Healing Your Aura

Photo courtesy of Halo Aura Photography

Most of us will only ever interact with our auras in brief moments: the chance encounter with a clairvoyant, who tells you, “Your aura is very purple”; the eerie but beautiful snapshot of a multicolored bubble around your face (courtesy of Halo Aura Photography). Or if you take the cynic’s route—huh? For the believers, the aura is an invisible, electromagnetic field surrounding the physical body that serves a greater purpose than its aesthetic charms. Energy healers say that the semipermeable nature of the aura’s energy works discreetly to gather information from the surrounding environment and protect us from danger. But just like any other part of our anatomy, the aura, if you’re a believer, requires regular maintenance—tune-ups and check-ins—to function at full capacity.

If you’re still working on opening up your third eye, borrow the insights of Deganit Nuur, a certified herbalist, licensed acupuncturist, and our go-to clairvoyant. According to Nuur, the most important attributes of your aura are its size, quality, and the messages it reflects. And if you learn to heal and protect these three attributes, Nuur says, you’ll be well on your way to a more conscious walk through life. She suggests feeling out your aura for yourself; don’t let prescriptive definitions take the place of intuition. Can’t see anything at all? That’s okay, too. Just follow Nuur’s guided meditations.

Aura Study

by Deganit Nuur

SIZE

Your aura is your first point of contact with the world, and it can often say more about you than your words do. It’s a bubble that extends above you, beneath you, in front of you, behind you, and to either side. It’s like your energy skin. Sometimes it hugs your body tightly and hovers only inches outside your skin. But for most of us, it tends to expand to about two to three feet outside our skin. And then there are other people who have their auras extended out so far, they fill up the entire room.

Expanded Auras

Ever notice how some people have such a captivating presence? They’ll walk into a room, and everyone will notice. They won’t say a word and yet will never be forgotten. That’s the impact of an extended aura. These people are taking up space. Not with their physical bodies or with their voice or fragrance or anything tangible at all. Look out for them to better understand the impact of an extended aura. Notice how even when they’re tiptoeing around, everyone is watching them?

When your aura takes up the entire room, you’ll feel connected to everyone in the room, and they’ll feel connected to you. An expansive aura can feel just as intimate as it feels large and powerful. Let’s say you have an audition or an interview or you’re speaking in public. You’ll want your aura to expand way out. You’ll want to feel as if you own the room, and you’ll want others to be moved by your presence.

Other times you may want to expand your aura: when you’re feeling crowded out of your own life. If you’re feeling a little insignificant or invisible, experiment with expanding your aura and see how life responds.

Please note that if everyone’s feeling you, you’re likely feeling everyone, too. For my empaths and highly sensitive folks, an expanded aura may have you feeling the entire room. Some of you may mistake other people’s worries or thoughts as your own. In other times, it may make you feel more reactive, like you’re playing defense and not offense. Similarly, for some, it can create a dependency on external validation. If your understanding of yourself is mostly through other people’s feedback, then it could be time to contract your aura a bit. Cultivate some self-awareness and inner peace before opening up to being as energetically interactive with the world around you.

Contracted Auras

At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are some people that are just not that memorable. You could have a fifteen-minute conversation with them, and the next time you see them, you’re introducing yourself to them as though you’ve never met. That’s a tight aura! The anonymity is comforting for some. If you’ve ever wanted to be left alone a while, bring in your aura. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by life, politics, your environment, or other people, a contracted aura can help. It’s like going into incognito mode. Unless I’m teaching, I prefer a contracted aura. I’m a bit of an introvert and really enjoy my alone time. Contracting my aura feels like I’m wearing an invisibility cloak. It’s more comfortable for me than an expanded aura.

However, this could be problematic when looking for a shared common experience. With a contracted aura, you may be jumping for joy and sharing a celebratory moment, and the impact may be minimal, leaving you feeling invalidated and perhaps even hurt. People won’t feel all you’re saying, and it will be as if your message is muted.

Neither size is good nor bad. It’s more a matter of preference and intention. For example, in New York City, I have students who love expanding their aura to move people the f*ck outta their way. They’ll walk down the sidewalk, and everyone runs. I have other students that do the exact opposite on those crowded sidewalks. They hug their aura in tight and swear they avoid all sorts of chaos on account of it. If you feel like hiding out, bring your aura in. Want attention? Expand your aura all the way out. I do both every day depending on the situation. Knowing this and checking in with your aura may be helpful in understanding what you’re feeling and experiencing. You now have the tools to adjust according to preference and desire.

