Feeling Guilty...?

Guilt = Gilt (gold).
The only difference is ‘u’!!!



Guilt likes to resides within our golden area.

The area where, from within ourselves, we can recognize our true worth, our innate wisdom and our sovereignty. It likes to disturb and question our self value.

It likes to elevate our levels of fear so that ego can keep control.

It likes to boil the pot of anger, resentment and blame.

Does it serve us to hold onto our guilty feelings for our perceived wrong doings?

Short answer...it doesn’t... so let it go!

Long answer... Guilt is a feeling.

Guilt resides with fear...fear of judgment, of being seen as ‘bad’ or as a lesser person.
(“Guilt is anything you did and fear others to know about” Author: Mohammad)


Feelings are communications and guidance from our higher self to our earthly self showing us areas within us for potential growth.

Feelings are the opportunity for the process of alchemy to turn lead into gold.





In the case of feelings of guilt we are being asked to firstly be aware where we have made an error of judgment and have chosen an action or deed that has not been in the higher interests of all (is one!).


We then have choices on how we will deal with things. We may brush it off with statements like “I don’t care” “ He/She/They deserved it” etc etc... but this will surely just bury the feeling deeper for it to surface again at a later date or perhaps to manifest physically as illness and disease.

OR

We can accept what has caused our guilty feelings. Truly and honestly accept the part we have played in creating these feelings.

We can own it and admit to it (most importantly to ourselves) and make amends for it if need be.
(“It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution” Oscar Wilde )


and then move on....

Once we have done this we have taken 'u' out of guilt and turned it to gold!


From The Miriam Webster Online Dictionary:
GILT
Pronunciation:
\ˈgilt\
Function:
adjective
Etymology:
Middle English, from past participle of gilden to gild
Date:
14th century

: covered with gold or gilt : of the color of gold

GUILT
Pronunciation:
\ˈgilt\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, delinquency, guilt, from Old English gylt delinquency
Date:
before 12th century

1: the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty; broadly : guilty conduct
2 a: the state of one who has committed an offense especially consciously ,
b: feelings of culpability especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy : self-reproach
3: a feeling of culpability for offenses

The Greening of Humanity

There has been a marked movement towards green...







yes we already know that don't we...

...it's all about the environment, saving our forests, searching for fuel alternatives, pollution etc etc.

Well NO, it is not just about the environment.

The Green movement is happening in many different ways.

Let's just put the idea of green being about the environment aside and take a wider look at the meaning of green.
The vibration of green relates to out heart centre, our heart chakra. Green is all about decisions, feelings, balance and love.

Green opens us to expansiveness and feelings of spaciousness and to an ability to make decisions from our feeling side rather than our intellect.

I made the conscious choice to work with the colour green about a month ago. I 'put out the call' so to speak that I was ready to work through another layer of my own green issues . This meant being open to my feelings and allowing my guidance to come from my heart. It even meant looking at issues that might bring out the green eyed monster of jealousy and envy (which certainly put in an appearance!)
Well the call has certainly been answered. I have had an amazing wave of green come to me in many different ways.
What I have witnessed and can now see very clearly is the 'Greening of Humanity' No ..I don't think that we are being invaded by little green men but there is a green under swell occurring that is showing people of the need to choose their actions and make their decisions from heart based values.
Many businesses are are now looking at the 'heart line' instead of the bottom line.

One of many examples that have come my way has been the website called Heart of Business.
I urge you to have a look at what Mark Silver, the founder of this site, has to offer. His work is about getting in touch with your heart to find direction and answers that can not only be applied to your business but also to any aspect of your life.

Another instance of 'green' came to me as I was watching an interview with Andre Rieu, the violinist, the other night and something he said during that interview really resonated for me. He was asked what made him such a success and he replied
" I play music from my heart and that is what makes it successful"

Now that statement really felt right to me!

You heart can express your passion and in your passion is your truth, connection and purpose!

One of the most obvious and biggest calls for humanity to go green has been with the natural disaster in Burma. Not only was this a green event in relation to the environment but it is also a huge call for the governing authorities of that country to open their hearts to receive the outpouring of caring and love from the rest of the international community. Will the Burmese government open their hearts? Who knows? To truly allow your heart to open requires trust and to let ourselves be open to receive is for some of us one of the hardest lessons to learn.

Actions and decisions made from the feeling side of our being resonate with truth, our own personal truth and therefore can see us leading a more authentic life filled with love, honesty and compassion. When we connect in this way everything we do seems to shine that little more brightly.

Our hearts are where we can connect to our inner guidance...a place where we hold all the answers we seek.

