Learn to see your aura
We all have an ‘inner radio’ that can attract health, wealth, love and happiness. Hanna Woodside discovers how to tune in to hers
Your aura is a two-way radio,’ spiritual healer Emma Lucy Knowles tells me over Zoom. ‘It calls and receives. It’s what you broadcast to the world and it governs what you attract back. So you want to set it to the right frequency.’
Emma, who is 36 and lives in London, has been helping people fine tune their auras for the past 15 years (her clients have included celebrities such as Victoria Beckham) and now she’s written a book, You Are a Rainbow: Essential Auras, a beginner’s guide to calibrating your aura – through meditation, visualisations and breathing exercises – to get what you want in life.
Like most people, I’d never really given my aura a second thought. Or even known what it is. In basic terms, an aura is the unseen field of energy that surrounds the body. ‘Think of it as a network of vibrating energies, created by your thoughts, moods, beliefs and feelings,’ explains Emma. ‘We work with these layers of energy so you can radiate the best vibes.’
These energies come in many different colours. ‘The aura is a rainbow,’ says Emma. And, while there are no good or bad colours, each one has a meaning and it is its brightness – the vibrancy and clarity of it – that matters. When a colour is dull and cloudy, it’s a signal there is a ‘block’ you need to work on.
‘These colours help you understand what forces inside you are shaping your life, so you can let go of what’s clogging your flow and holding you back from your goals,’ says Emma. For example, red is the colour of strength. If your aura contains a vivid crimson, you are courageous and powerful. If it’s a rusty, flat red, you need to release anger or irritation at something, or someone, to move on.
You can learn to ‘see’ the different colours of your own aura through a series of exercises Emma outlines in her book. You start by ‘feeling’ your aura as a ball of energy between your hands (see above right), then build up to seeing its colours with your mind’s eye. Anyone can do it, with patience and commitment, says Emma. ‘It takes some practice, but each time you try the colours will be clearer and stronger.’
Finally, you find a deep meditative state and use your breath to dial up the brightness of any muddy colours. This is how you ‘set your vibes to attract your desires – be that finding the right job, right partner, right friends – or make the right choices in love, life and work’.
When your colours are shining brightly and clearly, ‘you’re creating a big poster to the universe about what you want’. Life will seem easier. Plans will come together. You will feel energised. ‘This is a high-vibe life,’ says Emma. (The opposite state, when you’ve neglected your aura, is a ‘heaviness’; life feels sticky and difficult – ‘like constantly having a hangover’.)
If this all sounds ‘a bit woo-woo’ (her words), or just a lot of hard work, Emma reassures me, ‘You don’t have to spend six hours meditating on your aura!’ A simple way you can work with your aura is by ‘drawing in’ a colour, just by wearing it, or adding it to your surroundings. ‘Say you’re looking for love, you may want to start putting pink [the colour associated with love] into your energy to emphasise it.’
What your aura colours mean
Another benefit of tuning into your aura: you surround yourself with the right people. ‘Your aura is like a magnet calling out to people who are vibing at the same frequency as you,’ explains Emma. And, if you’re listening properly, your aura sounds an alarm bell when someone is not right for you.
To sharpen up your aura-reading skills, ‘spend five minutes meditating on a new connection – visualise them sitting next to you or look at a photo of them – then be extra aware of the signals your aura is sending you,’ Emma advises. Warming, comforting prickles are a good sign. A tightening in the face or body is a sign ‘their energies are not intermingling well with yours’.
Emma started seeing auras aged 11. ‘My mum says when I talked to people I’d be looking off into the corner of the room. I’ve always seen more to people.’ When she’s working with clients – which she can do remotely over video calls, too – ‘their whole body is a beacon. I’ll see flashes of colours around them in my mind’s eye.’
Of course, I’m curious what Emma has seen in my aura while we’ve been talking, and she reveals I am ‘awash with punchy colours, like a Monet painting’ (phew) but there is a dark, rusty shade of orange lurking (the colour of vitality), which indicates a lack of productivity. ‘You need to reconnect to your drive,’ she says. ‘You’re off-centre from your life.’ This rings true: I’ve been feeling stuck and frustrated lately, unable to get going on anything. ‘Work on bringing more orange to your life,’ she advises.
So I fish out a bright orange bag from the back of my wardrobe, get my nails painted neon orange, change my laptop background to a vivid tangerine and drink my morning coffee from an orange mug. That same week I confirm three work projects and feel fired up for the first time in months.
‘When you’re aware of your aura and your energy, it’s like you’re coming off autopilot and driving with care,’ says Emma. ‘You’re being responsible for your energies, the way you work out to look after your physical body.’
It’s particularly relevant this year. ‘This isolation during lockdown has made us look in,’ says Emma. ‘And, ultimately, the question, “What is an aura?” really means “Who are you and what are you made of?”’
How to give your aura a feel
‘Feeling is believing and this exercise will help you connect with your aura. Repeat it often – the more aware you are of your aura, the more you’ll “see” it,’ says Emma.
● Sit comfortably with your feet planted on the floor, or cross-legged on a cushion.
● Rub your hands together five times at speed (as if you’re warming them).
● Next, take a long breath in and out, and slowly pull your hands away from each other. Keep going until they are the length of a shoebox apart. Hold for a few breaths.
● Now slowly move your hands towards each other until you feel the weight of the energy between them – that’s your aura. You’ve created an energy ball!
● Don’t fret if you don’t feel your aura on your first attempt – it can take a few rounds to ‘get it’ and allow the sceptical mind to settle down.
You Are a Rainbow: Essential Auras (Now Age Series) will be published by Pop Press on 13 August, price £8.99. To order a copy for £6.49 until 23 August, go to whsmith.co.uk and enter the code YOURAINBOW at the checkout. Book number: 9781529107272 for Terms and conditions go to whsmith.co.uk/terms