For those of you who have just found my blog, all about the Power of Color, Light, Art & Flow State … Welcome!
In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing topics like these, all supported by Science:
- How to use specific Colors for Optimizing your Creativity, Productivity, Health & Healing
- What your Favorite Colors Can Tell You about Yourself
- How to use Sunlight for Healing and Optimal Physical & Mental Health
- How to choose the Best & Most Powerful Light Therapy Devices (even on a Budget!)
- Scientific Research about the latest Light Therapy applications
- How to use Flow State (aka The Zone) for Finding Success and Ultimate Joy in Life
(and how Color & Light directly support Flow!) - and much, much more!
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You’ll even get my FREE HEALING COLORS SCREENSAVERS as a BONUS Welcome Gift when you sign up!
If you enjoy this article, feel free to comment or ask questions below.
And as always, please share this post with anyone you feel might benefit. Thanks!
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This week, I’m sharing with you this fabulous interview I recently gave for the International Munsell Color Blog.
The Munsell Color System is the scientific, 3-D color model that’s at the core of all computerized and technology-based color matching as well as the basis for the Pantone color system used by all designers.
This 3-part series gives you a great overview of How and Why Color, Light, Art & Flow State have such profound healing and Creativity & Brain-boosting powers.
You’ll learn how you can easily integrate Color & Flow into your own life to immediately start reaping loads of benefits.
The 3-part Interview Series includes:
- What Color Means for you Personally
- What Your Favorite Colors can Tell you about Yourself
- How you can use your Personal Colors for Improving your Life
- How Color and Light can trigger Flow States (aka the Zone)
- How I went from being an engineer to an international award-winning artist
- How my Creative Flow Color Process came about and why it has helped so many people to lead happier, more fulfilled and more productive lives by integrating more color, light and Flow into their lives.
Ok, so let’s get started with Part 1 of the Munsell Interview Series:
Leanne Venier in her Austin gallery with some of her healing Flow paintings
Our Special Guest today on the Munsell Blog is Leanne Venier, Color, Light & Flow State expert.
Leanne Venier is an international award-winning artist who first started painting only a few years ago. Within the first few months of learning to mix paint, she discovered how to use color to consistently tap into Flow state (aka The Zone) and her vibrant and colorful healing abstracts began appearing on the canvas. By the end of her first year, she had gained international recognition for her artwork, been featured in multiple US and international magazines, been invited to participate in several international and US exhibitions and had already won her first international art award.
Leanne used to be a mechanical engineer designing submarines for Lockheed, but after feeling stifled in the corporate realm, she left that career to live in Italy for 7 years. She returned to the US to become an acupuncturist and Zen Shiatsu practitioner working with cancer patients. This was all prior to her current passions as a professional artist, entrepreneur, medical educator, and international conference speaker. Her past experiences have all paved the way for the fascinating work she does today in the scientific field of Color and Light therapy and Flow State & Creativity Training.
In this three-part interview series, we explore the cutting-edge field of color and light therapy (aka phototherapy), how color and light influences Flow State, and we talk about just how much color can impact, influence and help us … every single day.
Tell us more about your diverse background, Leanne
Well, I’ve always been very creative but also very passionate about math and science. As a child and teen, I trained formally as a classical pianist with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada. But for university, I chose to study mechanical engineering because of my love for math and science. I ended up designing submarines for Lockheed but I found the corporate realm unfulfilling, so I left that career and moved to Italy for 7 years. While there, I studied many different alternative and holistic healing modalities. I’ve been passionate about natural healing and the mind-body connection my entire life.
One of the healing systems that I studied in depth was the ancient Chakra system which is all about how we take in and absorb energy from our surroundings and how the physical body is connected in with different color energies. Upon returning to the States, I studied and practiced Eastern medicine, acupuncture and Zen Shiatsu. I developed a keen interest in the ancient Chinese and Japanese Five Elements (WuXing) System which American acupuncture schools were no longer teaching in any depth. So I moved to British Columbia, Canada to continue my studies and training in much greater depth.