The Rainbow Road to Happiness.

Red

Live your life with passion and energy!

This road leads to an exciting life.




Orange

Examine where in life you are co-dependent…relationships, habits, beliefs, substances and work towards understanding inter-dependence and independence.

This road to leads to honest relationships.




Yellow

Learn, learn, learn! You are never too old to learn something new.
This road leads to expansion and understanding.

Green

Make decisions from the space of your heart.
This road leads to love (given and received).



Blue

Blue Be truthful in your communications.

This road leads to your highest expression.



Indigo

Trust your intuition.

This road leads to guidance you can trust.

Violet

Allow yourself to always be inspired and use your imagination!
This road leads to connection with your purpose.



Explore all these roads and they will lead you to the gift of the rainbow
and a life lived to the fullest potential!





All contributed content © Leanne Lonergan

Favourite Colour votes are in!

There was a total of 66 votes and here are the results.
Definitely not an all conclusive study but an interesting exercise no less.
Most of the votes below came from artists and crafters from Etsy.
(The color palettes you see below were put together on ColorLovers. Definitely a site that is top of my list!)













Yellow - NO VOTES

Grey - NO VOTES

White - NO VOTES

Pink - 1 VOTE

Black - 1 VOTE







Scarlet/Coral - 1 VOTE

Gold - 2 VOTES

Brown - 2 VOTES

Lime - 3 VOTES

Magenta - 3 VOTES





Red - 4 VOTES

Indigo - 4 VOTES

Orange - 5 VOTES

Turquoise - 8 VOTES

Violet - 9 VOTES






Green - 9 VOTES
and the WINNER IS...........Blue with a resounding 12 VOTES


But what does this all mean?

Our favourite colours are influenced by many things including our culture, society, family and peer groups.

Our reaction to different colours can also come from experiences that we associate with colour.

Perhaps a teacher or carer that you didn't like constantly wore a particular colour or you were forced to wear a uniform of some sort which brings unpleasant associations for you.


One story I have heard speaks of a fellows aversion to blue.


According to the story this fellow had been involved in a train crash and had been lying injured in one of the twisted and wrecked carriages for some time.

All he could see was a blue light (some sort of emergency exit light or the like) shining near him.

He became totally adverse to blue after this as his thoughts associated this colour to his experience in the train.

Sometimes we can have an intense aversion to a colour but it's logical cause is unknown to us...perhaps it comes from an early experience that has been repressed and buried.



I once had a student in one of my classes who really had a strong dislike of blue also.

After we delved into this for a while and explored the deeper symbolism of the colours, she came to understand that she preferred to be surrounded by people who were highly independant and self sufficient and that were energetic and motivated (all things that relate to a 'red' person - which was her favourite colour) and that blue represented for her the antithesis of this.



I followed a thread recently in the forums on Etsy where the majority of people commenting noted their dislike of the colour yellow.

This shows in the results of the this poll also.
Yellow is about us being in our own 'power' free from the fears that hold us back!


The following quotation is from Marianne Williamson. To be precise, it is from her 1992 book, "Return to Love" (hardcover p. 165, paperback pp. 190-191):


"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?" ....


This a perfect example of our 'yellow' fear of letting our light shine.


From most of the sources I have read the fact that the poll has shown blue to be the favourite colour does not surprise me.

Blue is constantly quoted as the worlds favourite colour. A sweeping statement I know but I can't find any evidence to the contrary.


Blue is about the nurturer and carer within us. It is also about saying 'yes' to what comes our way (good or bad).

Through blue we seek peace and calm and a certain sense of co-operation. It has connotations of reliablity and trustworthiness which I guess are traits we would all like to embrace....

Spinning wheels of colour energy…

Lying within each and every one of us are receptors and transmitters of colour. These ‘devices’ are called chakras.
There are seven main chakras and each one of these equates and responds to a different colour of the visible light spectrum and is responsible for a different function. They are the spinning ‘wheels’ or vortexes of the subtle anatomy system and in fact get their name from the ancient Sanskrit word for wheel.

The chakra system is an energy system that has been recognised by Eastern culture for many centuries and each chakra is traditionally depicted as a lotus flower with a different colour and a different amount of petals. The petals represent the vibratory rate of each chakra and correspond also to the different vibratory rate of each colour.

The seven main chakras of the human body consist of;





Base chakra – red – our connection to our physical body and life.







