Colour and Breathing

A lovely and very helpful exercise is colour and breathing - or breathing in the rainbow.

The purpose of this is to firstly, heighten our awareness of colour and secondly, to encourage a balance of all the seven main chakra colours for our well being.

How to use Colour and Breathing

Stand with feet slightly apart and arms by your side, relaxed with palms turned to the front. Relax the shoulders, and concentrate on your breathing, consciously relaxing all of your body from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Breathing deeply in through the nose, holding for a few moments and then breathing out through the mouth. As you breath out, imagine expelling all the stress, negativity and toxins from your body. If you can do this exercise outside all the better, and, weather permitting, stand on grass with bare feet.

Affirmations, either spoken out loud or as a concentrated thought, can be helpful too to help us focus and avoid our minds from wandering. For example, red is the colour of courage and strength - we could say to ourselves - the energy of red fills my body and I have the strength and courage to move forward along my life's path. It doesn't matter how we word our affirmations - they will be unique to each individual - but remember the positive aspects of the colours and make sure your statements are positive.

Firstly breath in red from the earth, imagine it rising up through your whole body giving you strength and courage. Make an affirmation to suit your situation, as you breath in and experience the colour filling your body. Allow the colour to travel up through the body and out of the top of the head and then back down again to the earth. Repeat with orange and an appropriate affirmation, then yellow. These first three colours are absorbed from the earth. Then green. This colour is absorbed horizontally, let it fill your body, thinking or speaking your affirmation, and let it leave through the back. Then blue which is absorbed from the sky, through the top of the head and out again going back up to the sky, similarly with the indigo and violet. Finish off the exercise by envisaging yourself being surrounded by pure white light. This gives us protection.

If this exercise is done daily, you will really notice how your colour awareness develops and you will be able to visualize the colours much more strongly as you do this exercise regularly, balancing and enhancing your body's energies. You can also do this exercise sitting or lying down or as a light meditation if you wish.