Colour can calm and cure. Sameera Moledina tells you how colour therapy works

Colour affects all we do through our moods and emotions. It creates mood, and affects energy. It can also have an emotional impact that can delight you or distress you. ''Most of us take colour for granted," says Aneeta Sanas, colour therapist. "The main reason I started using crystals for my healing purposes is because colours have certain properties that work for cleansing, purifying and energising our 'chakras' and have great beneficial effects on the human mind and body. Colour affects the entire human organism and each colour has a role to play.For a healthy life, a good balance of colour is necessary.'' Colours evoke both pleasant and unpleasant emotions. Your reaction to certain colours is influenced by personal experiences.

Vivid colours can stimulate people to activity. Colour has been known to increase productivity and to speed recovery time in patients. It is a property of light, which consists of many different electromagnetic waves of energy. When light falls upon the photoreceptor cells of the retina, it is converted into electric impulses, which then travel to the brain and trigger the release of hormones.

It is well established that the lack of sunlight experienced during the winter in northern climates causes depression in many people - a condition known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).