Nor should we ever be nervous or fearful of the role that the mind plays in our psyche. There are equally important aspects of our being, namely our emotions and our will. The brain reflects the complexity of our mind in its structure and faculties. But the heart reflects the constant rhythm of our feeling connection with the orchestra of Nature. Our will resides in the deeper recesses of our soul. Having found our way through the labyrinthine paths of trying to understand ourselves and life itself, we take refuge in the ever comforting sanctity of the heart to feel its peace and its eternal capacity to love. With the assistance of our spiritual will, we can then direct our lives towards our highest aspirations and work for excellence, as is the finest habit in human nature. In this, we require the faithful companionship of our minds that entertain thoughts to guide us and direct our emotions towards our goal.

By its light astronomers are able to analyse and distinguish different features of a celestial body or galaxy through observation of its colours. These are the true colours or energies that are recorded by sophisticated technology, not the colour enhanced, beautiful images we are often provided through NASA.

There is some similar relationship in astro-psychology when we realise the importance of light itself and are interested in analysing the seven colours of the spectrum into which light reveals itself when applied to the seven fold spheres of human beings.

This is nothing new, but modern interest is causing a revival in order to relate it to and have it complement what we know of modern psychology and astro-psychology so that we can better understand the planetary energies that rain upon us.

The spectrum range of colour is well known with red as the basic, slowest vibratory rate to purple, with the fastest, finest vibration. These, in extremely subtle delicacy, are visible in the aura to those trained to observe.

It is essential is to realise that we all express ourselves through these different colour moods, attitudes and actions but we are all capable of tuning in and perfecting expression of the full range of the spectrum. At that stage we are capable of transmitting the White light that is the sum total or synthesis of all seven.

Red -in our nature as well as a love of this colour spells practical action, excitement, passion, intense desires, ambitions, courage, outgoing nature with a will to ‘come first’. When polluted or insipid could represent selfishness or rash nature. It is essentially male.

Orange- is a very warm and also outgoing energy indicating a warm heart, optimistic attitudes, and interest in health and good cheer. It is a sociable colour and although extrovert, is often seen as associated with the Moon. It is vital influence in understanding our subconscious mind.

Yellow, the colour of the Sun is naturally a powerful energy associated with creative thought, dignity, spirituality, universality and abundance. It represents pure gold or wealth, leadership and wisdom.

Green -is the soothing tone of Nature and it is rare that someone who loves green is not a nature lover of the forest, flower, seaside etc. Such a colour allows one to feel at home in natural surroundings rather than social environment. Green is the balancing agent and restorer.

Blue – the wonderful colour of harmony and peace – the colour that is attributed to the female goddesses and the Virgin Mary, or the Mother of the Earth. Blue soothes troubled waters and seeks the sea or sky for comfort. It is the nurturer, gentle and understanding.

Indigo – intense colour of the midnight sky. It represents the Mother principle but rather as the maternal carer of the sky rather than the earth. Those who love this colour tend to be investigators and researchers, seeking truth and the cause of things. Lover of the heavens.

Purple is a colour appreciated by religious devotees, by those who are purists in their chosen sphere, and by those who aspire to high ideals or have visions of helping the world by their existence and dedication. This is the highest spiritual colour keynote in us that permits self sacrifice for a greater good.

It is customary after concentration upon the spectrum colours or after meditating upon them, particularly after red or the other extreme, purple, that we conclude by return to green.

Meditation on White Light allows us to inwardly balance and harmonize all these colours to feel inwardly secure and at peace.

Stranded on the shores of knowledge of the intellect alone, we eventually find ourselves lonely and devoid of real life satisfaction and experience regardless of our accumulation of information.

If we should choose to depend upon our emotions and consciousness of our hearts alone, we soon learn that we need the mind to channel our affections and sympathies appropriately.

We may pay lip service to the importance of the heart and soul but are inconsistent in our references and often suffer some confusion in identifying how to apply this aspect of our nature.

It is not by alternating between our thought activity and our emotional states but by a blending.   We come to realize that it is only the harmonious cooperation between our minds and hearts that will produce the faculty we should cherish – that of ‘common sense’ where the two spheres are blended.

