We can use color therapy to balance ourselves every day. In this way, we keep ourselves stronger, more balanced, and more vibrant…One of the easiest ways to accomplish this balancing is with simple color swatches that can be bought for two to three dollars at any fabric store. Most fabric stores sell felt or other cloth squares for about twenty cents apiece. They can be found in all of the colors of the rainbow as well as in other shades. Once you have purchased them, you can begin to balance your chakras. The following exercise may be used to heal yourself or others. I will explain the process as if you are healing yourself. When healing another person, you can read the steps aloud to him or her.

1. Make sure you will be undisturbed for about ten to fifteen minutes. It will rarely take any longer. Make sure the phone is off the hook, etc.
2. Lie down on your back—either on the floor or on your bed. Have your seven cloth swatches with you (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet).
3. Close your eyes and relax. Take several deep breaths. As you begin to relax, look back over the day, in reverse order. When we look at the day in reverse order, we concentrate more, and are less likely to skip over events and situations. Start with the moment you just laid down for this healing session, and look back over the events of the day—all the way back to when you first got out of bed.
4. Note the major emotions and attitudes that you have experienced and were exposed to throughout the day. What chakras were most likely to have been affected by them?
5. When you have completed your evaluation, take the color swatches for those chakras you have just identified, and lay them on the different corresponding parts of your body.
6. As you lie there with the color swatches upon your chakra points, visualize the colors being absorbed and drawn into your body. Know that as you lie there the chakras are balanced by the colors. Take several deep breaths, focusing on each chakra and drawing the color from the cloth swatch into your body to restore balance. Continue this for three to five minutes, or until you feel they are balanced.
7. Now place all seven color swatches upon the chakra points of the body…Breathe deeply and allow your body to absorb the rainbow energies. Know that the colors are aligning and strengthening your chakras. Feel yourself balancing. Know that all of the psychological aspects of your body are being balanced and healed as you absorb these colors through your chakra centers. Leave the swatches on for three to five minutes, or until you feel fully balanced, charged, and aligned.

Excerpted From How to Heal with the Color by Ted Andrews