to have the imagination of an amoeba not to figure that out. So why then, am I telling you this?Since I began practising yoga I've become more aware of my chakras - the seven centres of spiritual and physical energy in the body. Each chakra is associated with one of the seven colours of the spectrum, beginning with red at the root chakra at the base of the spine, and ending with violet at the crown chakra at the top of the head. Green is right smack in the middle of the spectrum, associated with the heart chakra. Before I began practising yoga, I didn't pay much attention to the chakras. I knew about them of course, but I wasn't expending any energy on balancing them, which is really a way of saying I had no physical practise for finding emotional and spiritual balance. Well, when I started to realize just how effective yoga was for my psychological health, not to mention physical, I began doing some serious study into the chakra thing. I took some online tests to find out which of my chakras were balanced, and which ones were over or under-developed. The results were always fascinating. They pretty much described my psychological make-up. My heart chakra, associated with the colour green, is - uh - under-developed. (My throat chakra, the centre of expression and speech, is over-developed. Hmm...)
Anyway, these interesting-only-to-me facts hit me squarely over the head - or should I say the crown chakra? - when I was abroad earlier this year. The latter part of my sojourn was on an island-nation that's mostly made out of volcanic rock. There really isn't much green in that part of the world. There's lots of spectacular scenery, but not much of the green kind - you know, trees and vegetation and such. So I was taking a day tour around some of the beauty spots of this small, volcanic island when we drove through some awesome mountains right on the south coast where the Gulf Stream flows. There was lots of mild weather and water to put a lush, green carpet of moss and scrubby vegetation all over the southern face of the mountain range. By this time on my travels I'd been away for almost a month, and although I'd seen much beauty and wonder, both natural and human-made, in sunnier climes as well as the aforementioned northern volcanic island, I hadn't been moved to tears, and a few of my friends assured me I would be. Within moments of spying the verdant blanket that adorned the volcanic cliffs, I began to weep for the beauty of it all. Even as I wept, I realized I had seen many things of equal, but quite different beauty, and couldn't understand why this sight would cause me to shed copious tears when nothing else had. I was deeply moved to see my favourite colour, in all its splendour, splashed across the mountains, and then I remembered that green is the colour of the heart chakra, the chakra associated with emotion, tenderness and compassion - of good, old-fashioned feeling. Laying my eyes upon all that green had opened up my heart chakra. I felt a connection between the colour I was looking at and the way I felt. It was a thrilling realization, a thrilling sensation.
I suppose I should end this blurb now, because that's all I have to say about that. But it's enough.
Blessed be. And think green.
- G.P.
No comments:
Post a Comment