I'm A Blue.....

I first became intrigued by the idea of auras several years ago when I saw a guy on Oprah talk about how he survived a plane crash. He described the final moments of his fateful plane ride and a moment when he looked back into the plane and caught a glimpse of the people who would not be so fortunate to survive. He claims he saw a colorful glow that radiated around each of them. He said that some of them were very bright and some were very dull. His parting words to Oprah were: "When I die I hope my color will be brighter than the sun." That though has stayed with me ever since. And it got me thinking about colors and how they affect us. My favorite color has always been blue. Almost every car I have owned has been blue, including my current hybrid. I'm even one of those people who names her car. Only they have all had the same name: Beloved Blue. My snowboarding equipment is all blue, even down to my gloves and the bindings on my board. And for a time there if you were to look in my closet what do you think you would find? You guessed it, mostly blue clothing. But looking in there now I see a trend happening. You know how some artists go through their color phases? Well I'm no artist but I have a tendency to go through color phases with my selection of clothing. There's definitely the "blue period", and then there was the "pink phase" (a very short-lived one at that), followed by the "orange phase". Each color coinsiding with a different summer. Probably due to the fact that having summers off makes shopping for clothing more frequent. Not that I spend a whole lot of time shopping. In fact, I'm a disgrace to my gender because I cringe at the mere thought of having to go to the mall. My shopping sprees tend to happen each summer when I go on my annual getaway with a group of friends to the desert. They always somehow manage to kidnap me and get me to go to the outlet mall with them. Usually bribing me with a some form of a decadent chocolate dessert at dinner that evening. Once there I quickly purchase an article or two of clothing in the color of that particular summer and then head over to the kitchen gadget store with all of those unusual trinkets to wait out the torture of being trapped in a mall with a group of shopaholic women. Ooppss, I think I got off-track here.

Anyway, a few years later when I had an extremely difficult student in my Kindergarten class I spent a lot of time on the internet researching anything and everything that might help me figure out a way to reach this little boy. And in my research I stumbled on a philosophy known as Indigo Children. As I read into the wee hours of the morning, I was amazed to see such an accurate description of the child who was so consuming my time at work. Not only did I learn a ton of information about Indigo kids but it sent me off on another one of my tangents of devouring anything I could on my latest weird obsession. Thus leading me to a book called "Life Colors". Now what does this have to do with yoga and why am I rattling on about it here? Hang in there, I'll tie it all in eventually I promise.

The idea behind "life colors" is that we all have one and those of us assigned the same color tend to have many characteristics in common. Some believe that your life color is your aura, that magnetic field that surrounds you and can be seen by only a few intuitive people. And of course in the back of the book was one of those quizzes that you can take to see what color is you. I usually view these things with an open mind. Afterall, anything's possible right?
So I took the very lengthy quiz and guess what color I am? That's right, BLUE. And I didn't even cheat. The damn test was too long and I'm way too ADD to keep track of it to cheat. That would be like counting cards at a Black Jack table. Not something I would have the patience to do. So I answered all of the questions honestly without trying to read too much into it and it revealed that my "aura" just happens to be my favorite color. Coincidence? Maybe. Probably. Heck, I don't know.

So what is a BLUE? Blues are the hopelessly romantic. Blues love almost to a fault. They tend to stay in unhealthy relationships way longer than they should because they don't want to hurt the other person's feelings. In healthy relationships they are loyal to their partner, family, and friends, and need to bond emotionally with their mate. They tend to be teachers, nurses, or are in other occupations where taking care of others is the primary focus. Gee, does THAT sound like someone I know!

What does this have to do with yoga? Remember my earlier post about chakras? Well it turns out that each chakra is assigned a corresponding color. Yeah, see where I'm going? So my thought is this: If I really am a BLUE what does this say about the energy centers along my spine, if anything at all. The throat chakra is represented by the color blue. And remember when it is out of balance it can manifest itself in the form of either extreme shyness or someone so chatty that you just want to stuff a sock in her mouth to get her to be quiet. Those of you that know me well have seen me teeter on both ends of this continium. But as I have grown over the years I have been told that I am a good communicator and that I listen well. Both good signs of a balanced throat chakra. So maybe these two weird philosophies are related. Or maybe not. In any case, I find them intriguing. And I have found that as my yoga practice has deepened, so too has my ability to keep my dominant life color in balance. More about how I do that in a later post.