For several months I have struggled with an injured left shoulder that was going from bad to worse with only limited relief from physical therapy exercises. One morning several weeks ago I was taking a few minutes to meditate and suddenly my mind was flooded with a bright blue andin that instant I knew with complete certainty that regardless of how I felt that I needed to go back to doing my Bikram yoga.
Now Bikram is quite strenuous especially for those of us that are of a certain age and were never exercise fanatics to begin with but I learned to listen to the wisdom that was comes from within. I completely believe that if you can quiet your internal chatter that your body, heart and soul will tell you how to be healthy, happy, peaceful, successful…or whatever state you desire. The challenge is both in being able to “hear” the messages and then being willing to act upon them.
First you have to be able to turn down your own internal voice. This in itself is almost impossible for most of us. We are so geared for endless self-talk (both positive and negative…okay often mostly negative) that even if we could rid ourselves of the external sensory overload we face each day we are still challenged not to fill the void with our own internal noise. When I can get quiet enough to “listen” I have found that the messages I receive are not only helpful but colorful.
In this case it was blue loud and clear! My knowledge of the colors of the chakras confirmed that this bright blue was meant as a message about the shoulder and arm pain I was experiencing because the color of the Throat chakra, also known as Visuddha is this color blue. This chakra is located in the throat but it is linked to the throat, neck, hands, and arms.
The chakras are related to the seven basic energy centers in the body and each is linked to a color. Each of the chakras correlate to a major nerve ganglia branching out from the spinal column and I have found that when you see one or more of these colors in my mind they are giving guidance as to what aspect of my body, mind or soul I need to be listening to at a given point in time.
Caroline Myss, world-renowned intuitive and respected lecturer in the field of health and intuition calls these little messages the “voice of God” and I have learned not only to listen but also to act. Her mantra is “listen and take action” and I remind myself of that every day as I do my darnedest to listen to my own internal wisdom and take action on what it is telling me.
So as counter intuitive as it seemed (I’m the first to admit that many of my friends thought I was crazy) I put faith in my inner wisdom and the color blue and headed to the yoga studio. After months away and an almost immobile left arm I did just what I could do. One of the basics of yoga is to have patience with yourself and for someone who’s license plate used to read IH82W8 that was a real challenge when I first began practicing yoga. I’m happy to say that now not only have I acquired patience with my yoga and many other aspects of life but that I have come to enjoy the process without concern for the outcome…but that’s a post for another day.
So getting back to today and why I wanted to share this with you. At the end of the 90 minute practice this morning I was enjoying the few minutes of mediation before leaving the room when I once again saw an incredibly strong blue vision in my mind and I knew instantly that I had a breakthrough that day with my shoulder even though I hadn’t been aware of it.
I immediately bent both of my elbow to raise my arms and then slowly relaxed my arms backwards to rest on the floor. This is a move I’ve tried at least once every day for months and have never been able to get my left arm back beyond dangling in pain at 45 degrees while the right arm easily relaxed on the floor. This morning however for the first time both arms found their way to the floor and while there was still some discomfort in my left shoulder I was so excited I wanted to break the silence with squeals of joy.
In that moment I was thankful for understanding color and trusting its energy enough to listen to what it is was telling me. I’m sure my shoulder still has quite a bit of healing to do but one day at a time. Today I’m happily grinning from ear-to-ear declaring this my own personal blue day and hoping that I can inspire you to take a moment to listen to your own inner colors.
