Unwrapping the present of malaise
Blue, Baby, Blue
“I always feel blue around the holidays.” One of my clients recently lamented.
How often have you, or someone else, said the very same thing?
Anxiousness and isolation are the primary complaints.
How ironic that we feel isolation when it turns out there’s plenty of company having those same feelings.
Is this particular feeling of malaise amplified by the obvious isolation of prolonged pandemic confinement, masked concealment of facial expressions, and the advertising campaigns for “merry and bright” outside?
With all the Ho Ho Ho‘ing what makes some people feel so Ho Hum ?
Is it simply the contrast of what we think we should feel, (because we believe everyone else is so much happier) that makes us feel more acutely BLUE?
Knowing our words don’t describe our lives they actually create them, I got curious about the expression.
Where did “feeling blue” come from and what does it mean?
Dating back as early as the mid 1800’s , “feeling blue” suggested a lack of breath or spirit.
Without breath, our color is blue.
Without our breath, the very stuff of life, we are lifeless.
How true it is, that our breathing becomes shallow in a state of sadness.
Breath is so simple, so basic. So available.
Where else did “feeling blue” appear?
The Navy coined this phrase from a custom performed with its many deepwater sailing ships.
If the ship lost its captain, or any of the officers, during its voyage, she would fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along her entire hull when returning to home port.
Is our “feeling blue” an alert to our souls?
Is it a warning light signaling we’ve somehow lost the captain of our ship?
Abandoned ourselves?
Afloat on a sea without direction and a guiding force?
Warning lights are gifts.
If we pay attention to them we take action. When we see a warning light in our car, we stop the car and get curious about what that red signal means.
This is useful because if we take action our car usually doesn’t explode or burn out its engine.
It’s when we avoid the warning signals that we go down a path of real trouble.
Feeling blue may not FEEL good, but it is simply a vibration in our body.
It’s the thoughts we think about why we are feeling blue and the questions we ask ourselves that make the difference in finding the captain of our soul.
Every color has a specific vibration.
BLUE is known as the color of transition – “the door to the other side”.
It is the color of communication with others, wisdom, truth, Heaven, eternity, receptivity, intuition and insight, emotion, calm, peace and healing, tranquiility, and devotion.
Blue is associated with our emotions: freedom, strength and new beginnings, loyalty, faith, power, and protection.
The energy of blue is a conceptual color that urges us to seek our inner-truths.
Blue tells of harmony and spiritual understanding.
What is the gift of feeling Blue for you?
Will “feeling blue” have a new association?
What inner truth will you discover?
Will you breathe more deeply and take in the very stuff of life?
Will you reconnect with the captain of your soul?