Deep, rich emerald green tends to move quickly for people, meaning you will notice its effects almost immediately as you work with it. The reason for this is that when creativity is flowing properly, you do not censor or think too much. Ideas or possibilities may come to you, and your job is to allow them to manifest physically. Try not to restrain your initial creative urges, as this will only stifle the energy of emerald green. It is always easier to edit your personal expression later than it is to release it in the first place. The best way to utilize this color is to allow it to flow and inspire you with whatever you are doing.
The idea is to color outside the lines. If you lean toward following rules in your life, you may be slightly apprehensive with green. This is completely normal. Emerald green helps to foster a sense of freedom, but the flip side of this excitement is apprehension. If you are naturally a person that marches to the beat of your own drum, then green will probably flow through your being quite easily.
When I work with clients who are looking to increase their self-expression, it is fairly common for them to talk about wanting to write a book. We all have life journeys and lessons that we can learn from each other, so this makes perfect sense. Using emerald green is an excellent tool for speeding up the writing process. Having said that, keep in mind writing is only one form of expressing our unique journey on the planet.
In my opinion, the urge to write a book is more about wanting to feel validated for our experiences than about releasing our inner author. Unless you are already writing regularly, there is a chance that you may seek the validation rather than the creative outlet. When writing is your preferred form of creative expression, it will manifest in many other forms before a book happens. Your words will pour from you naturally, in journals, poems, blogs, stories, and articles. I am not saying this to discourage you from publishing a book. By all means, go for it if you feel motivated! I am just saying that there are many ways to validate your experiences artistically. Writing a book is not the end goal for creative expression of the written word, it is just one more way to achieve it.
With emerald green, we invoke the artist within our being, and simultaneously heighten our communication skills. It is easy for us to observe a piece of art by another person and think of all the ways we would do it differently. But to be an artist who is putting themselves out there publicly is a whole different story. They must develop an extremely thick skin or risk being discouraged by naysayers.
In our case, we don’t have to worry about this. I am not saying that in order to use emerald green successfully, you should go out and express yourself in a major public forum. My goal for this activation is to help you realize your creativity can be as private or public as you want it to be. It does not matter who sees the product of your artistic endeavors as long as you are expressing yourself.
Sharing and communicating your vision to people on the planet brings up many feelings for people, which I totally understand. No one wants to feel judged by others, and there is also the desire to just blend in. If you feel strongly about this, you may want to alternate between working with blue and emerald. With blue, you have made a clear connection to your fear and desire for truth. Now as you access green, you give yourself freedom to fully express all aspects of yourself.
When you activate emerald green, you may notice the color takes on different hues each time. The shades that you see may evolve as you continue to work with each following energy. This is very normal and actually a good sign. It means your process with color is evolving. There is so much depth and wisdom with every color. Let each hue and shade take you to a different place.
SPIRITUAL ACTIVATION NOTES
When I spiritually activated emerald green, it helped me discover my personal favorite form of creative expression. I was born into a very artistic family. My sister, father, and mother all painted quite well, without any kind of formal training. I took an art class with my sister and dad when I was a teenager, naturally assuming that I would be similarly artistic. We each sat down in front of a small blank canvas and were told to paint a still life. There was a tray of fruit artfully arranged in the middle of the room, and we were supposed to paint our own interpretation of it.
After working on my still life for a while, I took a step back to get some perspective. I have a clear memory of looking over at my family’s canvases and seeing that their apples and oranges had beautiful softly defined shadows and highlights. My canvas, on the other hand, looked more like I had been painting with my feet instead of my hands.
I immediately felt self-critical about not being as naturally comfortable with a paintbrush as the rest of my family. But more importantly, I was surprised and disappointed that painting as a medium did not satisfy my creative urge. I was certain genetics would have made me a great painter. If painting brought my family so much joy, then surely I should feel the same way—right?
Understanding that we are all individuals who are creatively inspired by different things turned out to be a great lesson for me. I loved spending quiet time with my family but did not feel drawn to doing so with them in the context of painting. Once I realized painting wasn’t my chosen area of expression, I had to trust that at some point my creative passion would reveal itself. It was only later, when I began activating emerald green, that I discovered my truest expression of creativity.
Looking back, I see that I had always loved telling stories through the written word. I kept a journal and enjoyed noting my life experiences in it. I loved reading and appreciated reading other people’s words as well. Once I remembered the joy of writing, I knew I needed to commit myself to doing it regularly. From blogs to letters, e-mail, and books, I jumped right in to all kinds of writing. My creativity did not involve painting in the end, but it certainly involved color! Instead of painting on a canvas, I paint my own energy with a rainbow of color.
