Your Life in Color

by Dougall Fraser

  Linda turned red. “I have been cheated on before.”

  “But this feels like it’s currently happening.”

  “Well, I am dating a guy now.”

  When I am doing a psychic reading, cosmic charades makes me feel as if the universe is jumping around my client, trying to get me to guess what is going on in their life. It’s almost as if the universe is visually pantomiming the message I need to convey. With Linda, my glimpse into her life was through this library full of blue books. I could only tell that she struggled with trust and was seeking truth, but I didn’t know why. I waited for another visual to present itself to me.

  “What’s your boyfriend’s name?” I asked.

  “Jim.”

  The moment she uttered his name, I saw a volcanic explosion in my mind. The erupting volcano was another clue from the universe, which told me her relationship was extremely passionate and slightly dangerous. She enjoyed their fiery chemistry, but it would eventually burn out, and Linda might get hurt in the process.

  “Linda, I see a lot of passion between you and Jim. But, to be honest, it does not feel safe to me.”

  Linda had met Jim at the investment bank where they worked and had been seeing him for over a year. They had incredibly passionate chemistry. She loved Jim, but there was a problem. He was married.

  “I hate to say this, Linda, but I do not see him leaving his wife for you.”

  “You sound just like my friends. But he is already separated from his wife and is planning to divorce her.”

  Saying I felt unsafe about her new boyfriend might sound like a simple and generic statement, but to an intuitive, it means a lot. When I am tuning in to a client, I am literally “trying on” their energy to see how their life path feels to me. If they ask me about any life situation, I check how this energy makes me feel inside before responding.

  There are a variety of things I may or may not see in a client’s energy. If there is new love, I will sometimes see fireworks in the night sky. Fireworks symbolize passion, but they explode in the distance, where you can enjoy their thrill safely. A volcano also erupts spectacularly, but it spews burning lava that destroys everything in its path. Even though these kinds of images symbolize passion, they are also signs of the early, short-term stages of a relationship. To me, true and lasting love feels sensual yet safe, like cuddling under a warm cashmere blanket in front of a fireplace, watching snow fall outside. On the other end of the spectrum, if a client is struggling through a troubled relationship, I feel anxious, cold, or stressed. I might see myself locked out of a house in the freezing rain without an umbrella. With Linda and Jim, I felt major heat, but the energy wasn’t flowing evenly between them. Most importantly, I felt unsafe.

  “So, Linda, how do you feel about Jim?”

  “I love him. I just wish that he would get divorced so we can be together for real.”

  “Are you okay with things staying the way that they are?”

  “No. I want to get married and have kids one day.”

  “Have you given him any kind of time limit for how long you will wait until he divorces his wife?”

  “Not exactly.”

  She spent the next portion of her session talking about her hopes for their future. As Linda kept talking, it was painfully obvious that Jim was in no hurry at all to marry her. It was like watching the volcano destroy an entire village. Jim and his wife still owned an apartment together on the Upper West Side, and he stayed with her several nights a week. I think Linda knew the truth on some level but was not ready to admit it to herself. This was a perfect example of blue’s shadow side. Linda’s energy was full of shadowy blue because she did not want to face a truth in her life. She needed honesty in her relationship but was also afraid of receiving the true answer. My gut feeling was she picked a married man because she was subconsciously afraid of being cheated on again. It was easier to be with someone that was unavailable right from the start.

  “Linda, in order to create trust and emotional depth in a relationship, we have to let people in. You are blocking the natural progression of this relationship by not expressing your truth to Jim. It is certainly possible he will leave his wife for you, but you are not truly owning this as a possibility.”

  She frowned and looked annoyed. “I don’t understand.”

  “Linda, if someone asked you out on a date today, what would you say?”

  “I would tell them that I’m in a relationship.”

  “Exactly. Jim is holding the space of your life partner, even though he is not able to fill that role for you. Now, this may be hard to hear, but I think you are subconsciously blocking blue energy. Do me a favor. Close your eyes, and I want you to envision yourself surrounded by the radiant blue light of truth. Take a few deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. The truth is what it is, and we can only gain by bearing witness to it. No one is here but us. When you are ready, I have a question that I want you to answer truthfully. Don’t hesitate and don’t filter yourself.”

  Linda exhaled deeply and nodded. “Okay.”

  “If he is going to divorce his wife, why hasn’t he done it yet?”

  “Because it’s easier for him not to. He gets the best of both worlds.”

  “And why haven’t you given him an ultimatum?”

  She opened her eyes and they began welling up with tears. “I don’t want to be alone.”

  As Oprah would say, this was our aha moment, brought about by blue energy. In life, so many of us are afraid to express our truth. We fear being hurt, and so we create scenarios to help us avoid it. In this case, Linda’s brain was telling her that she should stay quiet and compromise so she wouldn’t have to be alone. But really, she picked Jim to protect herself from being cheated on again.

  “Linda, you deserve to have what you want. Jim is not being completely fair with you. He is holding space in your life as a partner but is currently unable to truly stand by your side. I think what we are dealing with here is taking a risk and expressing your truth. And when we do that, we create a sense of vulnerability, which, of course, is scary.”

