Over a decade ago, I was introduced to the concept of utilizing color to support physical, emotional and energetic healing by color therapist, Diantha Harris of Life Potentials Network. I believe all of us have an intuition for the colors that nurture us and we may feel naturally drawn towards specific colors at different phases in our life. However, I found the idea of intentionally selecting colors through clothing, decor, scent, sound and food choices to be especially empowering (and accessible!) for cultivating what it was I wanted to bring into my life and that which I wanted to release.

When I was developing the logo for The Breathe Network, I wanted it to reflect a survivor’s capacity to heal, creative and collective visioning, and the power of expressing one’s truth. I also wanted it to be soothing to the eye of survivors who navigated our website seeking holistic healing resources. I turned to Diantha Harris’ book on color, Simply…Color, in order to create a logo that would represent those qualities and also feel visually appealing to survivors, healers, and the broader community. I connected with a designer who understood our work deeply and drew an image he described to me as “capturing the feeling of freedom and connection after a therapy session”.

The qualities of our logo’s colors – orange, olive green and turquoise, support our mission to facilitate embodied healing for survivors by offering holistic healing arts modalities to nurture and integrate survivors’ minds, bodies and spirits. Understanding the choice behind the colors we selected also provides insight as to how this image serves as an artistic impression of our philosophy of resilience. Diantha Harris is one of our practitioners at The Breathe Network and among other holistic modalities she practices, she utilizes color to assist survivors along their healing journey.

It is important to keep in mind that our relationships with colors are dynamic and can evolve and change for myriad reasons throughout our lives. If you are paying attention to your inclinations towards certain colors, let that awareness be without judgement and simply recognition. Finally, if there is a quality of a color that feels like it would be meaningful in your life, but you do not enjoy the actual color itself, you can use the color’s opposite on the color wheel and achieve similar benefits. (See Diantha’s book Simply…Color for more information) In contemplating on the image for The Breathe Network logo, it was the colors orange, olive green and turquoise that began to align.

Orange

In her book, Diantha Harris describes orange as “energetic, radiant, encouraging” and states that orange is a color representing “new beginnings and new possibilities.” Bringing energy and new possibilities to my young non-profit with a huge vision felt like the perfect fit! At the same time, orange in its challenge (when something is out balance) can also be associated with trauma. For the first 5 years of my healing after sexual violence, I detested the color orange and wanted to move as far away from it as possible. It made me feel sick to my stomach and was too stimulating for me. In the year leading up to the creation of The Breathe Network, I began to notice I was increasingly drawn to softer shades of orange like terra cotta and coral in my clothing, my jewelry and the art I was surrounding myself with – as well as the art I was creating. Eventually, orange came back into my palette and I intentionally seek it out when my energy feels low. This changing view of the color orange reflected an ongoing shift for me that I was moving up and out of the deepest trenches of my healing and was emerging in a place where orange could represent new beginnings and radiance, instead of trauma. Diantha suggests that for those recovering and healing from trauma, that over time “orange can be a powerful ally in overcoming” and assist in the healing process and I have chosen a more subtle shade of orange in the logo specifically for that reason.

Olive Green

Olive green was a color I have always been drawn to as it reminds me of being in nature which has been a source of connection and healing, as well as an intrinsic part of my spiritual practice. When I am exploring the natural environment – mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, ocean and more, I feel most embodied and alive. Olive green contains both yellow and green, and in accordance with the colors associated with our chakras/energy centers, it “combines our ego with our heart.” When I learned more about olive green I discovered that it is “the color which begins the bridge to higher ways of being and is considered the color of feminine leadership.” The notion of higher ways of being and feminine leadership resonated with me as it reminds me of utilizing one’s intuition, listening to the language of the body, practicing receptivity, and creating a collaborative and inclusive community to promote healing and peace. Olive green is also the color of hope and “the possibility of completeness.” Many survivors of sexual violence experience a disconnect during and after the trauma, some may even describe an “out of body” experience, therefore olive green aligns with my desire to plant the seeds of hope in survivor’s hearts by connecting them with healers who can support them in re-integrating all aspects of their being – becoming, or returning to, their fullest experience of embodiment.

Turquoise

Turquoise is associated with the thymus which is in charge of our immune system. It is also the combination of green and blue, which represented by the chakra/energy centers, creates a balance of the heart and the voice. Trauma deeply taxes our immune system, and while our bodies are designed to respond and recover, there can be many factors that inhibit that otherwise natural process thereby leaving our systems depleted. Many survivors experience various health challenges as a result of the trauma, and many of them present as somatic manifestations of the trauma response that are not easily understood by Western medicine. The lack of an easily identifiable and well-understood link between the traumatic event and its unique manifestation on the survivor’s health, however subtle or overt, can leave survivors feeling misunderstood, invalidated in their experience of dis-ease, or create a disconnect from their physical, emotional or energetic self. For deeper healing, some of these health challenges require exploring the physical, emotional and energetic body to find places of stagnation, holding, or unresolved or unexpressed emotion. Modalities such as acupuncture, massage and yoga understand that our bodies often communicate that they are out of balance or need our attention through manifestations such as pain or discomfort. These modalities, among others, also acknowledge that once we can clear out areas and the pathways of the body for energy, blood, lymph, and other vital fluids to flow, our systems will naturally move towards balance. Utilizing turquoise within the logo to represent healthy immune system functioning which ultimately supports survivors in their recovery from the inside out was an obvious fit.

For me personally, turquoise reminds me of the ocean, dolphins and whales, and the sky, which have all been uplifting images in my healing journey and create for me a feeling of spaciousness, flight, freedom of body and spirit, and inner joy. Turquoise is also associated with speaking from our heart and with teaching, and due to its association with the indigenous cultures of the Americas, being a significant, sacred stone in the Middle East, and also being connected with “new age” practices, it is thought of as “the crossroads where the present moment and the ancient knowledge meet.” As survivors exploring the healing arts, many of which are rooted in ancient traditions, and some of which draw upon contemporary innovations on those traditions, turquoise represented the merging and fluidity of knowledge in many forms. In the process of healing, many survivors witness how the pain of their experience can be a teacher that shows them, in fact, where they are strong, and in this complex and non-linear journey, they are able to discover their own internal wisdom, power and capacity for compassion. I believe the teachings found within the self-awareness and resilience of survivors is something that should be shared with our human community and I hope that this color supports survivors in claiming their unique voice and insights.

All 3 Colors

Connecting all three colors: orange, olive green and turquoise, brings together the qualities I believe will invite, encourage and inspire survivors of sexual violence along their healing journey. Knowing that color can unconsciously affect us, it was important to me to be intentional about how our website, brochures and images in general would be perceived by the community we are trying to reach. Color healing can occur on the most subtle level. One of the messages I appreciate the most from Diantha Harris as it relates to color is to trust your own sense about color and follow that as your guide. Clearly, this message of self trust resonates with the way in which The Breathe Network practitioners work with survivors. Merging a healing arts belief that our bodies are designed to innately gravitate towards balance, with the survivor-centered vision of the advocacy movement, we understand that survivors ultimately know best what will be meaningful and empowering in their healing process, and seek to create spaces in our healing practices where that information can arise intuitively within them.

I believe in the power of intentionality and trust that these colors, whether or not their “meanings” are fully known to all who discover The Breathe Network, will create the possibility and feeling of healing that can emerge from deep within all survivors. I know they have impacted me in a powerful way and they bring strong energy to the work I do with The Breathe Network, as well as in my daily life. May exploring your senses and your unique relationship with color support you in your journey today and every day!