THE POWER OF COLOUR
Colour Therapy
Since the beginning of recorded time, it has been known that light and colour can energize and calm down, make happy and sad, heal and irritate. Color affects our moods and health, the way we think and the way we are perceived by others.
Historically, every culture hs used colour for different customary rituals. In the last few decades the powerful impact of light and colour on the human body has turned this into a form of healing art - Colour Therapy (sometimes known as chromotherapy). Today, Colour Therapy is used as a practical tool in daily living, and can be a beautiful addition to enhance our Yoga practice.
Each colour consists of electromagnetic waves which vibrate at different frequencies. The reason that we see colour is that these vibrations are received by the sensitive photoreceptors in the retina of the eye, called cones. These are able to translate the vibrating energy of each object into colours, sending messages to our utmost powerful control centre – the brain.
In turn, the brain generates the release of certain hormones and neurochemicals depending on the messages it gets. For example, by looking at a particular colour you may stimulate or suppress pituitary and pineal glands located in the centre of the cranium. These glands regulate the function of hormones governing metabolism and growth of the body, sleep patterns and blood pressure functions, appetite and thirst sensations.
When the energy in one part of the body gets out of balance, the chain reaction will lead to changes in all of the systems and organs. Hormonal disturbances, mood fluctuations, impaired digestion and other issues are often caused by many different factors,, so correcting them all may need to be done through a variety of approaches. By simply being exposed to a particular colour, this has a wonderful ability to help in treatment and prevention of unwanted existing and potential conditions related to different functions in the system.
Today, natural therapists use Colour Therapy as an alternative completely non-invasive method to restore energy and boost the natural immunity bringing vitality to one’s life. Therapists believe that as light and colour is received and absorbed through the skin, it works on the entire body conveying equilibrium to growth and sleep patters, nervous and immune function, mood, digestion and appetite.
Colour Therapy for Yoga Practice
Using Colour Therapy is a wonderful technique you can use in your Yoga practice. Since each colour has a different meaning, try to match these with your current state of being and what you want to achieve from the session of asanas. For example, if you are on the down side, feeling dull and lack the energy to get you going, try to surround yourself in Red and Violet. These colours will envigorate your spirit, re-energize the body and shift your mood in the positive direction. If you feel anxious, restless and can’t seem to find concentration, Blue, Green and Indigo colours will calm your rushing mind, ease form tension in the muscles and joints and bring awareness and focus. Match your Yoga poses, breathing and meditation with any particular colour or combination as complete healing comes from all these attributes.
Be creative. Decorate your Yoga space with coloured lights, mats, other Yoga props, crystals, gems, candles, paintings, plants, table cloths, basically, everything available.
Colour Meditation
Using Colour Therapy for meditation certainly deserves your contemplation and consideration. Colour Therapy Meditation is based on the theory that each pigment has its own individual vibration which impacts your brain in different ways, just like different sounds and breathing patters used in meditation. Colour Meditation is something you can practice yourself in quiet moments of deliberation for personal healing.
One technique involves sitting quietly while focusing on a single colour, whether on a small crystal, a picture, a flower or vase, a pained card, or a coloured light. Use your imagination and see what captures your eyes at the moment. Using colours in your daily meditation practices can certainly help you achieve deeper relaxation and healing.
Colour Therapy in daily life
Colour Therapy may involve exposure to coloured lights, massages using color-saturated oils, visualizing and meditating with colours. By using filtered floodlights or small beams of light to bathe the skin in different shades, practitioners use this modality for both both physical and emotional problems, treating the body as a unit, as one whole and complete self.
Depending on what’s being treated, a variety of colors are applied to corresponding body parts. This technique may restore disrupted energy within each organ and bring it to the genuine natural state of poise.
Colour in the Lotus Room
There are regular colourful offerings at the studio. Colour works well alongside a restorative yoga practice using contemplation and visualisation during the longer, supported postures. The regular yoga and creativity sessions provide an opportunity to enjoy and experience colour in a gentle, playful way.
“I attended the Rainbow Restorative Yoga online. Who knew colours can affect your practice so much. It was enlightening and restorative.”
JL, Dorset.
“I found the restorative yoga workshop in the studio both relaxing and inspiring. I loved the inclusion of colour which I will definitely incorporate into my life – currently redecorating two rooms at home so given me food for thought."
TB, Leicestershire