Colour therapy: All you need to know

We certainly could do with some color in therapy. But color therapy? That’s right. And it is really about healing with something as simple as color.

There is more to color than meets the eye. From time immemorial, colors have been credited with miraculous healing powers. Sages of ancient India discovered how the unique vibration of each color could help heal ailments, and this knowledge was later codified in the Atharva Veda, ancient Indian scripture, as Surya Kiran Chikitsa—healing with the sun’s rays. In the Egypt of yore, temples had special healing rooms where the sun dispersed the seven colors of the rainbow. Today, this ancient healing technique is making a popular comeback under the quasi-scientific label of chromotherapy.

But how do colors work their healing power? “The seven colors of the rainbow are associated with the seven chakras (energy centers) of our body,” explains Dr M.C. Verma, a chromotherapist. “The muladhara chakra (root center) is related to the color red, and the swadisthana chakra (cross center) to orange. As we travel upward to the manipura (navel center), anahata (heart center), vishuddhi (throat center), agya (third eye center) and finally the sahasrara (crown center) chakras, the colors follow the sequence of yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet respectively. Each chakra, in its turn, is related to a specific gland. So, a proper use of color helps heal the body ailment concerned.” For instance, red is used to treat liver disorders, blue affects the pineal gland and green helps treat pituitary problems.

According to Gita Ramesh, director of Kairali Ayurvedic Health Club based in New Delhi, India, ayurveda links certain colors with the three basic doshas (humors): Vata (colic) is associated with blue, pitta (bile) with fiery red and kapha (phlegm) with light and luminous shades of yellow. Ayurveda also recognizes the close relation that the five elements of the body—ether, fire, air, water and earth—have with the world of colors: ether is associated with light blue, water with deep blue, air with green, fire with red and earth with yellow. Any disturbance in these elements leads to an imbalance in the physical, mental and spiritual body that can be corrected by boosting the color concerned.

To do this, naturopaths harness the five elements in colored bottles. “We fill a colored glass bottle three-fourth with water or oil and keep it in the sunlight, exposing it to ether,” says Dr Verma. “Air fills up the little space left in the bottle. Thus, all the elements are collected in the bottle.”

According to reiki master Damini Singh, this singular technique works wonders. Damini begins her day by drinking water charged in a green bottle and claims that it “harmonizes the nervous system and keeps me active the whole day”. Says Damini: “If I don’t drink green-charged water for a few days, I feel irritable and disoriented.”

You can not only drink but also breathe color. Just put the required colored bottle out in the sun for a couple of hours and then inhale the air within the bottle. If this sounds tame, try sitting inside a thermolium, a wooden cabin with colored glass panes. To keep your vital energy flowing smoothly all day long, you could even wear clothes of naturally soothing colors.

SPIRIT OF SHADES

COLOR CHARGED

Take a clean colored glass bottle or wrap colored cellophane on a transparent bottle. Keep the bottle in sunlight. Fill three quarters of the bottle with water. Put a Put a cork to stop dust from getting in. Clean the bottle at least once in a day. Don’t let the cellophane fade. Water takes six to eight hours to get charged. For emergency, you can charge water for about two hours, but only in the morning sun. 

Source: Life positive