Color Spotting Guide — Awaken Your Ancient Nature Connection
Your mystic guide to instant connection to your own wild Nature, anywhere and at any time.
Who this is for:
- You love the Natural World, but find it hard to slow down enough to take it all in.
- You have a stuck feeling that isn’t always clear, but pulls you away from joy.
- You suffer from anxiety, burnout, and quietly ask yourself, “Is this it?”
- Hearing platitudes about getting outside in Nature feels impossible and leaves you feeling frustrated.
- You’ve already read The Wild Cure and are curious to explore this technique in your daily life.
Maybe you’re arriving a little frayed. That’s often how this practice finds people — Steve came to it that way too.
What I remember most was “moving at the pace of nature.” I’d never really thought about the pace of nature before our first hours together. At first, our outings were a touch uncomfortable. I found it challenging to stay present on our first hike. My mind would wander quickly back to the stressors and tasks waiting for me back at home.
Then, Matthew helped to shift our focus by inviting us to notice specific colors along our hike. He noted how much of nature all of us missed as we sped through our days, often tackling not just one or two but sometimes three and four tasks all at once. He’d ask us to focus on a single color — orange, blue, red — each representative of an emotion, the land, or its ancestors. Matthew noticed when any one of us was drifting or quickening our pace and stopped to check in and invited us to describe what we were seeing. Matthew’s reminder helped me to snap back to present, to bring my mind back to our intentional slow pace.
Color finding is probably the most practical skill I brought back from the retreat. To this day, when I’m out walking the dog and decide to put on a podcast as we walk, I’m reminded of the intention behind Matthew’s retreat, and the importance of doing just one thing at a time. I’ll take off my headphones and pick a color. And find it everywhere. That practice absolutely brings quiet and peace of mind, a true sense of presence in the moment.
One thing at a time. Head up and present. This practice is now a habit for me. I can regulate my nervous system whenever I’m feeling life moving faster than is good for me. With confidence, I am meaningfully more connected to myself and my people. I’m calmer. More pleasant.
I’m forever grateful.
Steve Alexander
Husband, Father, Non-profit Leader, Gardener, Dog Lover and Nature Walker
What is Color Spotting?
Color spotting is the practice of using symbols in the Natural World as markers — inspiration — to realign and right-size our inner life. There are many ways to incorporate markers into our awareness, but the most obvious and easily accessible is the use of color.
Look outside at this moment. How many different colors do you see? Depending on the landscape, it might seem as though there is only one or two main colors. But the magic of color spotting is that when you decide to connect to the Natural World — by noticing the spectrum of hues and tints — your inner self immediately connects back to a primal knowing.
In my book, The Wild Cure, which features the six kinship questions, I talk about ways to say YES to the natural world. To consciously choose to realign your mind, heart, and spirit with your Natural state. Color spotting is one such way to say, “Hello Nature, I see you and chose to be present to you, and myself, here right now. I say YES.”
And when you make this decision to connect, you wake up to what I call your own wild Nature. Others might use a term like “The true self.” The more you wake up to your true self, the more anxiety, burnout, and feelings of disconnection quietly move through and away from you.
Color spotting engages your senses. Consider this a complementary or beginning practice that primes you for a deeper Nature experience. What is great about color spotting is that it is simpler and quicker to jump in. You can simply look out a window or sit on a bench in a local park and begin. This can help you avoid getting in your head about the “right” location, time of day, temperature, etc.
Just Do It! Try it right now. Look at something in Nature and notice all the various colors. That’s it. Just focus on the colors for five minutes. What do you notice?
How to do Color Spotting
If you accepted my activity above, you just did color spotting of sorts. Seems easy? Ready for another layer? Great! You’re getting the hang of it.
Even if you stay at this level of the experience, it benefits you. Noticing colors awakens your sense of being here in the now, which helps keep movement inside flowing. Inner movement is what you need to get mind, heart, and spirit realigned — and then the mind-based hamster wheel slows down.
But there’s much more waiting for you with this activity.
The next step is to use color in Nature as markers for what’s going on within your inner self.
There is a direct link between, say, water and emotions. Think about how you feel at the beach with the surf crashing on the shore. Or the mystery of a waterfall’s power. Humans are drawn to water because we’re mostly water, and we need it for basic life, but also because we are highly emotional beings. And, therefore, as a marker, we can use blue to symbolize feelings and emotions.
There are two primary approaches to using color as markers.
- Let your inner self tell you what’s important in the moment.
- Select an area to work on within your inner self.