Common sense is capable of serving us as a good friend and guide through the maze of events and circumstances of our lives and throughout its duration.

There are frequent times in our lives when we place more emphasis upon either mental pursuits or emotional needs and perhaps are left wondering which sphere of our intelligence we should listen to – our thoughts or our feelings. It is likely that there are times where our mind says one thing and our emotions another and we must make choices.

In this, it may help to recall that the knowledge of the mind is ever active, changing and growing in our search for truth.

The knowledge of the heart, where the deeper knowledge of life experiences and wisdom resides in stillness is related to our enduring, immortal soul and our capacity to love.

Those who make time to practise simple relaxation techniques, or employ the fine yogic technique of Yoga Nidra find that these measures are satisfactory in reducing stress.

However even if we are able to use self discipline to melt away our tensions that come from extreme activity and pressures of current society and that can affect our personal and family life as well as business, it is rarely that any self measures are successful without some changes and adjustments in our own lifestyle.

In the meantime it is helpful to speak frankly to an impersonal professional. This will provide you with a freedom to express your real feelings and thoughts without censure and to benefit by their skill in helping to direct you to an improved state of mind and emotion.

It is important to find an analyst to whom you can give your trust and with whom you feel comfortable. Arrange a brief introduction before your first consultation if possible to assess your feelings.

It is also natural to have a query that comes to mind – Who analyses the analyst?

Doing this will help you to formulate the values that are important to your life and the way you live it for your soul’s satisfaction.

You will find that it will possibly be a creed that will need revising some time later, but by keeping it simple it may serve you, by silent repetition of it, as a lifelong private source of encouragement and inspiration.

Here are a couple of examples –

I BELIEVE ……

In the wonder of the Cosmos

The magic of the Spirit

The beneficence of Nature

The brotherhood of man

The immortality of the soul

In the One-ness of all life

In the responsibility we have to this Earth

……………..

MY PERSONAL CREED IN LIFE

Is to practise love and kindness

To work towards excellence in all things

To be responsible for my successes and my failures

And to recognize the power of free will to choose my way.

……………………

1) our bodies   2)  our emotions   3)  our thoughts

There are isolated periods where we are almost totally preoccupied and aware of our physical work and actions.  There are times when we experience intense emotional feelings but more commonly these times are interwoven with our thoughts.  Total concentration of thought is applied when we are engaging full intellectual focus upon study of a subject or when engaged creative thinking of our own.

The majority of our days however would seem to be a mix of these three separate parts of our personality and in order to know ourselves, we must be able to reflect as to which part of our nature is functioning and identify it before we can consciously cultivate any changes or direct our own development.

Self examination can be practised throughout our daily activities as a general sense of awareness.

We can reflect at the end of the day in diary writing or as we often do, when we relay our news to our companions, friends and loved ones.  In the process we are inclined to re-evaluate the day’s happenings and our own feelings thoughts and general responses.  We will often realise a need for some change in attitude, or need for some improvement in regard to our own behaviour as we can feel a sense of self satisfaction at the end of a day when we feel we have done our best.

If we wish to apply ourselves more seriously to the task of self analysis, there are many paths open for us to study our own nature as well as the interpretations and guidance offered by those who are more advanced in their own self-understanding as well as familiar with the general knowledge of professional psychology.

Each of us is naturally easily fascinated by insights and discoveries about ourselves. We are blessed with an ever-present text book to explore, particularly when we are young and beginning to realise the many dimensions and complications that can exist within our psyche. It is natural, just as it is to grow to become more aware of our physical body and both its common and unique features, so we wish to discover what is the ‘norm’ and where we differ from others in our unique emotional and mental make-up.

Most of us will have a natural interest to study physiology and physical fitness, basic psychology that helps us understand our emotions and minds , or seek the wisdom inherent in philosophies and ideologies that offer a life goal or purpose. In the main, most of us are too busy to consider more elementary facets in self discovery that come clear with applying what is known of our astrological type or unique lines upon our hands and thumb prints that can indicate certain features of our character. We differ in our degree of self interest and the sphere of interest but also the extent of our inherent self- knowledge.

