What’s your favorite color? How I always hated that question! And then, I realized that’s like asking a music lover what note they love and decided to lay a claim on all colors. I LOVE all colors although I do feel a deep affinity with certain colors like purple and pink.
Using color is also one of the easiest ways in which we can nourish ourselves.
In the past few weeks, as we all feel the uncertainty that’s hanging in the air, I have seen green and yellow-green appear in many people’s newsletters and canvasses.
I feel a greater pull towards green and pink nowadays too. It feels like many of us are feeling the need to nourish our hearts as we feel sadness and grieve over the loss of something, whether it’s the loss of the certainty of certain things in our lives or something more serious.
We all need an infusion of energy. And surrounding ourselves with the energy that is calling to us, whether it’s the groundedness of red or the heart-nourishing quality of pink and green, is a way to nourish ourselves.
Another color I feel really drawn to right now is black.
We often use the words “dark” and “black” for negative things. But black is also the color of the creative void. I think there’s a reason that a lot of artists wear black. It’s because there is a phase in creative work where everything feels unknown and uncertain. You can’t see what is coming through. You have to stay in that space of unknowing to see that the darkness hides many multi-colored things, in the same way that fluorescent creatures like the jellyfish swim in the deep, dark ocean.
Right now, I am feeling as if black means a pause, an invitation to rest and draw the curtains so you can sleep and dream beautiful dreams. Black is about tuning out the overwhelming noise that hearing all the news creates around us. It’s the opportunity to rest inside a cave and come back refreshed.
I have also been cooking a lot more nowadays. We have ordered in just a few times over the past few weeks. And as I get more creative with my cooking, I have been using The Flavor Bible to combine ingredients I have in combinations that work well together.
So, although I have made butternut squash soup before, this time, I added a carrot and ginger along with the coconut milk. The final color was so much more beautiful because of the addition of that one red carrot than it had been before with just the squash. Instead of just a yellow, it was now a golden-yellow.
It looked so pretty that I took a close-up photo of the color and messaged it to my family back in India.
Cooking this way has also felt much more creative. Although I cook pretty well, I often do think of cooking as a chore. But when done creatively, it becomes nourishing, like a little “artiste’s date” that Julia Cameron talks about, like a way to experiment and try something new.
I have had The Flavor Bible for long but have been using it a lot more now. It’s interesting to think about what kinds of things go together and how different things have different flavors. Root vegetables seem to all work well together. And learning about the difference between a lime and a lemon feels like collecting delicious trivia.
Did you know that if you just want to awaken a soup at the end, you should add a dash of lime? If you add too much lemon, your soup will taste lemony. But lime will just give it that acidic, wide-awake flavor without the taste of “lemon.”
Soup is also a great way to nourish yourself. It’s easy to make and you can spice it up how you like and use odds and ends in it. I guess that’s why eggs have been in short supply nowadays as well. So many people seem to be baking a lot more nowadays as families stay home. And simple baking is also a pretty low-effort, high-reward kind of cooking.
For those of us who are fortunate enough to stay at home and who are, touchwood, okay health-wise right now, these little things feel grounding and comforting. They feel like home-making, not mechanical chores.
So, what are the ways in which you are nourishing yourself right now? What colors are calling to you? What is the energy you are needing right now?
Wear the colors you feel attracted to. Eat them in your food, if you can. Bring out extra decorations and rearrange your space. Move the energy around and use color to uplift where you are.
Here are some colors and color combinations that are feeling good to me right now:
Red and yellow: Grounding and Strength.
Red and Purple: Grounded Creativity.
Pink and Green: For the Heart.
Chocolate Brown: For self-nourishment.
Orange: For feeling more joy and letting feelings flow.
These are just a few of the energies I need right now. What are the colors and color combinations that are calling to you? Do you want the sensory deprivation of black? Are you feeling attracted to the power of gold?
What is it that you need? There’s something inside you that picks out exactly what is right for you. Trust it and move towards it.
Have a Happy, Colorful Weekend!
Ritu Kaushal is the author of The Empath’s Journey, which talks about how highly sensitive people and empaths can connect with their true self by using art therapy and working with their dreams, amongst several other tools.
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