For approach #1, you might step outside and take in all the colors, noticing which ones stand out in this particular moment. Maybe you notice red berries that haven’t appeared obvious before? Perhaps, just this once, the branches of a shrub appear bright purple instead of the usual brown. As you use your mind, heart, and spirit to partner with the color red, you can then go deeper to ask questions about “What passion is coming up for me?” “Where does love fit into my day?”
With approach #2, you begin by selecting a color to work with. Some people challenge themselves to see red in Nature, for example. Once you focus on a color, see where and how it shows up in Nature. Then ask the color for assistance (asking Nature really) to delve deeper into your true self to find the wisdom or learning available to you. There is always a nugget of gold waiting for you, even if it’s just getting out of your head and into your wild Nature. If you don’t see that color? What message might that serve for you?
In the next section, I’ll go over general markers for each color. This is not exhaustive, nor am I a big proponent of dogma. If red means something different for you, then adapt the marker to suit your needs. But try to focus on opportunities to embrace calm, clarity, and connection to your own wild Nature; that is the goal.
Finally, these color symbols come from my lifetime of working with land spirits across the globe. Cross-culturally, there are many different interpretations of color that may differ from mine. The point of this activity is to use inspiration through Nature’s colors to find meaning within your own wild Nature.
The Colors: Blue
Think sky, water, emotions, feelings. Love with wisdom. Clarity, courage, resilience, calm.
Here is a quick exercise to fold in your inner wisdom about blue. Think of a natural feature that has water. Hold it inside you. Assess the movement, the color, the feeling, the emotions.
If that feature is a waterfall: What power is churning within me? Where am I ready to release emotions and feelings?
Sandy beach with waves: How do my emotions allow me to flow smoothly onto the shore of my life? Or, where do I have opportunity to flow more smoothly?
Waves crashing on rocks: Where am I frustrated, or dramatic? What would help me let go of these feelings and emotions to flow onto the rocks?
Flat lake: How do I access calm? What does calm mean to me? Am I ready to have more ripples of movement from within?
Deep water: Where am I afraid of the unknown? What emotions/feelings am I holding too deep to access?
The key is to allow your connection to the color blue to open up your feelings and emotions in the moment, and to keep open to curiosity and movement.
Red
Love, Heart Work, Passions, Leadership, Ancestors, Land Spirits, The Blood of the Land (Respecting History), Right use of power.
Think about the flags of countries around the world. Most of them have some version of red. Usually, this has to do with the blood of the land, for independence, autonomy, leadership, for history.
Red might ask you, “What is your legacy? What is your blood of the land?”
As you might already notice, context is always key. For example, say you have a conflict at work; Red could be asking you, “How are you using your power?” Whereas, a budding relationship could ask you, “How can I keep my heart open in this period of courtship?”
The more you practice, the easier it gets to discern the messages, because this is about looking into your own true self. You have the medicine and the answers, and Nature helps you by providing the color markers to spot and then apply internally.
Green
Creativity, Inner Fertility, Abundance, Innovation, Prolific Growth, Ideas, Expansion.
Think about a rainforest. What words come to mind? Lush, tropical, shady? It’s no surprise green is the color for healthy living. External and internal health. Mind, Heart, Spirit.
If you feel stuck in your career, green is a great color to unleash ideas, reawaken your intuition, and see a brighter future.
And this reminds me: this work also provides opportunities to work with your shadow side. Don’t let the term “shadow” scare you. It’s a part of all of us. The more you can befriend your shadow, the more you can truly thrive with your complete integrated self. Green is a great place to start to work with your shadow because the color inspires growth and expansion.
For example, you may notice English ivy, which, in my Seattle environment, is very invasive, strangling everything in its way. If I notice lots of ivy, it could provide an opportunity to ask, “Where am I being strangled by too many options?” or “How is my focus on creativity impacting loved ones around me?” Or, maybe the call is coming from inside the house: “Where am I strangling out my own brilliance?”
Yellow
Community, Spirit, Energy, Rhythm, Charisma, Vitality, Optimism, Sunshine.
In general, we like sunshine. We appreciate the warmth of the sun shining on our face as we step outside in the morning. The sun represents circadian rhythm, so yellow is a color to use to help ponder your own internal rhythms.
“Where am I running too fast, in a way that cannot be sustained?”
“Where do I give away too much of my energy, to the point I feel depleted?”
In chapter 1 of The Wild Cure, I discuss the impact of energy on your day, and the value of Energy Exchange in the Natural World. Creating daily touchpoints helps you “reset” and can disrupt unhelpful patterns alive with your inner self — particularly in your mind.
A sunflower is a fantastic symbol of community. Think about all the hundreds of potential seeds waiting in the center of the bright yellow flower… usually high above the rest of the garden. What seeds are you planting for yourself or others?
