THINK PINK! It’s the 25^th anniversary of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To celebrate, Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium is lighting up in pink throughout October.

Great PR for a wonderful cause but is it possible to actually use color to create a healing environment? Three years ago when I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, I decided to use Design Psychology as part of my own healing process.

Besides availing myself of the best medical treatment, I embarked on the re-design of my bedroom as a way to help myself envision what I wanted - - a healthy and satisfying future.

Warned that radiation treatment often produced fatigue and radiation burn, I first purchased “cucumber cool” cotton sheets and luxury bedding that not only would be cozy and make me feel taken care of, but help me mentally imagine being cooled down.

I then wore a golden Chinese robe to each treatment. Drawing upon the empowering design of this dramatic embroidered garb rather than the usual bland hospital gown, I imagined myself an empress staring down cancer.

Each time I arrived back home, I walked down the long hallway to my bedroom, staring ahead at the dark blue bedroom wall ahead. Depressing? NO! because I’d created a visual/therapeutic trick: Upon entering the room, it magically opened up as I’d painted the other 3 walls an uplifting Benjamin Moore light green. Color became my “visual trigger”, my friend, reminding me “there is light at the end of the tunnel”.

This was part of a larger process by which I surrounded myself with colors, fabrics, furniture, window treatments, floor coverings and special objects - - all of which connected to my long time desire to learn to sail. My new curtains, for example, were hung from subtle porthole-like openings. Three carefully chosen artworks of water scenes were strategically hung on my wall. Beige Berber carpet provides an imagined sandy beach underfoot.

The result? Much to my doctor’s surprise, I got no radiation burn. My bedroom project, finished on my last day of treatment, is beautiful and has meaning for me. A week later- - given the all clear and an extremely low chance of recurrence - - I was off to the Florida coast learning to sail.

TIP:

    • Use paint colors that not only look good but that create an Oasis by Design.

For further information see: <a href="http://www.designpsychology.net/tlectures.html">http://www.designpsychology.net/tlectures.html</a>

Copyright Toby Israel, 2009.