My Colours of Love

Liz, when you reveal your true colors in love, you're a

SENSUAL PARTNER.

You're looking for a loyal love who can share your dreams and fantasies — both in and out of the bedroom. In fact, your greatest desire may be to share your intimate life with another person who can truly appreciate your sensual world. Because sex and sensuality are such valued parts of your life, these things are likely non-negotiables when it comes to finding a life partner. You're also looking for the kind of person who will value success and appreciate the finer things in life.

Getting close to people, physically, and emotionally, probably plays a prominent role in your romantic relationships. In fact, your greatest desire may be to share your intimate life with another person who can truly appreciate your sensual world. Because sex and sensuality are such valued parts of your life, these things are likely non-negotiables when it comes to finding a life partner. In fact, a mate who doesn't match your libido probably couldn't hold your interest for very long. Understand that your view of sexuality is likely to be more liberal than many people's views. Perhaps this is due to your rich fantasy life. Finding someone who can be compatible with you in this way will be vital to creating a lasting relationship. Especially since you can see this physical intimacy as an essential communication of your love.

Love and sex aren't the only things on your mind — far from it. Sensual partners like you often direct your thoughts toward more worldly things. Your type tends to feel that money makes the world go round; so you likely do what you can to maximize your wealth. But beyond life's financial rewards, success in itself can be important to you. As a result, you usually work harder than many do to make sure you achieve it. Perhaps that's because you like being the best at what you do. You may also appreciate the accolades that come with a job well done. Status symbols and your appearance can be other strong focuses for you as you seem to enjoy being admired for your style and belongings.

In work and life, you generally like to feel that you're in control. Professionally, this may mean you find yourself in supervisory positions or working independently. You prefer the flexibility these kinds of situations offer and are apt to relish being able to do things your way. This desire to take the lead and make the rules may transfer over to your relationships as well. However, ultimately, you'll want to find a partner who will remain loyal to you and devoted to your relationship together. You likely know that relationships built on mutual trust and dedication can be the very best kind.

Your Outlook On Dating

Whether you're new to the dating scene or a self-proclaimed expert, your perspective about dating will go a long way toward determining your ultimate success in finding the partner who's right for you. Just remember that no matter what your view of dating is today, you always have the power to change it if it isn't bringing you what you desire. Here's what your colors revealed about your present outlook:

When a romance ends, you can be pretty hard on yourself — blaming yourself for problems and even seeing the relationship as a personal failure. Rather than just dusting yourself off and getting back in the saddle as many people do, you typically carry your sadness after a beak-up much longer. While it's important to allow yourself to grieve after a relationship ends, getting stuck in those feelings can inhibit your future happiness. Instead of telling yourself that you'll never find another love like your ex, or that there's no one out there you can trust, take some time to build up your faith and positivity again. Ironically, the best way to attract a compatible mate may be to find strength and happiness in being single.

You may, however, find yourself in a bit of a rut when you venture out to find new people. At first, your love of routine and occasional resistance to change might keep you from reaching outside of your comfort zone. If you want to meet new people, you'll probably need to go new places, get involved in new activities, and seek out creative ways to meet singles. You might even want to try online dating. Trying these unfamiliar, sometimes adventurous, things can be a challenge, but think of the potential reward. Your dream date is not likely to simply drop into your lap one day, as much as you would like them to. Instead, you'll need to open yourself up to new possibilities to get out there and find them.

How You Handle Conflict

Once you find yourself as part of a couple, the way you and your new partner handle disagreements will become crucial to your relationship's long-term success. Realistically, you can't expect to avoid relationship problems entirely, so it's best understand whether or not the way you and your partner argue is compatible. This is something you'll usually be able to determine within the first three months of a relationship, and sometimes even sooner.

In your case, you feel that it's important for both parties to feel heard in an argument. So if your partner yells at you, you're likely to try to calm things down so the two of you can have a more rational discussion. Sometimes, though, you may lose your temper as well and respond by yelling back. Your primary goal in most arguments is to get your partner to understand your position and persuade them to feel the way you do. However, you are also concerned about how your partner is feeling. As a result, you'll ordinarily try to understand their perspectives as well. In relationships, you'd probably do best with a mate who can stand up for themselves and explain how they're feeling when they're upset.

If your partner confronts you when you've done something wrong, you may try to change the subject rather than face the consequences. If that doesn't work, you'll likely make other attempts to displace the tension. You're one to believe that sometimes talking about relationship problems only serves to make them worse. So although you can usually hold your own in an argument, in some cases you'd prefer to "agree to disagree" on issues that seem impossible to resolve.