White
Authenticity, Integrity, Identity, Individuation, Standing in your Power, Following your Calling and true Purpose.
Cross-culturally, white is used to represent purity. But this color isn’t about purity as the external world sees you; it’s about honoring your inner self. How are you being true to your unique gifts and talents — despite what the external world may say about it?
And, a great metaphor for the traits of white in Nature is, of course, clouds. After all, they are omnipresent in many areas of the world, like around my home in the Pacific Northwest! A great exercise to clear your mind, usually of thoughts that prevent access to your true self (which is why it’s frustrating to deal with the looping in your mind), is to imagine (or watch) clouds slowly drift through the sky, and away. In this case, you’re using white to better access your true identity, which is usually not obsessing about x,y,z on the news, for example.
But clouds can also be playful, puffy. They provide shade from the direct sun. They bring water and, therefore, life to the land. There are many ways to feature white and clouds in your inner discussion about alignment and honoring your true nature.
Black
The Mystery, Intuition, Faith, Trust, Change, Unexplained, Synchronicities, Depth, Shadows, Metaphor of Death (please do not read this literally).
Black gets a bad rap. Usually portrayed in media as sinister, depraved, and scary. Black cat crossing your path, and many other superstitions. But my mystic sensitivity tells me black is misunderstood, because it represents the mysteries humans have longed to understand for immemorial time.
So we’ve made symbols up over the years.
But, let’s take a look at the metaphor of death. There are a lot of ways the death of something can be very positive for your inner alignment. Is there a habit you’ve ever quit that helped your physical, mental, or emotional health? Perhaps you allowed a toxic relationship to die?
Black offers you a chance to look deep within and ask important questions. This work can be very uncomfortable, since humans tend to avoid change until it becomes unbearable to stay with the status quo. So, if you’re wrestling with anxiety, burnout, and feelings of disconnection, black may be your best friend. It may be time to ask Nature’s Wisdom for help to look at the deeper systems within your inner life — shadow work. Healing work.
And, everywhere there is yellow (sun), there is black (shadow).
When you look at a beautiful garden, do you avoid scoping out the shadows? Many people avoid the shadows. But this is a great place to do inner work.
And if you’d like help turning toward the shadows, where healing, wellness, and connection await — because you integrate all the parts of yourself into your own wild nature — I might be able to help. I’m a coach, offering a six-month private nature mentorship. This is a shamanic healing journey where we assess where you are, what impedes and supports you, and work with the shadows to help you see the light moving forward. For more information, consider booking a call.
Color Blends
This list provides the archetypes for the key colors. And like the color wheel, these blend to create many more nuanced tints and tones.
For example, let’s say you’re a leader of a team. If you’re noticing lots of pink, purple, or orange, you may look at the themes of the base colors to determine what might be there for you to ponder:
- Red: Love, Leadership, Passion
- White: Right use of power, Authenticity.
- Pink: Balancing authenticity in a leadership role.
- Red: Love, Leadership, Passion
- Blue: Feelings, Emotions, Movement
- Purple: How do I allow my emotions to flow in a leadership role?
- Red: Love, Leadership, Passion
- Yellow: Energy, Community, Rhythm
- Orange: How do I give my energy and passion to leadership at a sustainable pace for my life?
Nature Connection
The more you practice color spotting, the more you opt into connecting your inner life to a vast intelligence that exists in the Natural World. The first benefits are slowing down your mind, which leads to accessing clarity, and then you’ll flow to stronger feelings of connection to yourself, loved ones, and your life at large.
But keep going, and you’ll learn to process life events in real time, using the help of colors, symbols, and practice opening up your inner medicine to practical and tangible outcomes.
This can be immensely powerful work when you say yes to going deeper.
Why do Color Spotting?
Studies show that the more you feel connected to the Natural World, the better off your entire ecosystem of wellness can thrive. You see, humans have been connected to Nature’s Intelligence for thousands upon thousands of years. Our DNA knows Nature Connection more than the constant barrage of media and technology, for example.
As I write in The Wild Cure, “You are more forest than factory.”
And, at the core of this biological connection to the Natural World, are three key components that we long to stay aligned:
- Everything in Nature is interdependent. Which means, in human terms, you belong. And belonging is a basic need that’s fostered in the heart. 10,000 years ago, if you didn’t belong, you died. If a parent left a child behind, they died. This is more than new age talk… it is about our survival instinct.
- Nature is always changing. For humans, the message is that we are resilient. And again, this was a survival skill to keep our species alive over the years. Resilience lives in instinct, intuition, or a gut knowing. “I’d better run away from this cave, because something doesn’t quite feel right.”
