting, and anything that gives you a pop of joy, happiness, or delight. You may not realize it immediately, but you’re choosing yourself every single time.