SPIRITUAL ACTIVATION EXERCISE: AWAKEN YOUR INNER ARTIST
This exercise takes us back to memories of childhood, because our early years are when most of us had more time and freedom to use our imagination. Remember, every child is an artist. Using your life experiences as a map, think back to a time when creativity was a normal part of your day.
After spiritually activating green, take a few moments to remember your earliest memories of being creative. Your goal is to invoke a creative hobby that you enjoyed before life exposed you to the all-too-common feelings of self-consciousness or vulnerability. Maybe you were in a play and you really enjoyed portraying a character onstage. Maybe you have a fond memory of carving something in woodworking class or drawing in your notebook after school. You came home beaming with pride to share something you created with your family. Perhaps it was as simple as playing with the dolls in your room and creating a fantasy world. This step is simply about identifying where your creativity has expressed itself before so that you can draw from that energy again. You will know you have found the right creative outlet because it will bring a smile to your face and make you feel good, causing green energy to flow through you.
Re-create the source of your past creative joy at least once a week as you activate emerald. But by all means, do it as often as you like if you feel inspired. Examples of these activities could include:
Drawing
Singing
Pottery or sculpting
To help reactivate your personal expression of joy, ask yourself where you could insert traces of that energy into your current life. This may be a challenge, depending on your circumstances, but remember, there is no wrong way to do this exercise. We are helping to awaken any deep-rooted creativity that may have gone dormant within you.
For me, I was a storyteller as a child. I loved relaying a story to my friends before class and feeling the exchange of energy through expressing myself. Some of my happiest childhood memories involve telling ghost stories around a bonfire at summer camp. I loved knowing I could invoke feelings and sensations with my words. I also loved listening to others make up stories th
at could take us on a journey together. I often use those kinds of memories to trigger creative energy in my current life. If I were to re-create this energy today, I might write out a fictional story based on anything that inspired me in the moment. I would do it on loose-leaf paper, not in my journal, to remind myself that my goal is to activate creative green energy and not to “create” something lasting. This removes all pressure and allows the exercise to flow freely.
UNIVERSAL ACTIVATION NOTES
(AKA “I SPY” WITH MY INTUITIVE EYE)
Emerald green is a powerful color for universal activation, because it works very quickly and can easily be seen in any natural setting where plants are visible. When you start to see deep, rich green energy in your life, let this be a reminder to fully express yourself. Every time this color enters your visual landscape, it is an opportunity to connect with the creative side of your being. If you are enjoying a meal and see a green vegetable, pause for a moment to appreciate your unique expression of creativity. If you are in a meeting with someone who is wearing green, allow that to enhance your communication skills with them. When you notice emerald green, your soul is telling you it would like a dose of this energy. Once you begin to make the connection between colors and their energy, this will become a powerful tool in helping you to gauge which energies you need in any given moment. Emerald green will help you see the beauty in life and appreciate creative expression of all kinds.
A simple way to universally activate emerald green is to change the background of your computer or phone to a rich emerald green for a boost of creative energy. I particularly love doing this when I am writing, as I will constantly see the color green as I am typing away. The green background can be an image of nature, or it can be just a solid green if you like. Various studies have shown that seeing green heightens creativity and communication. Your only limit is your creativity, which is now growing and expanding!
UNIVERSAL ACTIVATION EXERCISE: AN ARTIST’S DATE
This exercise is an easy and fun way to engage a new artistic process. An artist’s date is any kind of creative activity that you have never tried before. Our goal here is to open new outlets of personal expression for you. Although there is no guarantee you will love the activity, an artist’s date may release new bursts of creativity in other areas of your life. There is also the chance you will discover an enjoyable way to express your creativity that you never thought of before.
Set an intention that you will commit to an artist’s date in the next seven days, utilizing the power of universal activation. Keep your eyes open to signs from green energy, and listen when it speaks to you as you look for your artist’s date. Perhaps you walk into a painting studio to inquire about their afternoon workshops, and the teacher is wearing a green necklace. Or maybe you are interested in taking a weekend dance class, and you happen to drive by a place near your home called Green Dance Studio. Be open to receiving these messages through color, and you will learn how to spot them more quickly.
The only requirement is that you choose an artist’s date that is unusual for you. You are trying to stimulate a different part of your creative consciousness than you normally would. There are no rules to this endeavor. From scrapbooking to making jewelry, taking a cooking class to anything else, how you engage your creative side is completely up to you.
Potential options include:
Participating in a half-day writing retreat
Taking a calligraphy workshop
Trying out an improvised comedy intensive
EMERALD GREEN AFFIRMATION
MY UNIQUE CREATIVITY FLOWS THROUGH ME FREELY.
PHYSICAL ACTIVATION NOTES
As emerald green is also close to the color of mature plants and healthy grass, it is very easy to utilize nature in your color props. I have a variety of potted plants in my house, and I often sit near them or touch them when I write. Plants are a terrific way to bring the color green into your home and workspace.