QUALITY

Like your skin, your aura is a boundary. It signifies where you end and the world begins. Great boundaries create a happy, self-contained ecosystem within your body. Not-so-great boundaries can pollute and compromise your own personal ecosystem. Keep this in mind while exploring the quality of your aura; it might help you make sense of some of your relationships and experiences. The good news is that it’s super easy to heal your aura and set it to a boundary that’s healthy for you. Oftentimes when people do so, their psychological boundaries follow suit.

Dark Spots

Some of us carry past trauma with us for whatever reason—perhaps to never forget so that it doesn’t ever happen again, maybe as a badge of honor, like: I lived through that, so I’m invincible. Either way, a dark spot or stagnant energy in your aura adds a layer of scar tissue. And too many scars can make your aura so thick that it distances you from the reality of the present moment. It’s like looking at life through a dirty pair of scratched-up glasses. It’s an inaccurate interpretation of what’s in front of you. If you’ve never experienced a squeaky-clean set of glasses, you may not ever know how dirty yours are. You may feel isolated and have no idea why.

Dark spots will have you relating to life through associations and assumptions. They’re like psychic debris. They separate us from the present moment. Sometimes these dark spots can be so large, they can ruin really wonderful relationships if you’re stuck living in the past. You may be more defensive than the current moment calls for, and you may be withholding love from yourself. People with tons of dark spots tend to live in isolation: It’s a trust-no-one mentality. The fewer people in my life, the more safe I am.

Holes

Then there are people who self-abandon. Any time undesirable moments are experienced, their spirit takes off. When it’s safe again, the spirit returns and settles into the body. While this may be a reasonable coping mechanism at the time, it has some long-term effects. Each time they bounce, they’re puncturing holes in their aura, thereby contributing to a compromised aura that lets everything and anything in. The emphasis is placed on themselves and not the triggers. Phrases like “I don’t trust myself” creep into the mind, rather than “I don’t trust others.”

Having a highly porous aura is like being an energy sponge. You’ll have a better understanding of your environment than you do of yourself. It’s a slippery slope that may lead to more and more holes. The second something goes wrong, you may feel triggered or threatened and leave your body again, puncturing yet another hole. The more holes, the more sensitive you are to your environment and the less certain you are of yourself. People with tons of holes tend to be people-pleasers, thinking: If everyone here in my environment is happy, then it will be safe for me to be here.

We all have some holes, and we all have some dark spots. We’ve accumulated both as coping mechanisms to help us feel safe in the world, and we all have the power to release the dark spots and heal the holes. And once you do, life will happen, and you’ll accumulate more of them. The goal is to continue checking in to heal them as soon as you can so that you may be powerfully present.

MESSAGING

Okay, let’s set your aura to the filter you desire. Remember how it’s your first point of contact with the outside world? Well, you can set that first impression to whatever you wish. Need more friends? Set your aura to “I am loved.” Want more respect? Set your aura to “I command respect.” Perhaps you learned a bit about yourself when examining the size and quality of your aura and have a specific affirmation you’d now like to reinforce. Maybe you’re ready to feel safe in your body, regardless of what other people think of you—something like “It’s safe to be me” (if insecurity led to scar tissue) or “It’s safe to be me, regardless of my audience” (if insecurity led to holes) may work for you.

It’s incredible how this stuff works. You may be desiring friends, but people will sense your dark spots and feel unwelcome. I had a client who was so fearful of public speaking. She had weekly presentations at work that she’d lose sleep over. Regardless of the positive feedback she received, she still felt insecure, inadequate, and rejected every single Wednesday morning. We cleared out all her dark spots and past associations with rejection, expanded her aura to take up the entire conference room, and boldly declared, “I am loved. I am valued. I am intelligent,” in her aura. It took a few months, but eventually she started to develop a high from public speaking.

Editor’s note: If you’d like to practice with Nuur’s guidance and feedback, you can join her NU IT program or attend a live workshop in LA or NYC.

Deganit Nuur is a spiritual teacher, clairvoyant, acupuncturist, writer, and lecturer. Nuur teaches people across the globe how to hone their intuition and use it as a practical tool in daily life through her ongoing weekly telecourse in communication, NU IT; her live workshops; and retreats and corporate wellness initiatives. You can book private clairvoyant healing sessions, primarily over the phone. In-person healing sessions are available exclusively at the Four Seasons hotels in LA and NYC.