Seeing the color green has many positive effects on the human mind and body. Green is a restful and relaxing color that can lower stress levels, promote healing, and evoke feelings of comfort, growth, and harmony. In the hustle and bustle of modern life, surrounding yourself with green can be an oasis of calm in a chaotic world. Exposure to the color green can restore mental energy, boost creativity, sharpen focus, and enhance vision. With its many benefits, it’s no wonder green is considered one of the most balanced and healthy colors for the mind and body.
Lowers Stress and Promotes Relaxation
Seeing green helps lower stress and promote relaxation in several ways. First, the color green is gentle on the eyes. Unlike bright reds or blues, green has a calming effect. Looking at nature, which is predominantly green due to plants and trees, brings feelings of peace and tranquility. Green is mentally and physically relaxing because it reminds us of growth, renewal, and life energy. Studies have shown that simply having a view of green spaces from a window reduces job-related anxiety and feelings of burnout. The color green can also lower stress by balancing and stabilizing emotions. Overall, surrounding yourself with green helps induce relaxation, which counters the harmful effects of stress.
Boosts Healing
Seeing green is linked to boosting healing across settings. Research has found that being exposed to the color green before surgery resulted in less pain, anxiety, and negative emotions post-surgery. Green is thought to aid healing by promoting feelings of comfort and hope. Studies conducted in healthcare facilities found that glimpsing green through a window or an interior plant improved recovery metrics compared to not having a view. For example, hospital rooms with green views had shorter postoperative hospital stays and fewer analgesic doses needed. The color green supports healing by providing reassuring nature associations that boost health outcomes.
Evokes Positive Feelings
Seeing green evokes several positive feelings including comfort, harmony, growth, and hope. Green is strongly associated with nature, trees, plants, and vegetation due to its dominance in the natural world. Connecting to nature makes people feel more comfortable and engenders positive emotions. Green also represents rebirth, fertility, renewal, and energy. Exposure to green brings feelings of harmony and balance because it falls in the center of the color spectrum. It also reinforces growth, both metaphorical and literal. The color green sparks ideas of flourishing, health, resilience, and restoration. Overall, green elicits many uplifting emotions that can brighten your mood.
Enhances Focus
Seeing green can enhance mental focus and concentration in various ways. First, green has high harmony and balance being the midpoint between warm and cool colors. This equilibrium engenders centered, focused thinking. Green also aids focus by promoting relaxation; feeling calm allows you to direct attention inward. Studies have shown that even a brief glimpse of green before tasks requiring concentration improved attention span and working memory. Participants with green views also maintained focus for longer with less mental fatigue. Unlike jarring or energizing colors, green has a stabilizing effect optimal for focus. Surrounding yourself with green helps sustain concentration.
Restores Mental Energy
Seeing green helps restore depleted mental energy by activating the parasympathetic nervous system. Viewing green spaces engages this system associated with rest, relaxation, and restoration. Activities like walking in nature leave people feeling mentally rejuvenated. The renewing properties of green counter mental fatigue and improve vitality. Studies have also found that exposure to green office spaces increases employee engagement, motivation, and energy levels compared to traditional workplaces. The positive emotions green evokes fuel mental energy and drive. Simply gazing at green after intense cognitive work can reinvigorate the mind.
Boosts Creativity
Seeing the color green gives creativity a boost through several mechanisms. First, green restores mental energy, which fuels the ability to think imaginatively. It also sparks positive moods and emotions like comfort and hope that foster innovative thinking. In addition, green promotes a feeling of balance optimal for fluid, flexible cognitive processing. Studies have shown that exposure to natural green spaces improves performance on creative problem-solving tasks vs. urban settings. Participants also came up with more creative analogies when shown green color cues. Surrounding yourself with green allows you to tap into ingenuity and inspiration.
Enhances Vision
Green enhances vision due to the way our eyes are biologically designed. The human eye is most sensitive to green light at 555 nanometers wavelength. This means we can see green light the best. Importantly, the retina contains more green cones than red or blue cones. This makes green vitally important for clear daytime vision and visual acuity. Studies confirm activities like reading are easiest with green light vs. other colors. Green also provides high contrast against black text. The prominence of green in nature endows us with excellent vision for spotting animals and foliage. Overall, seeing green actually optimizes our visual system.
Sharpens Perception
Beyond aiding vision itself, seeing green has been shown to sharpen visual perception. Green has clarifying and focusing properties that lead to more accurate visual processing. Participants shown green prior to visual tasks have exhibited enhanced perception compared to neutral cues. Seeing green helps filter visual noise and hone perception of detail. Brain imaging studies reveal increased activation in areas linked to visual processing when people view green stimuli. The color green essentially puts the visual system in a zone of optimal functioning. This translates to perceiving more clearly and picking up on subtle details.
Improves Reading Comprehension
Exposure to the color green has been shown to boost reading comprehension. Green is the easiest color on the eyes and provides high contrast for black text. The clarifying properties of green also aid the ability to focus while reading. In learning settings, students exposed to green scored higher on proofreading exercises with fewer errors compared to warm color conditions. Having green workspaces, walls, or displays boosts engagement and understanding while reading. The color is also linked to memory retention, helping readers better recall what they learned. Surrounding students with green encourages reading comprehension.
Boosts Productivity
Seeing green boosts productivity in work and academic settings through its rejuvenating and motivating effects. Studies show employees working in offices with green walls or views of nature are more productive than those without. Green spaces provide mental restoration to refuel focus and prevent burnout. Green also motivates by evoking growth and possibilities. In classrooms, students exposed to green scored higher on tests of attention and had better attendance records vs. standard conditions. Bringing greenery indoors through walls, plants or imagery keeps people energized, driven, and efficient.
| Color | Effect on Productivity |
|---|---|
| Green | 16% increase |
| Blue | 15% increase |
| Yellow | 13% increase |
| Red | 12% increase |
| White | 11% increase |
Improves Athletic Performance
Studies show that seeing the color green before athletic activities can boost performance. In one experiment, cyclists shown green before tests were able to bike for longer with less exhaustion. Researchers hypothesize green activates the parasympathetic system to conserve energy. Green also enhances visual perception and focus needed for sports. Other research found weightlifters exposed to green lifted more total weight after induced fatigue. The renewing properties of green counter the drain of physical exertion allowing athletes to find that extra boost. Strategically using green could give competitors an edge.
Green Urban Design
Many urban planners are incorporating more green into cityscapes for its health and productivity benefits. Green rooftops provide island oases above the concrete jungle. City parks allow urbanites to recharge amid greenery. Green walls bring vegetation indoors to boost office workers. Studies show people are happier, healthier, and more creative with access to green spaces and nature. To support wellbeing, cities are adding greenways, preserving parks, and planting more trees. Green urban design acknowledges the human affinity for vegetation hardwired into our biology.
Green Productivity Spaces
Corporations are embracing green design in offices to enhance productivity. Greenspaces at work counter mental fatigue and spark creativity. Studies show companies garner benefits from green walls, conference rooms with live plants, and conservation graphics. Exposure to live greenery boosts employee satisfaction, energy levels, and focus. Researchers advise using green tones in workspace paint colors, furniture, and decor. Bringing nature motifs indoors through murals, photos, and artwork also helps. A green environment is a productive environment.
Conclusion
Seeing the color green provides a wealth of benefits for mind and body. Green promotes relaxation and healing while evoking positive emotions. It also enhances mental energies, vision, productivity, and athletic performance. With its balancing, renewing properties, green creates an optimal environment for flourishing. Incorporating more green into architecture, design, and daily life leverages its nourishing qualities. Surround yourself with green and reap the rewards.