  Our future is never written in stone; only the lessons we are meant to learn are. When I am tuning in to a client, my intention is to help them step through the lesson at hand and move forward. Linda needed to learn how to trust again. She wanted to be with Jim, so I counseled her to give him a chance to be the man she wanted him to be. She had to take a stand in order for the relationship to take its intended course, good or bad. But ultimately, she was in control of how this would play out. I just wanted her to feel strong enough to see the truth of their relationship, no matter what it was.

  “Linda, I feel that you are working on attracting your soul mate, and the only way we can find out if Jim is your soul mate is by giving him the chance to come through for you. You need to express your truth to him and tell him what you need for this relationship to work.”

  When Linda left that day, she was not happy with the reading, and I don’t blame her. I did not tell her what she wanted to hear. But my job is to counsel people on the work they need to do in order to move forward, not necessarily to make them feel good. My parting advice to Linda was to try activating blue light regularly, because I thought it could help her get the resolution that she needed.

  About eight months later, Linda e-mailed me. She had indeed been unhappy with the reading at the time, but what I said about blue had stuck in her mind. Anytime she looked up at the sky, she was reminded of our session and what I had said about her needing to face the truth. One day, something clicked. She finally gave Jim an ultimatum and a firm calendar date by which he had to decide. The date passed and, sure enough, he admitted he was not divorcing his wife. While hurt by the breakup, Linda was ultimately happy with her decision. She had started therapy and finally acknowledged she was subconsciously attracted to unavailable partners so she wouldn’t have to face being hurt again. Linda closed the e-mail by saying that not long after this, she met a nice new gu
y and had been dating him for a month. And this time, he was single for real.

  I think Linda’s experience resonates with so many of us. We hesitate to express our truth for fear of experiencing pain. But bright blue freedom is waiting on the other side of that pain. What I love about the energy of blue is that it holds the potential to catapult us forward. In a perfect world, Jim would have swept Linda into his arms after she expressed her truth. He would have finally divorced his wife, married Linda, and lived happily ever after. But Jim’s purpose was to teach Linda the lesson of trust, not to be her soul mate. Even though activating blue brought her some short-term pain, the truth moved her on to a man that was truly available for the depth, commitment, and passion she was looking for.

  BLUE AFFIRMATION

  I HAVE THE STRENGTH TO SEE THE TRUTH.

  PHYSICAL ACTIVATION NOTES

  When I speak at a live event, I often wear blue as it reminds me of my intention to be a conduit of truthful guidance. It is one of my favorite colors to activate during sessions. I have some blue accent pillows in my office as a visual reminder to speak only truth to those that seek my counsel. I am a people pleaser and want everyone to be happy, but my job is to provide truthful guidance. Blue energy empowers me to do that.

  Some blue color props you could incorporate into your day include:

  Blueberries. Yes, you can use food as a physical activation! The bounty of natural produce is a beautiful way for your body to literally absorb the power of color.

  Blue quartz crystals. These lovely crystals are a perfect color prop to help you find the truth in any situation.

  Blue dress shirt. A classic and easy way to incorporate blue is through clothing such as a shirt or blouse.

  PHYSICAL ACTIVATION EXERCISE: EXPRESS YOUR TRUTH

  This exercise will help you receive the strength to see the truth of a situation. Before you begin, find a quiet space where you will not be disturbed for at least 15 minutes. The goal here is to make you more comfortable with seeing things as they really are. You will be meditating on a series of questions as you visualize blue.

  Select a color prop to use for this exercise.

  Once you have your color prop nearby, write down this question: Where am I not living my truth?

  Put your pen down, hold your color prop in your hands, and close your eyes. If you like, you can set a timer for five minutes. (I find that this helps to quiet a busy mind for a few moments.) With the question clearly in your consciousness, continue touching the color prop and take deliberate, slow, deep breaths. With each inhalation, imagine the blue energy of the color prop entering your body through your hands, and filling you up. This blue energy is helping your higher self receive truthful and honest answers to your question. What you are looking for here is honest feedback from your higher self on where you are not living your truth.

  Keep touching your color prop as you intend to receive the answer that your higher self wants to give you. Do not worry if what comes up is painful or difficult to hear; just try to listen without judgment. You have nothing to prove to anyone.

  When you feel ready, or when your timer goes off, open your eyes and write down the answer that comes to your mind. Try not to judge the answer, just write down the thoughts that come to you. This can be a few lines or several pages. It all depends on what comes to you.

  Think of at least one actionable step you can take to honor your truth. Do not worry if this step feels difficult to carry out in the moment. Fear has a way of finding excuses for us not to change, but that is not the point. The important thing is to acknowledge the truth of what needs to be done. By activating blue, your higher self will bring you closer to the answer.

  There are so many ways we can ignore our truths. This is where the power of blue will shine for you; it invokes the courage to be who you are.