Sacral Chakra – orange – our emotions







Solar Plexus Chakra – yellow – our thoughts and mind function







Heart Chakra – green – our feelings and centre for love









Throat Chakra – blue – our self expression and communication






Brow (Third eye) Chakra – indigo – higher mind function








Crown Chakra - violet - our connection to our higher consciousness and inner wisdom



The chakras act in two ways – they both draw in and give out energy and act to sustain us physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Working with colour as a therapist is all about working with the chakras and the colours of the spectrum to bring vibrational balance back to the energetic system of the living being.

Every part of the body from the bones and organs right down to the smallest cells at a microscopic level has a different vibration and consequently a different colour vibration to match.
The chakras are a system that can be likened to a complex set of gears – one is dependent on the next for the system to work.

They can become dysfunctional by being overactive, under-active or blocked which in turn can lead to the manifestation of a range of physical, emotional and mental conditions.

The ideal is to catch the imbalance while it still exists at an emotional or mental level and before it manifests into the physical.

We can pick up a clue as to what colours we need at any given time by becoming aware of our colour needs, what colours are we currently attracted to and what is our reaction is to the different colours in our world.

Meeting a fellow Colorwoman

I was so excited recently when I came across a fellow Etsyian with the name Colorwoman..!!!!!!

“Now here is someone I’ve just got to get to know” I said to myself.

Sure enough when I had a look at her fabulous shop on Etsy I was ecstatic…here on the page in front of me was another color devotee!

Connie (aka Colorwoman) makes gorgeous jewellery that embraces an understanding of the basis of Colour Therapy – the Chakra System- an energetic system within the human body.
(more on the chakra system in a future blog)








Connie has been making jewellery for quite some years now and this is what she told me about becoming ‘colorwoman’ -

“I've been colorwoman for 10 years. When I bought my first iMac ten years ago I needed an online name and I thought, "if I were a member of a tribe, what would they call me? "Colorwoman' was the immediate answer that popped into my head and I've been living into that title for a decade now".

Jewellery is a great way to add the energy of colour to your day.
The use of colour for healing mind, body and spirit is certainly not new. It was simply forgotten.
In the healing temples of Ancient Egypt crystals were used as treatment and rooms devoted to a particular colour were set up so that the person in need of treatment could bathe in sunlight that was streaming in through coloured glass.







Connie's colourful pieces, made from both crystals and vibrant glass beads, are made with the loving intention of bringing color to the wearer.

Each piece has been bought into the world in an environment that celebrates the joys of colour. Her studiois painted every colour of the rainbow inside, so as she works with colour she is also truly surrounded by colour !



I love this quote from Connie about what Etsy means to her,

"We do what we do, the way that we do it, because if we didn't there would be a hole where something beautiful is meant to be" Jan. 2008.

Have a look at Connie's shop. She is a prolific craftswomen with many items to choose from.

As well as her beautiful jewellery pieces there is an awesome assortment of coloured glass beads.

You would surely have to find the perfect colour for yourself here!

I noticed also that Connie runs classes in jewellery making and even offers sessions for birthday parties.


I just wished I lived closer...

Seeing Colour

Well... the new features are (for the most part) up and happening on the Rainbow Revolution website. Apart from some minor glitches that are being ironed out it's all systems go!

One of the amazing things about colour that has come to me whilst working with my sister to get the website all happening is how differently we all see colour at times.

I have found this often in classes that I am teaching with variations of green and blue. One of my favourite parts of a class is when I ask the students to bring in turquoise items for the weekly collage table. All sorts of variations arrive and lively discussions can go on for hours about whether it is turquoise, blue or green. For some, what is definitely a green can be seen and described by others as a turquoise or even a blue and visa versa. I have noticed in the poll at the side of the blog here that so far most people's favourite colours fall in the range of the blues and the greens...I wonder what people are really seeing then?

I did a quick search to find out how many colours the human eye actually can see and it is amazing to note that some scientists suggest we can differentiate between millions of different variations! I guess there is also the problem that while we may be able to perceive all these different colours we sure don't have that many different ways of describing them....or do we?

Have some fun on the ColorLovers website naming a few colours for yourself!

Our eyes contain receptors called rods and cones that are responsible for our ability to perceive different colours. The cones are for colour vision and the rods are more for distinguishing light and dark, night vision etc. Colour blindness and night blindness are usually caused by a disturbance in these receptors. Our range of visible colours exist in a very narrow bandwidth on the electromagnetic spectrum so in that way we are limited. Some animals, insects, fish and birds are able to see colour that exists outside of the range available to humans. I would love just a glimpse of what they can see!

I always find it fascinating to watch the colours that I work with change(when I am dyeing my fabrics ) - under different light, at different times of day, wet or dry...It is like the best light show in town!