When I am in Japanese class, I can feel parts of my brain firing off electrons that have been dormant for quite some time. Memorization, pronunciation, writing, and reading a completely new alphabet have grounded me into my body in a way I never expected. It is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. If I ever feel self-critical of my level of comprehension, I just touch my notebook and remind myself of my intention behind these classes. Although it was difficult to start, I am proud to say I now have a very basic knowledge of conversational Japanese. This is helpful because I just returned from my third trip to Japan and have another one planned!
My next goal is to lead a meditation in Japanese. And although I don’t know how long it may take me to master the vocabulary, I will use mint green to help me manifest this dream!
Some mint green color props you could incorporate into your day include:
Fresh mint. Get a potted mint plant to keep in your home. Not only is this a great color prop, but the leaves can also be incorporated into your meals.
A mint green scarf. Mint green is a lovely color to wear, and placing it around your neck ensures you can see and touch it throughout your day.
Matcha green tea. Packed with antioxidants and vitamin C, matcha (along with gunpowder tea, another form of green tea) is a wonderful way to enjoy mint green energy. Add some almond milk to transform it into a perfectly hued latte!
PHYSICAL ACTIVATION EXERCISE: MANIFEST WITH MINT
Set an intention for something you would like to manifest in your life. (Note: This exercise will complement just about any other manifesting process you are using.)
Make sure to write your intention down somewhere you can easily see it. This can be a vision board, your desktop background, a message taped onto your bathroom mirror, or anything else like this. For ideas, think of a hobby, class, cuisine, trip, or experience you have always wanted to try. What could you incorporate into your life that would be new, different, and uplifting? We live in a magical time when knowledge and experience are right at our fingertips. When we are open to something new, we expand our energy and create passion in our lives.
Select a mint green color prop to use for physically activating this energy. You can change the item as often as you like. Touch this item whenever you want a reminder of your goal.
Much like orange, mint green is easy to incorporate through food, because you can go out and buy fresh mint to keep around the house. Not only do you physically activate it through touch, but it also smells amazing, which brings another sense in to your color prop. I’m not sure I have ever met anyone who doesn’t appreciate the smell or taste of fresh mint. Add it to water or food, or just use it as a bouquet in your home and notice its fresh, uplifting effect on your mood.
The world of nature is an excellent color prop, and I recommend bringing it into your home as often as possible. Every shade of green is represented in nature, so find a vibrant green plant and use it as an intentional reminder for new possibilities in your life.
If you are looking for a little bit of extra attention, mint green is a great color to incorporate into your wardrobe. It can easily make you the most magnetic person in the room.
THE SHADOW SIDE OF MINT GREEN
The shadow side of mint green is anxiety and struggles with physical health. Anxiety is often the fear of unknown outcomes, which is why it directly counteracts the energy of mint green. If you find you are resisting the color and leaning toward the shadow side, there is a chance you may have trouble being fully present in your body. You may know someone who is like a tornado of energy. As soon as they walk into the room, papers are immediately flying everywhere as they try to find their keys and talk about four different topics at once. They are great people, but it just feels like they need to slow down for a second and catch their breath.
This kind of whirlwind energy is a sign of a mint green imbalance. Because mint green helps us to feel our body, it has a strong, almost viscerally kinetic response. For some people, an imbalance of this energy can feel like anxiety. If such is the case for you, a slower form of exercise can be a helpful addition to balance this energy. Tai Chi, yoga, creating pottery, or a quiet walk around the block are good ways to utilize mint green in a way that should feel safer. It can take some time to get comfortable combining your spiritual practice with physical activity.
AFTERWORD
FOLLOW YOUR RAINBOW
People often ask me to describe what an aura, or the energy around someone, looks like. It is almost impossible for me to express the depth and magnitude of our energy structures. And, in reality, it would be naive of me to think I am seeing the full picture of our energetic bodies. I can only convey what I see around people as I continue working in my chosen field. It reminds me of stargazing. You can lie down on the grass and stare up at our universe for hours. Your eyes will focus on perhaps one twinkling light. You may even notice a constellation and think you have a grasp on what is really up there. But the truth is, we all experience the depth and tremendous scope of the universe in our own way.
It is the same for our soul and the energies we radiate. I may see one, two, or even three colors around someone when I give a reading, but our souls are so profound and our experiences, as well as our energies, are constantly changing. I may see one color around a client, and then, a year later, I will see a completely different color, depending on what is going on in their life. That is why I wanted to familiarize you with the ten major colors individually. Just as your life will continue to change, the colors and energy you reach for will continue to change.
I have described these colors based on my own interpretations of many clients’ personality traits. But this is filtered through my own lens of understanding the universe. Categorizing color energy is almost like asking a shooting star to pause so we can examine and try to understand it. However, I feel that the energies these colors represent are universal. I have created a system that will help you explore some of the more dominant aspects of your life. From activating higher thought forms with gold to discovering your destiny and purpose with purple, these colors will help you adjust and strengthen the qualities of yourself as you need them.
