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December 30, 2009
Know Thyself, know thy colours
The ancient Greek aphorism 'Know Thyself' inscribed on the wall in the Temple of Apollo in Delphi has been attributed to at least five different Greek sages; most notably among them, Socrates.
In the spirit of the pursuit od self-knowledge, you understand, a while ago I decided to HAVE MY COLOURS DONE. As in 'The House of Colour colour consultation 'colours done'; surely you must have heard of it if not actually 'had it done' (yet!) yourself.
Here is the deal: Your skin is either yellow-based or blue-based and stays the same throughout your life, i.e. tan, aging etc may change skin tone , but not skin base. Hence some colours will suit you, that is will make you look healthier, younger, more radiant, and others will have the opposite effect. Sounds simple enough, though in practice it's much more complex, subtle and need to be fine-tuned to individual - hence the need to see a trained consultant.
If your immediate reaction to this is one of the following: how silly; vain, egotistic; vacuous; based on pseudo-science; frivolous; lacking common sense; it's for people with more money than sense; for the gullible; I know what I like already; I know what suits me; unhealthy obsession with image etc etc, you would like to know that mine too was all of the obove and more.
And yet, hand on heart, purely and simply to honour Socrates and his wisdom, and with no other motive in mind (again, hand on heart!), I went and had it done. More to get a confirmation of what I already 'knew' , than to find out.
To cut a long story short - I was wrong. It turns out that I'm Summer (cool, muted colours) after all, and not warm Autumn. I was surprised, doubtful, incredulous, resistant, even cross and argumentative at first, then slowly it grew on me, and I became accepting, pleased, and finally delighted. I could see with my own eyes that these were the right colours for me. And what's more, I learnt to love them!
Here I could tell you what a great 'investment' it is, how it makes life (at leat the shopping side of it) easier and simpler, how you never need buy another mistake, i.e a garment you love in the shop but for inexplicable reason end up never wearing etc, etc, and all of it would be true. But since this is not a 'Lifestyle, Beauty, Fashion' feature, I won't tell you any of this. Okay, I may have just done it!
But more to the point, we are rather fixed in our views, preferences, convictions, opinions etc. And it's good sometimes to forget all we know, or think we know, about ourselves, and dare to learn and be open to surprises.
I have a friend who refuses even to consider such colour adventure (I offered to buy it as a birthday treat, so it's not about money) for fear that she might be told to change her colour habits (as if the newly discovered knowledge was going to be implemented by force).
We are attached to our illusions and cling to them for dear life and comfort. We wear the protective shell of personality like the false, mistaken colours of our make-up, hair and clothes, and it does us no favours.
Then again, if only finding the courage to let our true essense and radiance shine through were as fun and easy as getting your colours done..
Posted by Marzena at December 30, 2009 08:05 PM