Though we don’t often think consciously about the connection, it is nearly impossible to separate color and feeling. Our language confuses the two with regularity. Our moods brighten and darken. On a sad day, we might have a black cloud over us or merely feel a bit blue. And when things are going well, we say life is golden.

But your reaction to a color also depends heavily on where you live, where you were raised, and the context within which you experience that color. In China, red means luck and fortune. In the United States, red represents danger; it means to be alert or to stop. If you walk into a red room as someone from China, you might feel lucky; in the United