How You End Your Relationships

The way a person ends their relationships is often a sign of both the maturity one gains through experience and the compassion one has for their romantic partners. Your colors showed that you can be a real pro when it comes to ending romances gracefully. At the close of a relationship, you're much more likely to make the effort to discuss your feelings with your ex, rather than leave them with questions about what went wrong. You're also one who'll typically offer support during this sad time by listening and letting your ex share their feelings with you. By ending romances this way, you ordinarily have the benefit of remain friends later if you choose to.

Now that you know what your color choices revealed about you in love, it's time to find out more about color itself.

How Do Colours Affect You

The physical world is full of color. However, in its most scientific sense, color is simply a description of the way your eyes perceive an object as it interacts with light, and the way your brain interprets it. When you look at an object in the presence of light, you see the light reflected from that object. It is in this way that you're able to distinguish between hundreds of colors. Colors are wavelengths of light, recognized by sensory cones in the eye's retina. So recognizing color is actually one of the human body's many miraculous talents.

People communicate about colors through language — in this case, English. However, not all languages have the same kinds of color distinctions. For example, studies of the linguistic treatment of color have revealed that some languages do not make a distinction between green and blue or yellow and orange. Differences in color perceptions are not only blurry between different cultures; they can be problematic within cultures as well. Even if two people speak the same language, they can view color with different eyes. Imagine two people looking at a sunset: One sees more pink, the other sees more purple. It depends on their individual perceptions. However, even with this imprecision, there is a high agreement between people regarding basic color names and distinctions. It's this fact that makes a discussion of color possible.

While you may think of vision as the primary way that people experience color, people also "feel" color. In the presence of different colors, our physical bodies can feel different. And researchers can measure these effects by changes in blood pressure, eye blink frequency, heart rate, and respiration. Western scientists agree that colored light can be used in treating medical patients with certain conditions. For example, premature babies with jaundice are cured by a chemical reaction triggered by exposure to blue light for several days. It is also known that red light is more likely to produce epileptic seizures than blue light. Western science did not discover these reactions to colored light, though. It is actually the ancient cultures of Egypt, China, and India that have histories of healing with color.

Outside of our physical or sensory experience of color, we also have psychological or emotional responses to colors. The most universal psychological responses to colors divide the color spectrum into "warm" and "cool" colors. Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow. They are believed to be stimulating or energizing (which are active or externally-driven responses). Cool colors include blue, green, and purple and are felt to be calming or peaceful (which are passive or internally-focused responses). Interestingly enough, these emotional reactions correspond with the physiological affects that colored light has on the body.

Beyond these major classifications, color attributions become varied and divergent across both cultures and individuals. For example, in Western culture, white is the traditional color for a wedding dress, whereas white is the color for mourning in China. There are many such discrepancies in the way people from different cultures think about particular colors. In addition to cultural feelings about color, people's perceptions of colors may also be affected by their ages, moods, life experiences, personalities, or mental health. People who share these characteristics, often share a common perception of colors.

Take Action

Change your surroundings

There are plenty of ways in which color can affect your mood and actions. If you're interested in a little experiment in how color plays a role in your daily life, try the following.

1. Pick an area you spend a lot of time in

2. Take some time to clean the area of any clutter. Things that are out of place, piles of paperwork, and dust can distract you. Make sure you feel like the area is in good order and you feel good about the space.

3. Take a step back and look for the major blocks of color in the space. Write these colors down on a sheet of paper and indicate that they are background areas of color.

4. Next look for small areas of color that leap out at you. Don't look too closely; these colors should be apparent immediately. For example, you may have a red phone, that would demand your attention. Write down these colors and the objects that they are associated with on the same sheet of paper. Indicate that they are standout objects. If nothing stands out to you, simply leave this section blank.

5. Now take some time to think about the background colors that inhabit your space. Is there a large, background color that you feel strongly about? If so, what is the emotion that comes up for you when you think about this color? Is this emotion appropriate for this space and the activities you want to do while you are there? If not, modify the area to reflect your feelings about color.

6. Next think about the standout objects. Are these objects that you feel require significant differentiation from the remainder of the room? In other words, are the objects things that you want to be conscious of at all times while you're in the room. For example, you may not want a red phone in your living room if red makes you feel urgent and you don't really enjoy talking on the phone. You may instead opt to change your phone color to blend in with its surroundings. However, you may also want to add some orange goldfish in the corner if you want to remind yourself that life is vital and in constant flow. Use symbols and colors that are relevant and meaningful for you in choosing to sculpt your environment.

7. If you find yourself having difficulty thinking of colors to use in a symbolic manner around your home or workspace, refer to your test answers above in the "How You Compare" section to get started.