Rainbow Series: RED

The first colour to reflect on in the rainbow is RED – a colour associated with feelings, particularly intense feelings - from very positive feelings such as love and passion, through to more negative feelings of endangerment and rage. The English language uses the colours to intensify the feeling qualities very graphically e.g. we “see red” when really angry, talk of provocation in terms of a ‘red rag to a bull” and become “red in the face” when embarrassed. On the positive side, we give red roses to a beloved, draw red hearts to depict love and wear red to attract attention.

And today we wear red poppies in remembrance.

Red also speaks of danger, needing to halt or take particular care – a sign that arrests progress and forces reassessment – could even be the starting point of transformation.

And this is the quality that I link to the coaching process. The awakening within us that it’s time for change – there’s a red sign along the track of our life journey that demands we stop, take stock and course correct. The difficulty many people have at that point is that they end up in a holding position, going round and round on old trains of thought. The value of a coach is their ability to shine a light on new options and possible trains of thought that could put us on the path to finding the symbolic pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.