The Colour of Breath
painting by Julie Elliot
by Emily Cherneski
I recently had the privilege of witnessing a pair of geese on a rooftop. I assumed they were a mating pair because one, standing tall, was continually honking, while the other sat quietly, mostly ignoring the other. The temperature was cold enough that I could see the breath being emitted with each honk! I had never thought about or seen the breath of birds before.
This led me to thinking about our breath; something we only see when the temperature drops. What if we could always see our breath? What colour would our breath be depending on the words coming out of our mouths?
My musing brought even more questions. What if we could see the breath of our directee in a spiritual direction session? Would the layers of colour give us insight? What colour would our breath be as we shared our story? And how would that colour shift and change as our breathing deepened, we settled into our bodies, and came to the crux of our story? What colour would the ‘aha’ moment be?
We know the chakra colours move up the body from red to violet like this:
· red at the root chakra – the basis of our story
· to the orange gut chakra – what we are intuiting and feeling
· to the yellow solar plexus – what we are creating
· to the green/pink heart chakra – how we really feel; the heart of the matter
· to the blue throat chakra – where we can express our feelings/truth
· to the indigo third eye chakra – where we gain insight
· culminating in the violet crown chakra – where the Divine connects to us and imbibes us with inspiration and blessing
Would this rainbow of chakra colours be helpful in navigating the course of a spiritual accompaniment session? And this doesn’t even begin to consider how our auras would shift and change as we share our stories and gain insight.
Finally, I wonder about the colour of Godde’s breath – ever present, ever surrounding us, ever breathing us in and out as we breathe in and out. It might be an iridescent colour that transcends all human comprehension.
Emily Cherneski
believes we are spiritual beings on a human journey. She is a spiritual director who completed the Pacific Jubilee SoulGuiding program in 2006. Emily incorporates imagery and visualization to assist in a deeper understanding of our internal realities. She is also a reiki master and integrates the energy of the chakras into her work.
Her practice is to pay attention, find joy and beauty in the minutia, and share it with those around her. Emily says, “I try to let nothing escape my notice and appreciation.”
Read more about Emily's spiritual direction practice here
