It doesn't seem to matter what culture, faith or background we come from: most of us yearn to experience love. We long to share our lives, to have a deep, soulful connection with another person. A tremendous number of people feel that finding a partner is taking too long, or they fear true love will never come their way. Many others are working too hard to maintain their current relationship, or they are dissatisfied with the relationship they have and want out. Others just want to know how to keep the romance alive in the relationship they have.

So how do we create a happy and fulfilling relationship? To find and sustain true love, it is important to first understand, love, and accept ourselves, and then be willing to receive real love into our lives. It is also important to be completely honest with ourselves about the qualities we desire in a partner.

Too many people are intent on recreating the fantasies they see in the movies or on what they imagine others have in their relationships, rather than exploring their own deepest needs and desires. A person may dream of being with someone who is strong, passionate and mysterious, when in reality, the type of partner he or she truly desires is someone who is kind, supportive, and emotionally available.

So how do we discover our true self and our deepest desires? How do we know what type of partner is best for us, and how will we recognize that true love once we meet up? The answers may lie in our Love Colors.

What is a Love Color?

Have you ever wondered why you are drawn to some people and not others? Have you seen a pattern in the type of people you are consistently attracted to? Do you feel a certain vibe from some people that fascinates you, and an energy from others that makes you want to pull away? If so, you are most certainly sensing their aura - the field of energy that surrounds each of us. The different colors in our aura, especially the one or two bands of color that are closest to our bodies - our Love Colors - reveal important information about our personalities, goals, priorities, career strengths, health, and relationship styles.

For centuries, the aura has been depicted as a halo or radiant light around the head of a saint or holy person. More recently, science has been studying the existence of this phenomenon. For the rest of us, we just sense something inexplicable that we like or dislike about others.

There are many different Love Colors. Some people have colors that are compatible with our personal colors, and some are contrary. Learning about the different colors is a great way to begin to understand who you are. Then you can gain clarity about the qualities of the other Love Colors that are the most compatible with yours. Understanding the personality traits of the various Love Colors can help you create a shortcut to your ideal relationship and avoid the ordeal of trial and error with incompatible or more challenging colors. To take a test to determine your love color, visit www.auracolors.com.

If you have a blue Love Color, for example, and you are involved with someone who has a yellow Love Color, your relationship can be very compatible. The emotional blues are loyal, loving, nurturing caretakers. Yellows are fun-loving, sensitive, and child-like. Typically both are kind, generous and helpful. Problems can arise between blues and yellows, however, when the monogamous blues desire a long-term commitment. The playful yellows often fear the confines of marriage - they prefer fun and freedom. Many blues can wait years for their unavailable and fearful yellows to make a commitment. When these two are emotionally healthy and balanced, however, they make a wonderfully loving couple.

A relationship between a green and a violet has very different dynamics. These two can be a powerful and productive force together as long as they remember to respect one another. The independent, visionary violets have big dreams - often of creating grand global humanitarian projects, or of attaining fame and fortune. The quick and organized greens can either help the violets reach their goals or thwart them by criticizing their visions. The strong-willed greens often accuse violets of being unrealistic dreamers. Because both prefer to be in charge, these two can experience intense power struggles. If instead they can learn to cooperate, this pair has the potential to create an exciting and prosperous life together.

Oranges and tans, on the other hand, are not very compatible. Oranges are adventurous daredevils. They are usually found scaling treacherous cliffs or jumping from airplanes. By contrast, tans enjoy calm, rational, predictable lives. They prefer to settle down with a stable nine-to-five job and commit to their families. The thrill-seeking oranges usually find the tans to be too safe and complacent, while tans see the oranges' risk-taking actions as self-indulgent, dangerous, and illogical.

While any couple with enough love and commitment can make their relationship work, some colors are more compatible than others, and those relationships can be easier to sustain. The more you understand each color's personality, needs and desires, the better chance you have to create a long-term, compatible relationship.

The above article is an excerpt from Love Colors: A New Approach to Love, Relationships, and Auras, copyright 2006 by Pamala Oslie. It is printed here with the permission of the publisher, New World Library, Novato, CA, 1-800-972-6657 ext. 52. The author's website can be found at www.auracolors.com.