I was just doing some chakra meditation today and had a realization that I wanted to share. I often find it helpful to visualize the color of each chakra to keep my mind more occupied. Today I realized that the colors also correspond to Earth and the universe.
What do you think of when you imagine a cross-section of the earth? In the center (inner/outer core and mantle), red-hot metals gently cooling perhaps some magma forming? What are the colors of the first two chakras? Red and orange! Now, the third chakra is a bit tricky because it is yellow and soil can be many colors, but just stretch your imaginations a bit. I think you'd agree that the land surface could fall under "green" which is just the same as our heart chakra (it can also be pink, but let's not complicate things). The throat is sky blue, which coordinates well with our sky. Then darker indigo and purple (or white) make up our higher chakras, which you could easily imagine as the darkness of outer space and the rest of the universe.
Now, one of my Alexander teachers likes to remind his students of "heaven and earth." That is, to remain grounded down but to also be moving upwards towards heaven - you are neither pulled nor stretched in either direction. I've always found it interesting that Alexander's directions "forward and up" are also the directions for the third eye - the 6th chakra, and perhaps the first stop as we journey outwards from our own atmosphere into the unknown.
All Alexander teachers will speak to you about "freeing your neck," but what does that really mean? Is it just saying "my neck is free?" Is it stretching your neck to release tension? Or is it, as some of my teachers suggest, simply acknowledging where your neck is right now and knowing that it is free to be exactly where it is at this moment.
In my opinion, the throat chakra is your personal piece of sky. It is what separates and also connects your body, your emotions, to your higher self and the rest of the universe. Yehuda spoke to me about the neck being there to keep the head from floating off into space. The head wants to move forward and up, but we tend to get in the way of it. (Watch a small child playing or a cat or dog running after a toy - you'll understand what I mean).
The throat (5th), heart (4th), and "splenic" (2nd) chakras are intrinsically connected for me (and I imagine for many others, as well) because without their openness, I cannot sing well. This past year, I've been paying more attention to these areas in my daily life. As you might imagine, the heart chakra is linked to our emotions and if it is not open, then we cannot truly communicate our emotions or truly connect with anyone else. Now imagine what a closed heart chakra would do to a singer! Singing is melodic expression of emotion and simply painting on facial expressions or gestures will not really engage an audience. Singing from your emotions can. You are opening your chakras in order to express something genuine and that is how you can share it with others. You are connecting with heaven and earth within AND without you.
To date, the most comfortable I've felt singing in front of others has been at campfires or sitting with them in a small room. I think that being outside in nature or in the comfort of a friend's home, I don't feel that I need to "act," I can just sing songs that I connect with and my connection to them invites my listeners to also connect. It's a beautiful feeling and I think that soon I will be able to transfer this to a bigger stage and connect to wider audiences, including them in my own small universe.
Snail friend near Monet's house in Giverny, France
In
other news, I finally got my official approval to make aliyah, so I am
heading back to Israel in December. I had hoped to be back in October,
but life and paperwork happened. This month, I'm preparing audition
recordings for a couple summer programs in Germany (time to learn some
Deutsch). I figured I might as well get all the recording business done over here, eat some turkey and latkes and then tackle finding a job and place to live in Tel Aviv.
I
hope that you are all well and adjusting to the chillier fall
temperatures. Trick-or-treating was delayed a day here due to wind and
rain - it was a truly spooky Halloween evening!
Crepes et marrons,
Daniella :)
