Don’t Let Brown Get You Down
by Linda Zeppa
“Color & Sound are universal languages, constantly speaking to us both consciously and subconsciously, to assist our soul journey.” Jean Luo Healing Power of Color and Sound Workshop
At this time of year in the north, I become more aware of color – or what many consider the lack of color. After the brilliant bright beauty of spring, summer, and autumn in nature, we are suddenly into the late autumn season of duller colors. Each year at this time, I am drawn to read an article that I wrote (intuitively!) for the New Spirit Journal a few years ago. It reminds, revives, and inspires me. This year, with the state of the world, I need this more than ever. I share it with you this month, perhaps to remind, revive and inspire you.
Don’t let Brown Get You Down!
Brown, brown everywhere! I seem to be overwhelmed lately by the color brown. It is the dominant color of this month and this season. Dull you might think, but not so. Brown just gets a bad rap. It actually is an interesting color that rarely gets talked about, always hidden behind the brilliance of the other colors in the spectrum. So, I’m talking about it and bringing it out into the open!
Brown is considered dull because it is basically around all the time but seldom noticed. It is most often the background that allows the brilliance and vibrancy of other colors. It is basic, neutral, earthy, natural. There is wholesomeness to it. It is at this time of year here (late autumn) that it is noticed most in nature. The brilliant colors of the harvest are gone and it is time for the background to be noticed. Dying and dead leaves, the brown of bare trees and branches, the tan of stalks and fading grasses, bare rocks showing on the hillsides and oh-so-luscious mud!
Brown is a mixture of other colors, which gives it a wide range of hue and meaning. Basically, it is red, blue and yellow mixed together. Considering the properties of these colors, one can imagine what brown holds. It has the solidity of red, the simplicity and friendliness of communicating blue, and the organic warmth of sunny yellow mixed in varying degrees to produce its hue and shade. These combinations are subtle, but powerful.
When you think about it, at this time of year brown is good for us.
It is earthy. It keeps us grounded at a time of year when we would like to escape.
It is dependable. As we become more internal and spend more time indoors, it keeps us connected to the world outside.
It is stabilizing. In our world at this time, we are searching for that stability, alone and together, at home or out there in the world and the universe.
It is wholesome and warming, as hot chocolate, a cup of hot coffee or tea, baked apples, cinnamon, wood for the fire, a brown bag lunch.
Nathan Hale said, “Be sensitive to your sensitive inner capacities to respond to color.” With this in mind, I am choosing to enjoy the dullness of this brown time and soaking in all of the earthy wholesomeness that I can before the predicted ‘white stuff’ comes along.
One final thought: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? FOOD! It is said that brown is an appetite stimulant. If you feel that you are eating more and packing the food in as a hungry brown bear getting ready to hibernate, there is reason for it and you are not alone!
The Master Maitreya says, “Spend more time with color and you will feel a difference. It can be healing, uplifting, and increase your intuitive awareness.” – Maitreya Quotes App. Healing and uplifting ourselves, increasing our intuitive awareness, and allowing inner peace and beauty, are extremely important. I trust and believe that by bringing that inner peace and beauty out through intuitively creative ways, we can make this earth a peaceful and beautiful place. And it can start with something as simple as color, even the color brown.
©Linda Zeppa
Author, writer, educator, Intuitive Development Coach and Guide, Writing Coach and Guide, Editor. For more information contact linda@intuwriting.com.