The Color Purple

As most of us are well acquainted, the color of our support ribbon is purple. Purple is a traditional color of royalty, the color of the Crown Chakra which is linked to the crown of the head, the nervous system, and the brain (okay can someone please say Fibromyalgia!), and is representative of pure thought. The Purple Heart represents courage in the military and pride in Christianity, just to name a few of its associations. Oh purple has assumed an enlightened and vast embodiment throughout history. The study of purple in psychology has been shown to uplift, calm the mind and nerves (here we go with the Fibromyalgia again), offer a sense of spirituality and encourage creativity. "Purple embodies the balance of red's stimulation and blue's calm... With a sense of mystic and royal qualities, purple is a color often well liked by very creative or eccentric types."* We are in very good company with the color purple!

Today a Facebook Fibro-sister mused she wished we had a code to represent how we are feeling. She is sick of complaining all the time but still knows how important it is to communicate her pain to those that truly understand, her support network. I thought this was an excellent idea and tried to come up with a "code", which inspired all sorts of hilarious commenting, acceptance and criticism at the Fibro-Fun House (my Facebook page for those that have not joined it, and should!). I figured going off our designated ribbon color would give us an anchor, and allowed my mind to absorb the color purple in its infinite number of shades, tones and hues. As I traveled down this imaginative exercise I felt the lighter the color the lighter the symptoms, and the deeper the color the more raging the pain. So I painted a pretty little picture in my mind of Fibromyalgia as viewed through a purple kaleidoscope. Lilac starts out soft and light, and represents a pretty darn good day. Mulberry deepens and intensifies slightly and marks the middle of the road, not great, yet not horrible either. Amethyst finished the journey with all-consuming PAIN FROM HELL, one of the deepest shades of purple. So I posted my idea and have spent the better part of the day cracking-up over the reaction it has been getting. I also LOVED knowing how my fellow-fibrates were doing, many more Lilac's were out there than I realized! And for the Mulberry's and Amethyst's it was helpful to know how you were feeling because so much of the time we just shut up about it, stuck in an eternal Groundhog Day of repetitive complaining even we get sick and tired of hearing ourselves grumble about.

Quite a few hated my color choices! "Too complicated...I won't spell them right...I can't remember that...I have Fibro-fog!" And I hear you, I do, but there is something off-beat, individual and funny about comparing the wreckage of our lives from this illness to flowers and gemstones. It somehow removes the ownership of the pain and places it in another dimension of the reality of living with Fibromyalgia. So for those that are willing, interested or care I would love to try this out for a week or so. Come to the Fibro-Fun House and let us know how you are feeling for the day. Let us know if you woke up Amethyst (all-consuming) and have sailed into a light Mulberry (middle-of-the-road) because something is working for you. Let us know if you started the day out Lilac (light) and have spiraled into an Amethyst tinged Mulberry because today is simply sucking. Try it out! See if it helps to take some of the pressure off, some of the misery, some of the ownership of the pain. See if it helps to have a way to communicate to your fellow Fibrates, your true comprehenders, without having to spell out the literal misery we desperately bang our heads against the wall for the non-Fibro's in our lives to doubtlessly comprehend.

Thanks for joining,
Leah           

*Information provided by: 
www.sensationalcolor.com/color-messages-meanings/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-purple.html