One aspect of Five Elements deals with how color is linked with different emotions and different energy lines in our bodies (commonly known as meridians). In my lectures and Color and Creative Flow workshops, I often explain how these meridians/energy channels are like the electrical wiring within the walls of our houses, circulating life force energy throughout our bodies. Each of the 12 primary meridians has an emotion and a color associated with it. The 7 major Chakras, on the other hand, draw this life energy into our bodies and are more like the transformers that deliver the electrical energy into our homes. And I now tie in how these ancient healing modalities are supported by the modern scientific research and applications of color and light therapy.
How did you start getting involved in color and light therapy?
Well, [laughing] I never really planned to teach globally about all this. The modern scientific color & light information and Creative Flow Color Process I now teach, arose organically from of my own curiosity and personal interests. Everything I now share with others is simply a combination of my lifelong passions … including color, light, art, science, engineering, natural healing, psychology, and the mind-body connection.
All my conference lectures, workshops and training sessions actually grew from a tiny seed that first sprouted 8 years ago, from several one-on-one conversations all revolving around people’s responses to the colors in my paintings. My paintings, which were all created in Flow state, were the catalyst for my decades of study and research about color, light and healing to finally come together and out into the world.
When I first started painting, time and again during art events people would comment on my work saying things like, “I’m so drawn to your red paintings – I can’t stop staring at this one!” or “I really love all your blue paintings!” And I would respond, “Well, you might be feeling drawn to that color because… blah, blah, blah…”, explaining to them how we’re often drawn to certain colors when our bodies need those color frequencies. And I’d give them detailed information about the kind of physical and emotional states that will often cause us to feel drawn to whatever their preferred color was. And they would inevitably respond with something like,” Oh my God! That’s exactly what’s going on in my life right now! How did you know that??!” and I would reply, “Because you just told me by telling me the colors you’re feeling drawn to.” [laughing]
Immortal Evanescence, healing Flow Painting by Leanne Venier
Everyone wanted to know where they could read or learn more, but there was no book yet in existence that I could recommend since all this information was still inside my head. It was just me combining many different information sources and decades of study, observation, and research. I had integrated my Chakra and Five Elements studies with the Eastern medicine healing work I did with cancer patients and added in my studies in Jungian Psychology, mind-body medicine and modern science.
My experiences had culminated in my own personal color attractions which triggered my Flow state painting process. Through my own creative process, I had inadvertently developed this new Creative Flow Color System for understanding at a much deeper level what is going on with any individual. It can tell you a lot about what’s going on, both physically and emotionally, based on the colors you’re feeling drawn to.
For 3 years, people pestered me to write a book or at least put some of this healing information about color and light on my artworks website which I finally did at the end of 2010 in a very pared down format.
The first book is now in the works and in the meantime I’ve been sharing my teachings through writing for medical magazines, my Youtube Videos, conference lectures, CatalyticColor Blog and my Color & Creative Flow workshops and Training Programs.
My Science of Healing Color and Light videos started getting several thousands of views on YouTube in 2012, and since then many more media channels have started picking up on the whole color and light thing. The fact that I support all of my teachings with hard science makes it much easier for many people to accept.
Keep in mind, the wisdom about how color and light can heal is not new information. But science is now finally catching up to support this ancient wisdom and that’s why I make a point to always bring in scientific research studies to help the people who might not otherwise believe the validity of this healing modality.
I’m just happy that word is finally spreading about the fantastic power of Color and Light!
Leanne with Immortal Evanescence
So when did you start Teaching Medical Doctors about all this? Were they a hard sell?
It all started back in 2010. Within a couple months of adding that basic color and light information to my website, I was contacted by UT Health Sciences Center in San Antonio (UTHSC-SA). Someone in their research department had discovered my paintings and the healing color information on my website. A key decision maker there personally invited me to do an exhibition of my artwork with a medical learning component to it. They also asked me to give my very first lecture for their MD’s, medical faculty and medical students.
So that’s when I started bringing in all the latest scientific and medical research behind the healing effects of color and light. I knew that if I wanted to convince medical doctors and scientists about the validity of this healing modality, I would have to back up the information with lots of scientific data and research. And it worked! I’ve now worked directly teaching loads of medical doctors, physicists and and other would-be skeptics about this healing modality and all the supporting science.
