Coping Styles

 Coping Styles in Color

When someone is experiencing on going or past trauma, they might take on the Green Bean characteristics to protect themselves. The green bean has an outer shell to protect the sensitive inner feelings and wisdom.

 

The connection of the Red Tomato characteristics would be helpful to develop for giving a sense of belonging that we all need.

Purple Carrot rootedness can give us a sense of safety. We might find safety in saving money, having investments, or a home that feels secure especially in times of uncertainty. Cultural traditions from the past or current family can bring warmth and a sense of security.

The action, fun, and movement of the Orange Carrot can bring health and vitality especially in times of stress.

The orange experiencer responds to their senses and acts in the moment with action and energy. They are spontaneous without always looking at how their actions will impact the future. An out of esteem orange may procrastinate, have obnoxious or irrelevant behavior or drop out. A balanced orange be proactive in getting things done, finding friends along the way.

The green visionary is adept at imagining future possibilities, thinking about the big picture, and consequences of behavior. But the visionary can get stuck in a world of possibilities and find it difficult to make a decision and act on it. This is the paradox of the visionary green, to be sometimes so foucesed they they shut out the outside world, but also so global in looking at the big picture it is difficult to find a place to begin. An out of esteem green might rely on sarcasm when they are unable to make desions. A balanced green will ask, why, do some research, follow a process of discovery and focus on a system of development.

 

 

When someone is experiencing on going or past trauma, they might take on the Green characteristics of independence to protect themselves. 

The Red Characteristics would be helpful to develop to bring a sense of belonging that we all need.

 

Thr Purple characteristics of responsibility and striving for security can give us a sense of safety. We might find safety in saving money, having investments, or a home that feels secure especially in times of uncertainty. Cultural traditions from the past or current family can bring warmth and a sense of security.

The action, fun, and movement of the Orange Characteristics can bring health and vitality especially in times of stress.

Activity:

·      Participants get in groups by same Strengths Color. 

·      Give each group a plain piece of large poster paper and a colored pen that matches their Strengths color.

·      Participants in each group will write words to describe their strengths. 

·      Participants will pass their paper to the group on the right who will write Strengths words on the paper with their color of pen.

·      Papers will go around the room. When the group gets their original paper, ask the groups to each say if their strengths were enhanced by the different groups and colors.

·      Ask if having access to all the colors would help them cope in difficult situations.

 

When you are afraid to use your strengths to express your needs, you communicate that repression. But when you are aware of your strengths and values, your style will communicate what is important to you.

1.    Uncertainty in Color

 

We live in uncertain times. Actually, we live with the myth of certainty until things change. Things are never actually certain, but it’s easy to live like they are. When major disruptions happen, we are surprised by a sense of feeling out of control––a control we never really had. We can be certain that there will be uncertainty and we can plan for it.

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2.    Safety Needs in Color

According to Abraham Maslow, people have basic needs beginning with the need for safety and belonging.  If a person has a past full of nurturing relationships where their needs were being met, they will have strong feelings of safety and belonging.  If they haven’t had their needs met, they will have unhealed wounds from their past.

When people feel out-of-esteem they may turn off their emotions, zone out, or dive into work. They will look for safety in activities they feel most comfortable with.  You may recognize your color more in your out-of-esteem behavior or where you look for safety.  Where you find your sense of safety can be seen through the analogy of your vegetable color personality style.

 

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The way you perceive your safety often comes from your temperament, but it may also come from family, culture, survival needs, or physical ability. 

Ways to value your natural strengths:

·      Spend some time around people with similar strengths and values

·      Use your strengths in classes, hobbies, or recreation

·      Learn more about the value of your strengths, and about people who have them

·      Learn the value of all of the strengths

 

Relationships bring safety and support in times of uncertainty.

Belonging: We all want a sense of belonging.

Belonging to a group whether it is family, friends, or colleagues, is a need we all feel. In fact, we can sometimes feel isolated even in a group, if we don’t know how we fit or how to connect with others. Our uniqueness makes us interesting, but unless we know how to connect with those around us, we can just feel different.

Seeing similarities and understanding differences can help us connect with each other. We can connect by doing activities together, sharing unique ideas, planning a project, or sharing our feelings. 

Connection starts with understanding and appreciating our uniqueness and then appreciating others who are similar or different than ourselves. It’s easy to look to nature to see uniqueness within similarities. For example, most greens beans I see in the grocery store are green, have an outer pod and a tender seed inside. They can be different sizes and shapes, and sometimes a different color, but they can be recognized as a green bean. Green beans grow independently in different directions unless directed by a pole.