The changes you have the power to make are endless, from focusing on the state of your home with silver to optimizing your relationship with your physical body through mint green. This system provides you the opportunity to reflect and take stock of where you are and, most importantly, where you want to go. Utilizing this process helps you build a sense of balance using colors you have been seeing all your life. This is an opportunity to take the reins on key life components using a variety of senses.
There are so many ways to naturally bring color and light energy into your life. It is completely up to you how much you want to utilize the power of these colors. You could work your way through every color, week by week until you have made a complete circle of color energy. You can repeat the process from start to finish, starting with white. Or you can refer back to each color as needed, calling upon specific colors to guide you when you need them most. My main goal is to show you that color is a new language you can use.
I go through phases of energy and will intermittently be drawn to different colors, depending on where I am in life. For example, I am currently in a blue phase. I noticed the other day while clothing shopping that I had picked a pair of blue shorts, a blue polo, several blue T-shirts, and blue socks. I even recently bought new blue pillows for our living room. But instead of just shrugging and saying “I like blue,” I pay attention to see what my energy is telling me through that color.
In moments like these, it may not be immediately apparent what the color is trying to tell you. For me, I knew that blue energy was trying to tell me something about my life. So let’s explore this together. I have mentioned that often with blue, the clairvoyant imagery for me is stacks and stacks of blue books. When I had my little blue shopping spree, I was just in the final leg of finishing this book. If I am being honest with myself and am tun
ing in to the message behind blue, I must admit that I had quite a bit of fear during the writing process. The combination of expressing my ideas, concepts, and processes seems to bring up some fear of rejection and failure. Being creative means making myself vulnerable.
As these fears began popping up, I naturally started to surround myself with blue. But I also noticed the color blue was popping out at me regularly during my day. Focusing on its meaning pointed out I had some subconscious fear floating around my energy. Once you have made a relationship with each color and have grounded it through your being, it can become your own divination system. The universe will use color as a way to communicate and connect with you. It may seem hard to decipher at first, kind of like my attempts at learning Japanese. But once you take the time to get familiar with it, you will find yourself recognizing and receiving information through color.
That’s just the beginning. So often we wait for the universe to speak to us through signs. Many people say they would like a sign from the universe. By living your life in color, you empower yourself to create energy and change in your life with the use of color. Now that you have a strong sense of and connection to the ten most practical colors for our lives, you can use them in any order or way you see fit. Depending on your circumstances, you can activate any color from an emotional, spiritual, or physical (or, preferably, all of the above) perspective. This process can help you be your best self and keep your energy managed, as it did for me recently.
I was invited to do a live speaking event at the Oprah Winfrey Network in Los Angeles. They have a program for their employees called OWN University, or OWN U. Some of the OWN U speakers have included Brené Brown, Iyanla Vanzant, Cameron Diaz, and, on this particular day, me. Gulp. I had spent a few weeks with this on my calendar and I was trying to pretend that it wasn’t that big of a deal. There had already been several conference call meetings with the people at OWN. We also talked about recording some videos for Oprah.com before my live presentation for around 70 executives and team members.
“Um, will Oprah be there?” I asked during one of the conference calls.
“She might be. It depends on whether or not she is in the building.”
I have lived in LA for over eight years now. Some of my clients are quite well known, and at this point I have gotten used to meeting celebrities. Once you see that everyone deals with the same fundamental problems and challenges, the illusion really fades. Having said that, there are a few people that the thought of meeting makes me a little nervous, and one of them is Oprah Winfrey. The grounded, rational part of my being knows that she is human just like everyone else. However, the kid in me that would cut school and watch her show religiously had a hard time understanding the idea of sharing air space with her.
It would be one thing to meet her at an event or a party. I would probably introduce myself nervously and ask if she wanted to talk about spirituality over blueberry scones sometime. But the idea I could be standing at the front of a room she was in, giving a spiritually uplifting talk based on my work, was giving me all the feels. Exciting as this was, I could feel myself turning into a nervous wreck.
Usually I can compartmentalize parts of my personality. I can use purple on days I need to step into being a leader. I will invoke emerald green when I need to write or express myself. Using electric mint green helps me bring vitality and a youthful joy to things. Each color helps me have laser focus on an energy or part of my consciousness. But this felt like a lot to manage. This would be the combination of being in my power as a teacher and potentially meeting a hugely inspiring teacher of mine.
The morning of the talk, I was unsure what color to wear. I decided to use my shower as my meditation space. I like combining my shower and meditation. It’s cleansing, and there are no distractions. There is also something poetic about washing my physical body while also creating quiet space and “washing” my spiritual self.
On this particular morning, during my shower meditation, my mind was racing. There was very little quiet, peaceful energy. What I realized was there were two very powerful energies dancing through my mind. The spiritual teacher inside me wanted to do well and be invited back. The young student inside me just wanted to play it cool if Oprah decided to make a cameo appearance.
“I need to be grounded,” I said out loud.