The science also makes it easier for other people to accept that something so prevalent in our everyday lives (like color and light) can have such potent healing powers. That very first interactive exhibition was also open to the public. I wanted to make it both experiential AND logical. I think many people need both in order to really understand and assimilate a new concept.
So, in that exhibition, everyone was able to experience the healing colors in the paintings first-hand and then learn about why they might be drawn to one color or painting over another. It was essentially a right-brain visual and emotional experience with a left-brain logical learning component.
Right after the UTHSC exhibition ended, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (UTSWMC), another huge medical school hosting 10,000 people, asked me to bring the exhibition there and give another lecture.
Things have just snowballed from there. Since then I’ve been invited to speak at several international conferences including MENSA, SXSW Interactive, the SBMT Brain Mapping & Neuroscience conference and the Bulletproof Biohacking conference.
And I’ve given loads of interviews on TV, national radio, international podcasts and been consulted by lots of international health magazines — all about the scientifically validated benefits of Color, Light & Flow State. I also write for Texas MD magazine and I’m in the process of writing my first book.
I’ve already read literally thousands of scientific research studies about these topics, making cross connections between different studies that are being conducted all around the world, and I continue to be fascinated by all of it!
Considering how fast word has spread around the globe, I still can’t believe all these teachings only started 6 years ago. When I first started teaching about the importance of avoiding blue light at night back in 2010 and about how our smart phones and tablets are causing insomnia (along with simple ways to remedy the problem), almost nobody had heard of this problem yet. Though it was already adversely affecting the health of millions of adults and children. But now, word about the blue light from these devices is all over the media and tons of people know how it can disrupt our sleep patterns and circadian rhythms and ways to avoid it. That piece of information alone, is immensely helpful to improving people’s sleep and health.
Leanne Venier with ‘The Chrysalids‘ – commissioned installation, Houston, TX
When did you Start teaching your Experiential Color and Creative Flow Programs?
It was around the same time I did the exhibition at UTHSC, that someone from their Cancer Research Center contacted me, asking if I could teach a workshop about healing colors. And that’s where my Color and Creative Flow Workshops were born – I got the idea for the full program in a flash of insight. From being in Flow on a daily basis, I’m very in touch with my intuitive side and I get these amazing flashes of insight all the time. They arrive like downloads from the universe giving me whatever the thing is that I’m supposed to work on next.
And now I’ve taught hundreds of others how to easily tap into Flow and their inner wisdom and innovative insights using Color and Light as a catalyst.
Word about the program has spread internationally since that first one I taught for the UT Cancer Research Center. And it’s now evolved into a live, Virtual training program, taught fully online. The virtual version finally came about after so many people from the UK, Australia and other countries asked me offer the program online so they wouldn’t have to travel all the way to the US to participate.
My most recent virtual training program had people from the UK, Mexico and various parts of the US participating – all feeling like we were in the same room together, connected via the power of the internet. It was fantastic!
‘The Luminous Ground‘, healing Flow painting by Leanne Venier
What can someone expect from your lectures, writings & Creative Flow Training?
My videos, lectures and writings are geared towards both medical practitioners and a layperson audience. The topic of color and light has such broad appeal because we’re ALL affected and influenced by color. I bring in loads of medical research studies to support the scientific end of it and I make it all very easy to understand by using a lot of metaphors and storytelling that people can relate to, instead of just presenting a lot of dry, scientific facts and data. In my lectures, to keep the information accessible to all, for most audiences, I don’t go too deeply into the physics or any of the complex underlying science – but it truly is Quantum Physics that underlies how phototherapy works.
I’ve also been sharing my Color and Creative Flow Training on a broader scale, working with businesses, executives and entrepreneurs. I teach them how to use color and light to easily and reliably tap into Flow state whenever they’d like. The training teaches them how to integrate the scientifically proven benefits of Color and Flow state for dramatically boosted creativity and innovative thinking, better sleep and health, and 500% increased productivity. When you can tap into Flow using color, you’re able to easily tap into innovative insights and breakthrough, cutting-edge ideas.
