WHAT IS COLOUR THERAPY HEALING?
By Valerie Logan-Clarke
Colour Therapy is a form of healing for which there is evidence dating back thousands of years to the ancient cultures of Egypt, China and India. The Ancient Egyptians built temples for Colour Healing where people would go to be “revitalised and renewed”. Colour was of great importance to them. They worshipped the sun, knowing that without light there can be no life. They looked at nature and copied it in many aspects of their lives.
Specific ‘colour rooms’ were allocated for colour therapy where the patient would be placed having had his/her diagnosis as to the colour/s required. The ancient Egyptian healers would also use herbs and plants, metals and coloured minerals to give colour therapy alongside their colour/light therapy.
So, Colour Therapy is certainly not new – we are perhaps just putting old wine in a new bottle, as it were. Like so many complementary therapies which we are using again today, we are simply presenting them in a way which is perhaps more acceptable to people of the 21st century.
Colour is a form of energy, being light of varying wavelengths and the wavelengths of the seven rainbow colours resonate with the seven main energy centres/chakras of the body. Everything has an energy field/electro magnetic field or aura and this energy field will be affected by other energies. Colour is one of these energies and affects us on all levels. We also absorb colour via the skin and the eyes but the lack of sight or colour blindness does not prohibit the healing effects of colour. We will absorb the colour’s energy whether we can see it or not. The colours of the clothes we wear and the colours in our environment all have an effect on our moods and feelings of wellbeing.
The seven rainbow colours of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet resonate with the base, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow and crown chakras/energy centres respectively and the organs and glands therein. Colour energy can be used to energise or balance our energy centres and can act as a catalyst for the body’s own healing processes. This energy can help us with emotional, mental, spiritual or physical issues – colour therapy is a truly natural, holistic, non invasive therapy, has no side effects, is perfectly safe whether being used for adults, children/babies or animals and can be used alongside any other therapy whether conventional medicine or another complementary therapy.
If you can imagine the chakras as a set of cogs/wheels, they are rather like the workings of a clock or an engine; each cog/wheel needs to move smoothly for the clock/engine to work properly. Thus good health and wellbeing is achieved by a balance of all these energies. Balance of the energy in each of the body’s chakras is very important for health and wellbeing.
Colour therapy can be shown to help on a physical level, which is perhaps easier to quantify, however there are deeper issues around the colours on the psychological and spiritual levels. Our wellbeing is not, of course, purely a physical issue. Fortunately, many more practitioners, both orthodox and complementary, are now treating patients in an holistic manner. That is to say, we are body, mind and spirit and none of these areas function entirely alone; each has an effect upon the other. This is why Colour Therapy can be so helpful since colour addresses all levels of our being. The capacity for health and wellbeing is within us all and colour energy can act as a catalyst for our body’s own healing processes.
Noting strong colour preferences can also be a helpful aid to finding possible problems and working with the appropriate colour/colours to help to dispel negative feelings, free blocks and re-balance the body emotionally, spiritually and, in turn, physically.
Some examples of colours and their effects:- orange is a wonderful energising and uplifting colour which helps us to be positive and helps boost our energies.
Green is a beautifully stabilising and relaxing colour which balances all the body’s functions and can help with the heart and blood and is a particularly helpful colour for enhancing our bodies healing processes and the body’s functions.
Blue is one of the calming and cooling colours and is excellent as a “stress buster” as it calms and slows us down. It has very effective healing properties for many different problems.
Colour Therapy is a totally holistic and non-invasive therapy and, really, colour should be a part of our everyday life, not just something we experience for an hour or two with a therapist. A professional therapist can help you to understand which colours you may need to focus on and can give advice on ways of introducing colour healing in to your everyday life. Colour is all around us everywhere. This wonderful planet does not contain all the beautiful colours of the rainbow without reason. All we need to do is to heighten our awareness of the energy of colour and how it can transform our lives.
Please be aware that no complementary therapy should be considered as an alternative to professional medical advice where necessary and no properly qualified, professional complementary therapist would suggest that, neither would they suggest that you stop taking your medication etc. If you are taking medication you should consult the prescribing professional before you stop.
By Valerie Logan-Clarke www.colourtherapyhealing.com
If you would like more information you can contact me via the website www.colourtherapyhealing.com or email me at valerie@colourtherapyhealing.com
About the author:- Valerie is a professional Colour Therapist working from her practice in West Sussex where she sees both human and animal patients , she runs a series of One Day Colour Workshops, teaches Colour Therapy at various Adult Education centres around West Sussex, and is the administrator of her website www.colourtherapyhealing.com where you can find a wealth of information about colour.