We all know that our nation faces a looming mental health crisis.
My idea targets the huge extent of low-level mental health issues (the light blues) in our society, with the aim of preventing seriously dark blues.
My idea, life-enhancing and potentially life-saving, is…
1. Science- and people-based.
2. Simple and practical.
3. Powerful and effective.
4. Wide-ranging and long-term.
5. Easily and quickly implementable.
6. Tangible and relatable to.
7. Universally inclusive and politically neutral.
8. Relevant to individuals, organisations and business.
9. Socially motivating and uplifting.
10. Cost-efficient to government.
11. Economy-stimulating.
12. Open to creativity, innovation and development.
13. Self-perpetuating and unlimited.
My big idea is to launch a determined national campaign, championed by experts and the country’s top leadership, for the personal investment of the entire population, all of us, in those two most powerful and life-enhancing elements of everyday life – Colour and Light!
We are all surrounded, everywhere and all the time, by some kind of colour and some form of light. They influence our brain function and can significantly impact our mood and mental state.
Happily, we can all contribute positively to our own mental well-being, and that of people around us, through our (science-based) choices of colour and light, on our person and in our environment. Maximising their potential for mental health benefit.
This really is something we do, as individuals and as a society, have control over. We should grab this particular moment of unity, this singular opportunity, to instigate a lasting enhancement of everyday life, for the good of us all.
Colour and light…
Fantastic potential for happier people.
A happier nation.
The key is selling the big idea to the country.
Inspiring the innumerable spin-off ‘little’ ideas that will ensure its success.
So, how?
1. Launch it as a unifying national initiative in the style of the highly successful “Save the NHS” campaign.
2. Keep it simple.
3. Engage with people’s emotions, hopes and dreams for the future.
4. Explain the principal motivations – Mental well-being first and foremost.
5. Outline the scientific basis. (Employing physical, biological, medical, social and behavioural sciences.)
6. Highlight the full range of other benefits.
7. Provide clear information, guidance, ideas and resources.
Colour and light – Big-picture ideas…
1. WE ALL WEAR CLOTHES.
Let’s encourage everybody to wear brighter, lighter, cheerier colours. Let us, as a nation, dispense with the prevailing dark, dull and boring in favour of uplifting brightness and lightness.
2. WE ALL HAVE/BUY STUFF.
Let’s persuade the population to choose mood-lightening colours for every single item we use and buy from now on. Everything from computers to cars. Create the demand and business will create the supply. (Boosting the economy, with the myriad benefits that brings.)
3. WE ALL LIVE/WORK SOMEWHERE.
Let’s motivate all individuals, businesses and organisations to brighten up their home/work environments. It doesn’t take much to make a huge difference. (Again, generating economic activity.)
4. WE ALL INTERACT WITH PUBLIC BODIES.
Let’s convince all government bodies and public institutions to go bright and light, wherever appropriate. The happier the interactions between people and authority, the better for society.
5. WE (MOST OF US) ENGAGE WITH TECHNOLOGY.
Let’s promote the optimal use of colour and light for mental well-being on all devices, interfaces, software, web sites. Easily done.
The possibilities for uplifting colour and light in everyday life are limited only by our imagination.
For instance (a quick, random brainstorming here), people, businesses and organisations could be inspired to…
1. Display bright and cheerful flowers and plants, inside and outside.
2. Maximise exposure to natural daylight. Engage in mindful sky-watching, outside or through windows. Sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, interesting clouds, stars. Have breaks from work to do this.
3. Initiate schemes to trade in depressingly dull clothes for cheerier ones.
4. Reevaluate ‘favourite’ colours. Choose new ones scientifically shown to be better suited to mental health. Consider motivations for colour choice, and be open to change, according to what our brains like, as opposed to subjective preferences.
5. Light up the dark, appropriately. The skyline. Buildings. Statues. Architectural features. Pavements. Gardens. Trees. Fountains (creating rainbow spectrums).
With light projectors. Floodlights. Searchlights. Fairy lights. Neon signs. Glow-in-the-dark paint.
6. Incentivise business to transform and improve brand designs and colours.
7. Choose colours (clothes, device settings, environment) according to current activity. Select the best for alertness, concentration, exercise, relaxation, sleep.
8. Wear/display a unifying local/national colour of the day/week/month to forge community cohesion.
9. Eat a greater variety of more colourful food. Brighten healthy but boring foods (like porridge?) with safe natural colourants. Make eating fun for reluctant eaters. Physical and mental health benefits here aplenty.
10. Actively look for the extraordinary colour and beauty in nature, on a macro and micro scale. Providing grounding in the stress of modern life.
11. Optimise the use of colour and light in all building/infrastructure projects.
12. Promote colourful, spirits-raising art/photography/video displays in empty/closed shop windows.
13. Bring colour to the concrete jungle with wall murals, frescos, authorised ‘graffiti’ areas.
14. Learn and teach colour theory in depth at school. College. Public information posters.
15. Choose brightly coloured animal companions, like tropical fish, or cheery pet clothes, if suitable.
16. Coordinate the colours of houses or buildings in a street. Communities coming together.
17. Redesign school uniforms. Work outfits.
18. Tint spectacles/sunglasses the best colour for mood, if safe and appropriate.
19. Opt for clean, bright white rather than dark hues where colour is inappropriate.
20. Create official post(s) of ‘Colour Champion(s)’ or suchlike to promote the campaign at all levels…
There it is…
A national campaign for colour and light.
A happier, brighter future.
I hope that it is seriously considered for implementation, and results in a significant, lasting, positive impact on our country and our people.
I had fun doing this.
Thank you.
2013-11