🟠 Color Medicine: Orange — Creativity, Joy, and the Pumpkin Spice of the Soul
🍊 My Orange Life Right Now
It’s pumpkin season, and I’m sleeping in a bed dressed head-to-toe in orange sheets. I didn’t plan it, but every night when I crawl in, I feel joy. Actual joy.
Orange wraps me up like a warm laugh. It sparks creativity. It makes me want to sing, write, cook, dance. It’s not subtle — it’s the extrovert of the spectrum, leaning over with a tambourine saying: “C’mon darling, let’s have fun.”
And yes, I’m craving oranges in my diet too. Or anything bright and orange at the farmer’s market — persimmons, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, turmeric root, marigolds. My unconscious clearly wants orange.
Bleep: “Or maybe your body’s just trying to warn you that you’re one butternut squash away from turning into a human jack-o’-lantern.”
🧠 The Psychology of Orange
Psychologists describe orange as:
Sociable: Orange stimulates conversation and community. It’s the color of friendship, potlucks, and parties.
Creative: It lives in the sacral chakra — the belly center of art, sensuality, play.
Optimistic: Orange light boosts serotonin and wakes up our mood.
Appetite Stimulating: Restaurants use it because it literally makes us hungrier. (Which explains the nachos cravings.)
Orange is the hybrid of red (action, passion) and yellow (joy, intellect). Together they make a color that says: “Yes, let’s!”
🌑 The Shadow Side of Orange
But orange can be a bit much. Its shadow is:
Overstimulation: Too much orange can feel like living in a Vegas buffet.
Restlessness: The “I need ten projects, twelve people, and three cocktails just to feel alive” energy.
Neediness: Chasing validation, attention, or sugar highs.
Bleep: “Orange is the friend who drags you out dancing at midnight when you were perfectly happy eating chips in bed. Love them, but also… boundaries.”
🍂 Orange and the Seasons
This is why orange feels so alive in autumn. The farmers market is full of it. The air itself feels orange at sunset. Our bodies crave the foods of the season — pumpkins, persimmons, squashes — not just for nutrition but for symbolism.
As an artist, I love how orange works with contrast colors: teal, cobalt blue, forest green. Put them together and your nervous system lights up like a jazz riff. Too much sameness numbs us; contrast wakes us up.
🥕 How to Use Orange in Your Life
Food: Add more orange foods — citrus, carrots, turmeric, pumpkin — for joy and digestion support.
Wardrobe: Even if orange isn’t “your season,” wear an accessory: a scarf, earrings, socks. It’s a playful jolt.
Space: Orange pillows, sheets, or art can brighten a dull room. A single piece is often enough.
Creativity: Use orange when brainstorming or starting a new project — it gets ideas flowing.
Bleep: “Pro tip: orange underwear is great until laundry day. Then you just look like a traffic cone with commitment issues.”
🧘 Three Contemplative Questions
When you see or wear orange, what does your body do? Does your breath deepen, does your stomach growl, do you smile?
Which color contrasts with orange in your life right now — what “teal” energy are you missing?
If orange is joy, creativity, and connection — how could you use it to shift your environment or mood today?
🌟 Final Word
Orange is a medicine for joy. It’s laughter around a table, music around a fire, marigolds on an altar, pumpkins on a porch. It’s the reminder that you don’t heal by being serious all the time — you heal by playing, laughing, and sharing with others.
If you’re drawn to orange, your soul might be saying: “More fun, please. More connection. More color.” If you avoid orange, ask yourself why — maybe joy feels too vulnerable.
Either way, orange is an invitation to celebrate being alive.
Bleep: “And if all else fails, just eat a damn pumpkin pie. That’s enlightenment enough for one day.”
🌈 Next up: Yellow — the sunshine color of intellect, clarity, and (spoiler alert) anxiety in high doses.
