The essence
A shore is a boundary between two worlds. The natural example is the edge of a sea, lake or river. But you can find shores in a city too: wherever the built-up area stops and something else begins. The essence of this color is the horizon, the chance to look into the distance, beyond the edge of what's close.
Water matters a great deal here. Being near it, the moist air, the sound of waves or a current are often what brings shore people back to a sense of calm.
The sixth color completes the path from the most basic environment to the most refined. Shores are the broadest and least specific of the colors: not one room or building, but a position on the edge.
Left orientation — Natural
A left arrow means an active environment. Natural shores are real water: a coastline, the banks of rivers and lakes, islands. Here the person does well being active: walking along the water, swimming, working with a view of it. It's the natural line between land and water that feeds them.
Right orientation — Artificial
A right arrow means a receptive environment. Artificial shores are boundaries made by people: a park at the edge of a city, railway tracks dividing districts, the line between the centre and the suburbs, embankments and canals. The person calmly watches from such an edge, looking across to the other side. It doesn't have to be the sea; what matters is the sense of a boundary and the space beyond it.
How to apply it
- Look for a home or workplace with a view of water, the horizon or open space.
- Walks along a river, an embankment or the edge of a park can become a daily habit.
- For artificial shores, look at where the boundaries run in your city: parks, tracks, outskirts.
- Notice how you feel after spending a long time far from water or with no horizon in sight.
The trap
The shores trap is treating the sea as a once-a-year holiday and spending the rest of the time in enclosed spaces with no horizon at all. Another is romanticising the coast and moving on a wave of emotion. Shores don't have to mean a resort; the edge can be quite ordinary. And big steps, as always, need to come from authority.