The best runs are always full of colour.
Saturated skies, art-lined routes and colourful getup are an instant mood-booster. A fun escape from the grey skies and pavements of running in autumn/winter.
I’ve always been drawn to vibrant colours like magpies are to shiny things. A pair of outrageously bold run shoes here. An electric sunset over there. A rainbow popping up after a storm. Or a sun-drenched building in the distance. They can be as big as a golden hour horizon or as small as robin’s red breast. If it pops against an otherwise beige world, I’ll make a quick detour to check it out when running.
Colour is hardwired into my sense of happiness.
How to Run This Theme: Colour
In this Joy Run theme, we’ll offset the wet weather outside with a blast of colour. We’ll also dive into the psychology of colour, and how different colours evoke different feelings.
Read on to take part on a self-guided colour run and brighten up your weekly exercise.
There’s so many ways to inject colour into a run. Examples include:
- colourful street art or graffiti
- an electric sky during a golden hour run
- nature welcoming a new season
- forest bathing under a green canopy
- your most colourful item of running gear
- neon lights after dark
- detouring through a park in bloom
- a row of vibrantly coloured houses
- light bursting through a stained-glass window
- a city’s unique colour palette e.g. NYC’s yellow taxicabs
Every Season (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) brings its own unique palette, meaning this theme can be enjoyed each year.
Every day also has its own unique ephemeral set of colour bursts, such as sun light catching the corner of a skyscraper, leaves on the ground, or reflections in water.
Every individual also has their own personal colour preferences, meaning everybody will see something different.
And that variation is what makes the community’s Joy Runs photos beautiful.
Remember to post your runs and on Instagram, tagging in Joy Runs. You can also share how you found this Joy Run theme and how it made you feel in the comments box below.
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How the Joy Runs community added colour to their runs
This theme has been one of the most popular ever.
Joy Runners have posted pictures of colourful digital art shows projected onto York Minster, the colourful houses that brighten up Norwich’s quayside, colourful shop window displays, eccentric architecture of the La Courneuve neighbourhood in Paris, Battersea Light Festival, vivid sunrises, the first flowers to bloom in Spring, and showed off their vivid running clobber.
When thinking about my own favourite colour-drenched runs over the last year, they’ve included running to a backdrop of Bristol’s Georgian colourful villas high up on the hill, the postcard-perfect town of Riomaggiore along the Cinque Terre hike route, and the trademark pinks and coral blues of pastel paradise, Miami.
To run with colour in mind is to live optimistically. Sometimes you’ll know where to head for good light or a blast of colour, but it’s more likely colour will find you.
It might seem like a happy coincidence, however as anthropologist John Lubbock once said, “what we see depends mainly on what we look for.”
By running in search of more colour, you’ll see old routes differently. It is about choosing to adopt a positive perspective.
Where did all the colour go?
Unfortunately, colour is getting harder to come by. There’s a number of studies charting the grayscaling of everyday objects over recent decades.
When it comes to cars, paint suppliers report huge shifts toward black, grey, silver and white colour preferences. 80% of new cars, for example, are now grayscale.
Computers are the same. The fun fruit and candy-themed computers of the 1990s have been replaced by muted minimalist whites, greys and black. Fun colours reserved for limited-editions only. Even the most used filters on Instagram are giving a subdued wash to our pictures.
I say it’s time to reverse the trend. Runs should be sensory experiences.
Given the popularity of this Joy Run theme, it’s safe to assume others feel the same too.
How different colours affect our mood
Different colours can significantly affect mood, with warm hues like red, orange, and yellow evoking energy, excitement, and happiness, while cool colours like blue, green, and purple bring about feelings of relaxation and serenity.
Think about how inspiring running through a colourful neighbourhood full of street art is vs. the relaxing properties of running next to water.
Bright colours release dopamine – known as the “feel-good hormone” – whereas cool colours release oxytocin – making you feel calm.
In short, warm colours stimulate while cool colours soothe.
- Red: Passion, energy, excitement, anger, danger
- Orange: Creativity, enthusiasm, warmth, optimism
- Yellow: Happiness, sunshine, optimism, energy
- Green: Nature, balance, calmness, peace
- Blue: Tranquillity, calmness, trust, loyalty
- Purple: Creativity, luxury, wisdom, royalty
→ Check out other ‘Running to Find Wonder‘ themes