By: Christine Chen
This unique system of color-coding your schedule according to the chakras will help you maintain better life balance at a glance.
Recently, I swiped left--not on Tinder, but on my iCal--and all I saw was red. Immediately, I started rearranging my schedule for the coming week. Then, I looked the following week to make sure I had not set myself up for stress.
In my calendar, red means work, of which I have a tendency to do too much. A few years ago, I turned into one big yoga geek and color-coded my iCal to create more balance in my life, based on the system of the chakras, the subtle energies of the body. It worked so well that I started recommending the system to my yoga and Ayurveda clients. My type A, overachieving clients need to see less red and more green; clients who procrastinate should insert more red or dark blue on their calendars.
It's less work than it might seem and down the line makes your life easier. Blend the colors of the chakra system with your smartphone to lead a more centered life, not one that's busier, more stressful, nor monkey-minded.
How the Colors Stack Up
When colors of the light spectrum, ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), combine in equal parts, they create a pure white light from the energy-giving sun. These colors are based on the Munsell color system, based on equal steps for human visual perception.
In yoga, when these same colors, which correspond to chakras, are brought into a sweet balance and mix, it's said we feel more pure, ergo the concept of "balancing the chakras" to feel peaceful, calm, clear, and alert through asana, pranayama, and more.
How to Interpret the Chakra Colors for Your iCal
Label the events in your schedule with appropriate colors that map back to your chakras, and you can see immediately which energies are dominating your schedule and whether you've set yourself up to feel balanced, or stressed. The colors indicate certain energies of their corresponding chakras, which means you can plan your life activities to support overall balance.
- Energy: Needs, survival, feeling safe
- Label: Work, because you need it to pay for food and shelter
- Energy: Creativity, your pleasure center
- Label: Activities that fuel your creativity and inspire you to explore your passions
- Energy: Power, transformation, working toward something
- Label: Concrete actions that will help shape your future
- Energy: Unconditional love, compassion
- Label: Personal activities you love or time with people you love
- Energy: Expression, communication
- Label: Activities that allow you to express what's in your mind and heart
- Energy: Focus, intuition, clarity
- Label: Tasks that need focus and clear minded action
Violet, sometimes identified as white, is for the Sahasrara (Crown) Chakra and can be an extra color you can use for your own purposes... since it stands for your highest consciousness. You'll know what to do with it.