From my book, Aura Colour Therapy:

This vibrant, hot aura colour can vary in shade from red-orange to orange-red. Small quantities of red-tinged Ambition Orange can give us the drive and single minded determination to accomplish incredible feats, overcome great odds and transform tragedy into triumph. We all need a warm fire in the belly when going after goals, but Ambition Orange can get a little too hot, making us feverish with the desire to possess something or someone.

Obsession can make us pushy, giving us tunnel vision and warping our values. We may know what we want, but we can’t always have it. Sometimes we need to compose ourselves gracefully and accept the need to let go and move in a different direction. Have a good think about what you would really be prepared to give up in order to acquire your desires. Not all prices are worth paying. Are you setting your sights too intently on one goal without keeping balance and sanity in your life?

Like a burning hot coal, Ambition Orange can burn emptiness into the aura, giving us an insatiable hunger. These auric black holes are childhood wounds that constantly consume energy without ever becoming satisfied. I sometimes call them ‘black hole drivers’ because they shape our behaviour, subconsciously driving us to seek outside ourselves for whatever it was we didn’t get in childhood. And like black holes, no matter how much we fill them, they stay hungry.

For example, you might constantly strive for success because you never received praise from one or both parents during childhood. This initial lack inspires you to attain great heights you might not otherwise have aimed for and this is wonderful, so long as you are not selling your soul in the process. A really deep wound will drive you to constantly achieve more and more, but you will never truly feel successful and you may even sabotage yourself because you don’t really believe in yourself.

Ambition Orange can also represent addictive biochemical and neurological states stimulated by external substances, people and situations. People, praise, sex, jobs, drugs, food, games, money, success and status are all examples of externally sourced keys we use to unlock or access our favourite internal states. We need to learn how to access these feel-good internal states of mind naturally, without becoming dependent upon ever greater quantities of external stimuli.

What it is you are being hungry, intense, possessive or obsessive about? What need are you trying to get met? Can you find a healthier way to meet this need? The deeper essence of whatever it is you are chasing out there in the world, is something you already have within you and around you, so ‘cool it’. Relax and take time to smell the roses. Life is right here, right now, just waiting for you to realise it has been with you all along, waiting for your engagement and offering you simple treasures with genuine depth of value.

Using creative visualisation, imagine finding a safe way to lift some of those hot coals out of your inner fire and cool them off in the water. Let them melt away. Keep doing this until your inner fire calms down! Cooling colours like Patience Green, Generosity Green, Authenticity Green, Healing Green, Watchful Blue, Freedom Blue and Mother Blue can be very soothing for excess fire. You can heal empty black holes with colours like Abundance Green, Soul Retrieval Blue, Clarity Yellow, Happiness Yellow, Gold and Silver. Ambition Orange itself is generally too strong to use therapeutically. If you want to be decisive and active, use Strength Red. If you want to recover your passion, use Creative Red. If you want to set and achieve goals, work with Manifestation Orange.