  THE SHADOW SIDE OF BLUE

  If blue represents truth and wisdom, then the shadow side of blue is fear of that truth. An imbalance of blue typically manifests as a refusal to accept the reality of a situation, but it can also show up as deception (either being deceived or doing the deceiving). That uneasy feeling that someone is lying to us, or the guilt we feel when lying to someone else, is a classic sign of a blue imbalance. No matter the situation, the shadow side of blue is a struggle when it comes to facing the truth of a situation. Activating blue will bring out the truth, but if this area is out of balance, it will also highlight how fear plays a role in our life. This is why blue can be “prickly” for people to activate, though it gives us the power to unlock our cage of denial and soar into the exhilarating freedom of truth.

  Many of us waste precious time ignoring or running away from aspects of ourselves that we struggle to accept. While I completely understand the desire to avoid a difficult truth, this prevents us from learning its lesson and moving past our fear. The irony of blue’s shadow side is that no one can avoid the truth forever. Staying in an unhealthy relationship or denying the existence of an addiction may seem easier in the short term, but this just causes blue’s imbalance to grow until our lives are dwarfed by its massive shadow. If we continue clinging to the shadow side of blue, the imbalance can even begin to manifest in health issues. At some point, we will be forced to acknowledge the lesson.

  The whole point of living is to learn a series of lessons so that we can evolve, and blue will shine a light on those lessons. Human beings naturally want to avoid feeling pain, but every one of us will at some point be faced with a situation too painful not to deal with. I just want to reassure you that a beautiful bright blue freedom waits on the other side of that truth.

  We live in an era of unprecedented opportunity to find and express our truth (to varying degrees, depending on where you live in the world). This is especially true due to developments in technology. The Internet offers unlimited access to information, and we know that truth is the embodiment of blue energy. We do not have to rely on others to learn about any given topic. We are free to become as informed as we wish to be.

  Social media has become a platform for every person with an Internet connection who wishes to share their thoughts and feelings on any given topic. In the past, only celebrities and politicians had this kind of opportunity to express themselves openly to the world. We can now express our truth and receive support from kindred spirits far beyond our physical community. In addition, disenfranchised minorities and those affected by social injustice of all kinds have been given a powerful voice and audience. If you are activating blue and want to feel the instant effects of speaking your truth, social media is truly a modern miracle.

  And yet how truthful are we really? These days, it is common to keep up with friends by posting a recent photo of ourselves on various social media platforms. This practice is so common that high school reunions have been basically rendered obsolete, due to the fact we can connect with and follow up with literally anyone we have ever known. And just like at a high school reunion, it is natural to want to present the best possible version of ourselves to our peers.

  Many people go to great lengths to make sure their lives look as perfect as possible online. Before posting a photo, we might get dressed up, put on makeup, fix our hair, find nice lighting, and take a variety of photos at flattering angles until we find one that looks just right. Then we will edit out any blemishes using an app on our phone and make sure that our skin glows. The end result is the same as if a professional photographer came to take our picture for a magazine! While nothing is inherently wrong with wanting to look our best, taking this process too far feeds into the shadow side of blue by promoting unrealistic expectations. It is not exactly the truth, but rather some curated approximation of it.

  We all naturally want to project the ideal version of our lives to the world. But if we are not mindful, we may end up entirely concealing our truth under a flattering filter. Scrolling through posts of models and pop stars lounging on yachts may seem harmless, but we often end up feeling bad when we compare our lives to their seem
ingly glamorous ones. What we don’t see behind that reality TV star’s flawless makeup selfie is the eating disorder, the chronic depression, the abusive relationship, or whatever else they don’t want you to notice. This is the double-edged sword of social media. Truth and lies are two sides of the same blue coin.

  I have received the following message in meditation so many times, and my hope is for you to ingest the truth of it: you are perfect exactly as you are.

  Any struggles you currently face are just lessons the universe wants you to learn. You will learn these lessons sooner or later; blue energy just speeds up that process. Blue teaches us to go beneath our surface, to dig up the weeds of denial. Once we do this, the truth nourishes our spiritual garden and allows flowers of wisdom to flourish.

  CHAPTER 6

  EMERALD GREEN

  QUALITIES: Communication and creativity

  SHADOW SIDE: Blocked self-expression

  Emerald green helps us open our lines of creativity and communication. While there are many shades of green, I find that the deeper shades, like emerald, are best for when you want to let your creative juices flow. On the communication front, emerald will help clear misunderstandings in your relationships and allow you to find the perfect words to express yourself.

  Culturally, green is often associated with the freedom to move forward and flourish. A green traffic light is internationally recognized as the sign to “go ahead,” while a green card grants permanent residence in the United States. Having a green thumb indicates a natural ability to make plants grow. This coincides nicely with the way I view creativity, which is that we essentially use our hands to create. In the science world, green is considered a relaxing color for the eye to take in, and studies have shown that being around emerald green can also reduce fatigue.1

  Emerald green helps us to connect with the creative or artistic aspect of ourselves. In my practice, I usually see emerald around singers, public speakers, and writers or artisans. Maya Angelou, the prolific poet, and pop artist Andy Warhol are perfect examples of creative emerald green energy.