Another fun way to incorporate the energy of emerald green into your day is to eat it! One of my clients told me she often uses food as a way to boost her work with specific colors, and I think this is a fantastic idea. We not only look at the foods we eat before ingesting them, but we literally absorb their colors into our physical body. And thanks to the variety of green vegetables in the world, your diet can be a truly physical manifestation of taking in emerald energy.
Some emerald green color props you could incorporate into your day include:
Plants. What better way to invoke green energy than by keeping a fresh plant in your home?
Your computer background. If you do any kind of writing, set your computer background to something green, and touch it for a boost of creative energy.
A green notebook. Since green is all about creative expression, try using a green notebook to hold your ideas and creative thoughts.
PHYSICAL ACTIVATION EXERCISE: EAT YOUR GREENS
The purpose of this exercise is to give you a fun way to express your creativity. We all have to eat, so why not activate emerald green at the same time?
Think of a meal you can prepare that showcases the color green. It could be anything from a salad to a spinach wrap, or just about anything else. Some of my favorite emerald green veggies include:
Spinach
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
As you prepare the meal, make sure to touch each vegetable with the intention of activating your creative spirit.
You can actually use this exercise idea with every color. I also love to intentionally mix foods with different colors, depending on which energy I am activating.
THE SHADOW SIDE OF EMERALD GREEN
The shadow side of emerald green is blocked creativity and communication. If you find yourself saying “I am not a creative person” or “I have nothing to share with the world,” then you may be dealing with the shadow side of this color. Although it may seem like it only affects creativity, ignoring emerald green can negatively impact relationships or any elements of your life where your expression may be stunted.
I mentioned your creativity can be expressed as publicly or privately as you like. The shadow side of emerald green fools us into thinking our unique voice is not worthy of being heard. For example, one of my clients, Jen, identified as a secret poet. She loved writing poetry as a teenager and found it to be a cathartic form of journaling her experiences. However, as an adult in Middle America making her living as a bookkeeper, this was a side of herself she came to think of as childish. Even her closest friends weren’t aware of her past outlet for self-expression. She had been outgoing in high school, but as an adult she had become more quiet and reserved. Something as simple as poetry was hidden away like it was an addiction or a skeleton in her closet.
She came to me for coaching because she had a strained relationship with her husband, Brian, and wanted help. Jen found it easier to bottle up her feelings than to express them, which ultimately left Brian feeling like he didn’t understand her. Although he meant well, Brian assumed Jen would tell him if something was bothering her, the way she used to when they were first dating.
Rather than focusing directly on Jen’s relationship, I felt she would benefit from first sharing her creative side with others. Tuning in to her energy, I could see dark green hovering above her physical body. That her aura was so disconnected from her body told me she had a strained relationship with green energy and self-expression. It seemed to me that with such strong artistic energy clearly radiating from her, stuffing it away was shutting down her ability to communicate from her core.
I had her try out the “Awaken Your Inner Artist” exercise, which revealed strong, happy memories of writing poetry. Jen even pulled out some of her old poetry journals that she had saved in a box of mementos. Seeing sparks of joy as she held those journals, I thought Jen should try to awaken her inner poet again to see how it feels. I had a hunch communicating through poetry to others could be just as cathartic as when she first wrote
her poems alone in her room.
When it was time for her to express herself, Jen committed to writing poetry again. She found a local writers’ workshop where she could practice once a week, and she fell head over heels in love with the process. Jen continued activating emerald green and later reported the experience not only satisfied her creatively but also brought her closer to her husband. She had shown him the poems that she worked on, some of which were about their relationship. In them, she spoke of her love for him and her fear of being rejected for being herself. Seeing Jen express her vulnerability through poetry helped Brian become more communicative with his own feelings. He even attended an open mike night where she read her poems, and he was excited to be able to support his wife. Communicating who you are as a unique individual will translate positively throughout all areas of your life.
CHAPTER 7
PURPLE
QUALITIES: Leadership, destiny, and purpose
SHADOW SIDE: Lack of direction; indecisiveness
Regal purple has had a long, worldwide association with leadership energy. In fact, it leads as one of the very first colors ever used in ancient art, dating back to 25,000 B.C.E. in French Neolithic sites. Purple became the color of choice for various leaders such as royalty, priests, nobles, and officers throughout the world, starting in the 15th century in the Mediterranean. Purple is the color used by the British royal family, and other royalty in Europe for special occasions. Purple robes are often worn at graduation ceremonies by theology students who intend to lead in spiritual thought. Purple is the color I turn to whenever I want to feel especially self-assured and confident in my decisions.
Your Life in Color Page 10