- All things in Nature have a purpose. The same for each of us. It might not be the very limited framework of purpose offered by modern culture. But we each have a role to play in the world. Purpose lives in the mind. Again, required for our survival over the years. We needed our intellect to outsmart animals that were bigger and stronger than us. We also needed our intellect to find food to stay alive.
These three components: Belonging, Resilience, and Purpose are not merely nice things to have. They are biological requirements for survival. They live embedded in your DNA. So, when these are not aligned, you become prone to the despair of modern life: anxiety, burnout, disconnection, and a quiet stuckness.
Color spotting is grounded in well-studied science that reignites your inner knowing, your own wild Nature. This is primal and engages your mind, heart, and spirit almost instantly… remember that part about survival tools?
Practically speaking, color spotting has no added cost and can be used anywhere, at any time to remind your inner self (and body) that you are online. Call this grounding, meditation, or other terms; this is a field-tested approach to plugging back into your true self.
Scientific Studies on Color Spotting
“Color spotting” is my own name for a practice, so you won’t find it in a lab study under that name. But it draws on two areas that are very well studied: how paying attention to Nature restores the mind, and how color carries emotional meaning.
The mechanism is what psychologists call Attention Restoration. Modern life leans hard on “directed attention” — the effortful focus you use for screens, deadlines, and to-do lists — and that focus fatigues. Nature offers a softer kind of attention: clouds drifting, water moving, light shifting through leaves. Giving your mind something gentle to rest on is exactly what happens when you slow down and spot a single color. Your directed attention gets to recover.
Two findings worth knowing:
Color carries real, shared emotional meaning. In a study of 4,598 people across 30 nations, researchers found the emotions we tie to colors are remarkably consistent worldwide — “seeing red,” “feeling blue” — even as language and geography add local nuance. This is the science under the color markers above: they aren’t arbitrary. (Jonauskaite et al., 2020, Psychological Science)
The color itself matters, not just being outdoors. In lab research on nature and stress, people shown natural scenes in full color recovered their attention and mood better than those shown the same scenes in black and white — evidence that the hues you notice do part of the restorative work. (Environmental Research, 2020)
None of this replaces time in the Natural World. But it’s a good reminder that when you stop to notice color, something measurable is happening inside you.
How does this compare to Forest Bathing?
Forest bathing — Shinrin Yoku — is the simple practice of slowing down among trees to lower stress and reset your nervous system. Color spotting is a lighter, quicker cousin: you can do it from a park bench or a window, and it primes you for a deeper Nature experience. If you’d like the full step-by-step — along with the research behind forest therapy — see my guide, Forest Bathing for Beginners.
Why should you listen to Matthew Kessi?
I’ve spent a lifetime leading myself and others into the Natural World. After twenty-five years in the airline industry, I came home to my true calling: guiding people to rediscover calm, clarity, and belonging through deep connection with Nature’s wisdom.
I’m the author of The Wild Cure and the originator of the Kinship Questions™ — a simple, repeatable practice for aligning your mind, heart, and spirit with the Natural World. I trained with shamanic practitioners Scott Weatherman and Patrick O’Neill of The Four Directions.
A practical mystic is a person able to bridge the magic between Nature’s Intelligence and daily life. This work uses the mystery to make constructive and tangible changes to daily life scenarios. Consider me a translator of Nature’s energy, or a guide to safely engaging an altered state of healing, growing, or awakening to your true purpose in life — also known as high-octane Forest Bathing.
Another tenet of practical mysticism is that we all possess gifts and talents to connect with the mystery of the Natural World. If you don’t feel unique gifts or intuition right now, it could be as simple as learning to “reawaken” that part of your inner self. This is where I’m trained to help you.
Today I help people through three doorways: my book, The Wild Cure; a guided forest bathing walk near Seattle; and a six-month private nature mentorship — a shamanic healing journey where we work together to quiet the mind, regulate emotions, and trust your intuition. Color spotting is one of the practical ways I press reset with clients… because they can immediately connect to their ancient knowing of belonging, resilience, and purpose in just a few words, but all the colors and textures. This isn’t just fluff; it always works.
Patrick O’Neill
The Four Directions — Who trained me!There’s a deeper way in — The Wild Cure
If this practice speaks to you, the six questions behind it are the heart of my book, The Wild Cure — a simple, repeatable way to carry the calm and clarity off the trail and into everyday life. And if you’d like to go further, book a free Nature Alignment Call, or walk with me in person on a guided forest bathing experience near Seattle.