Not only that, the calming and stress reduction benefits of practicing the Creative Flow Process are huge as reported by graduates of the program. Some of them have called The Creative Flow Process like meditation on steroids – and it’s perfect for anyone who has a lot of stress in their life or for people with ADHD, or just anyone who would really benefit from meditating but who may have a hard time sticking with conventional meditation practices.
‘Luminous Tranquility’, healing Flow painting by Leanne Venier
How does Munsell Color play into all of this?
Well, this all started with people responding to the colors in my paintings. Eight years ago, part of teaching myself color theory and how colors interact together was to study Color Theory and the Munsell system and I still apply that knowledge today in my paintings. One of the things I feel is important to understand for anyone who is using color, whether they’re artists, architects, designers, programmers, scientists, or medical doctors … is that color is far more than just an aesthetic.
Is there anything you can recommend for people to start doing TODAY that will allow them to benefit from the Power of Color?
Yes, the first thing I always recommend is to simply start paying attention to Color. For example, what colors are jumping out at you today – in your wardrobe, in magazine ads, while you’re driving down the road, etc.?
Why do you like that color on your wall or in your clothing? How does it make you feel? Once you start paying attention to the colors you’re drawn to and then you start learning how these individual colors influence us – all based on modern science and ancient wisdom – you can begin to understand why you’re so attracted to those colors and start using all the colors to your benefit.
When you have both the experiential side as well as the scientific, logical side, you can easily understand how your color preferences can reveal a lot about your health and emotional state. And then you start consciously using those colors to benefit your mind, body and emotions.
It’s not just about picking a color that’s going to match another color, it’s about the bigger picture and how color can be used to restore health, wellbeing and Flow in our lives.
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In part two of this series, continued in next week’s blog post, you’ll learn …
How Color and Light Therapy Works
Why you’re attracted to Specific colors and what they say about you
The Importance of Flow state (aka the Zone) for Optimal Health, Creativity & Productivity
The Healing Effects of Sunshine
… and more…
Be sure to SUBSCRIBE NOW if you don’t want to miss out on part 2 & upcoming helpful posts!
You’ll also get my FREE HEALING COLORS OPTIMIZATION SCREENSAVERS as a Welcome GIFT!
ps. Would you Like to Learn how to use Healing Color
and Light to Relieve Pain, Heal your Body, Reverse Wrinkles, and More?
Well, I recently launched my own REDjuvenator Light Therapy Products for home & professional healing
At a very affordable price point so every home can have one to help heal the entire family.
Read Amazing Healing Stories about the REDjuvenators!
Want to Stimulate your Own Creativity?
Join me and a group of the world’s leading Creativity Experts at the Harness your Creative Power Online Summit!
September 16- October 1st, 2017.
Register Today – it’s FREE!
And as always, please share this post with anyone you feel might benefit. Thanks!
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About Leanne
Leanne Venier, BSME, CP AOBTA, is an international award-winning artist, engineer, inventor, Eastern Medicine Physician, visionary entrepreneur and expert in the science of color & light and Flow States. She regularly lectures at major medical centers, SXSW Interactive, MENSA, leading brain and neuroscience conferences and health conference. Leanne has been interviewed on NBC-TV, Gaiam TV (Gaia.com), nationally syndicated radio and in numerous national and international health magazines. She teaches executives and laypeople how to use Color to easily tap into Flow State (the Zone) for 500% increased productivity, enhanced creativity & optimal health in her Live and Interactive Color and Creative Flow in-person Workshops & Online Training Programs.
Leanne loves geeking out, reading thousands of medical and scientific research studies. She connects the dots between research that’s happening all over the world and then shares her findings to help others. She has a knack for explaining the research in ways that are easy for everyone to understand. She combines her art, mechanical engineering background and acupuncture, Eastern Medicine and decades of holistic healing training, to teach medical doctors and lay people around the globe about the latest scientific research for Optimizing Health, Creativity and Productivity using Color, Light, Art and Flow State. She’s available for Speaking Engagements, Color & Creative Flow Workshops & Training Programs and Light Therapy Consultations.
More information on her website: CatalyticColor.com
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