There is a lot of talk about love and light. Sometimes the phrase is dismissed as woo-woo or airy-fairy (as if that makes it meaningless.) That makes me just a touch angry, because I believe that there is so much power in love and light.

Wishing people love and light isn’t enough on it’s own, and it isn’t where things stop – at least not for me. Love and light start us on a path and support us on a course of action.

But maybe it isn’t always where we need to start, either. Sometimes we need to start with our shadow side, because that is where we are – where we really are.

In Color Thinking, every color has a shadow side and a light (infused side) – and they aren’t polar opposites, they are closely related to each other. There are shades and hues in between, too, so it’s more accurate to say that there is a spectrum.

In the language of color, the shadow side of a color represents the darker, more challenging aspects, and the associated emotions – usually the things that we don’t like about ourselves or our current situation. The shadow side represents where we are stuck or suffering.

We need to be able to see the shadow side. We cannot see our true selves unless we see our shadow side.

In Color Thinking, we actually look for the shadow side, because that will tell us where we need the love and light. When we discover our shadow side we shine a bright light on it. We look deep within ourselves, ask the questions we need to ask and examine the answers – without beating ourselves up (because guilt and shame are just satanic!)

Often we discover that our shadow side exists because we are unenlightened – we discover things we didn’t know, didn’t think about, didn’t decide or choose for ourselves. And then we can do something about it.

That’s inner work in a nutshell, I think: finding the shadowy corners, shining the light on them and cleaning them up, lovingly.

We are all being called to do inner work these days. Color thinking is a new way to approach it. Colors help us access the places within ourselves where the shadows live, in a way that words alone haven’t been able to access.

In the meantime, remember these things: You are loved. We are all loved. Let’s all be kind. And in all things – progress, not perfection!

Love and light, Maggie

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My Book, The Rainbow Onion, is now available for pre-order at a discount on Amazon (here) until July23rd – then it goes up to full price.