I quickly decided it was imperative for me to wear black. You see, black represents grounding energy. The earth, soil, and all matter are invoked through black energy. It is the color that grounds our being to the planet. People often ask me about color energy, and then they will say: “What about black? Do you ever see black in someone’s aura?” Or they will joke in reference to a negative person, “I bet that person’s aura is black.” This sort of remark is often stated as if black energy is a bad thing. But this is a misconception. Why would one color be inherently negative? They all have a positive side and a shadow side. Visually, black is said to absorb all other colors, which to me is a perfect example of its grounding power. Black has the capability to take all of our scattered energy and root us into the core of the earth.
When I lived in New York City, black was my signature color for clothing. In fact, many people in Manhattan enjoy wearing black. This is not just because it is slimming. I think it’s because physical space is extremely limited in big cities. I would go from a crowded street down to a packed subway car, to finally arrive at my tiny office. At the end of the day, I would reverse this trek to then return to my small apartment. So, to protect our energy, we pull it inward. Someone from a smaller town might think New Yorkers aren’t friendly, and I understand why. We tend to be very focused on where we are going, and we usually avoid eye contact on trains. But when we feel scattered or overwhelmed, it is natural to want to pull our energy close to ourselves. Very dark brown, black, charcoal gray, and other dark, earthy tones are useful for grounding us and protecting our own energy.
Now that I am living in Los Angeles, my wardrobe has shifted to brighter colors as I have more space. But, on this particular day, black seemed to be calling strongly to me. When we use black as our color, it is the one time we reverse the activation process. As I was dressing for my event at OWN, rather than envisioning black six inches above my head, I envisioned two spheres of black energy just below my feet. These black spheres of energy take on an interesting visual for me. If you have ever seen the stone obsidian, that is very similar to what I see. There are golden hues mixed into the black stone. You could even describe it as iridescent.
For every color except black, during the activation process we are looking to the heavens and the universe for our guidance. We are reminding ourselves of our soul body. But when we work with earth tones, we are doing the exact opposite. The reason we focus below our feet with earth tones like black is to help ground our energy into the planet. On this day, I needed to express spiritual topics in a grounded way that was palatable for everyone.
We are all multifaceted beings, and we wear several hats during our day. You may be a mom, wife, lawyer, friend, Reiki practitioner, and avid Duran Duran groupie all at once. Depending on the task at hand, you lead with whatever part of your identity is called upon. There are a few key moments in life when we get to wear all hats at once. And on that day at the Oprah Winfrey Network, I wanted to wear them all. I was so nervous, so out of my body, but I needed to be present. I wanted to be connected and fully integrated into this experience. I also wanted to be balanced and in a unified place.
I put on a black V-neck sweater as my last moment of conscious meditation. I affirmed to myself that every time I saw the color black that day, I would harness my energy and give it a dose of grounded centeredness.
When David and I arrived at the OWN studios, we climbed the steps to the lobby, and David immediately started laughing.
“Oh my gosh, how fun!”
“What?”
We opened the door, and right in front of us was a giant, floor-to-ceiling video screen with my image on it and a message
that said: The Oprah Winfrey Network Welcomes Dougall Fraser.
Now, in theory, this type of moment should have caused me to get all kinds of freaked out. I was already feeling nervous to be speaking there, and now everyone who walked by could see my face. It would have been very easy for me not to give myself permission to have fun with this moment. I was busy wearing my spiritual teacher hat, and somehow I assumed a spiritual teacher wouldn’t get excited about that sort of thing.
But today was different. Today, I was grounded. I had activated black to help me be all things in the present moment, and in this moment I was so flattered. All I could do was giggle. We walked up to the front desk, where I pointed to the wall and said, “Hi, that’s me on the wall over there.” David begged me to stand in front of it for a photo. We sat down on the plush benches, waiting for the OWN team and staring at my picture in front of us.
When the OWN team came down, we were escorted up to a room where we would shoot the videos. I was introduced to Samantha, who would be interviewing me for the segments, and as I shook her hand, I was drawn to a necklace that she was wearing. It was the most beautiful amulet, a black obsidian stone wrapped in golden wire. It was right in front of me, and it was a perfect manifestation of universal activation. I explained to her the process of why I activated black and how her necklace was helping me calm my nerves.
We proceeded to film a series of short videos, and, if I do say so myself, I nailed it. The grounding energy of black (and my ability to spy it in real time) helped me make a smooth transition from being excited in the lobby into clearly delivering wisdom and information without skipping a beat.
My talk for OWN U was scheduled to be taped at 5 P.M. in front of an audience of about 60 people. I had some extra time before the talk, so David and I went to the on-site café to get a snack and some refreshments. The café is designed to look like a lovely lounge, with beautifully upholstered furniture at one end and a gorgeous kitchen filled with goodies at the other end. I helped myself to a coffee and a snack, then sat down quietly. Almost immediately, my mind filled with chatter: This coffee is delicious, and so is this gluten-free cookie. Wait a minute, are these some of Oprah’s favorite things? I mean, this is her office, so there’s a good chance that those are Julia Roberts’s favorite muffins over there.
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