Find out what is offered by the various knowledge spheres and sciences that may help you to identify features about yourself that can assist your confident self image or suggest concepts that will assist you in defining and integrating the three parts of your nature so helping you to fulfil your unique potential of your soul and its instrument of body, emotions and thought.

Unless one creates a self image the personality is apt to become pressured and influenced by what others think, and this may not be as you would wish.

Use your self image to become whatever or whoever you wish to be – to pattern your future, determine your habits and reactions and help you to succeed in your achievements.

Determine to be whatever you yearn to be.  Include love, truth, gladness and peace in your aim.

Seek to become your own ideal – expect no other person to fully represent your ideals or disappointment will ensue.

Pattern your life in reflection of those whom you most admire.

Maintain a sense of your own personal uniqueness and your worthiness not only as an experiencer of life but as a capable contributor to society.

Sally E Janssen

Our feelings are often motivated by thought and directed by them.

We can entertain an idea that is purely intellectual as a product of thinking alone.

We can entertain emotions without any instruction or control of our minds.

However, the general understanding of the human psyche is that we are all a confused mix of both thought and emotion.  This would seem to be the case and along with any effort in self understanding and self culture, we are responsible for sorting out the mix.

In fact our feelings function through the heart where of all possible human emotions, love rules as the supreme feeling. But we can also hold less admirable emotions of hatred, jealousy and destructive feelings in our psyche. We must be honest in recognizing any negative feelings and overcoming them or pulling them like weeds unwanted from our being so that loving kindness and cheerful states, the positive and powerful ones, can be experienced. Each of us must face this task.

Our mental faculties function in a different sphere from the emotions and are anchored within the brain. The brain certainly acts as a transmitter of our thoughts that are generated within the invisible and subtle mind consciousness. How to clear out unwanted or disturbing thoughts to leave the mind capable of conceiving bright ideas and experiencing good humor is a little more difficult. There are many techniques outlined by many authors. The most successful are those that work in tandem to overcome the negative by replacement with a positive thought. We must choose a method that suits us.

In order to evaluate mental energies and emotional ones we must agree on two principles. One being that our thought is the faculty that is responsible for disciplining our emotions when necessary. The other, that our emotions and feelings are needed to add enthusiasm and bring life to any idea or creative project. Thought and emotion best serve us when they work in co-operative and harmonious agreement.

It is self destructive to allow our own minds and hearts to be in conflict. When we have a thought that is opposed by the way we really feel, then it is most common that the emotions will tend to come out on top until we have achieved some level of integration or agreement in the relationship.

It is often a matter of degree of non-alliance and often of no real consequence. For instance if our sensory appetite reaches out to enjoy a delicious chocolate and we succumb in spite of our thought saying ‘no’ we live with the consequences, of this or any other involvement of choice.

When we encourage and generate good emotions and feelings these enrich and empower our thought and give us the enthusiasm and the motivation to succeed and reward us with the ability to feel joy in achievement.

Many developments and skills are the obvious ones such as physical abilities, intellectual skills and technological achievements. But the subtler aspect of our progress is measured in other ways that demonstrate we are changing, developing and refining our faculties and senses.

Even subtler is our individual loosening of our basic instincts and the awakening of altruistic motivations that guide us to identify with the nobler part of our nature.

As primitive beginnings are rooted in a basic nature little different from those observed in animals with strong instincts and reactions that are geared to self preservation, so the finer human nature is shown to benefit by the additional voice of intuition that serves to guide and protect the soul and move us to help others.

It could be considered as a concept about life motivation that is just that simple – as the constant matter of choice between our lower nature and our higher until no longer are there two factors to consider or confuse us, but we have become spiritually integrated and choose to live totally in the realm governed by our inner wisdom or intuition.

“…the light in my darkness, the voice in my silence.”  Helen Keller

Can a psychologist help to relieve the patient through the gentle art of education in self analysis or is it a matter offering a greater challenge to any therapist. At what point does a despondent or unhappy person require diagnosis and medical drug doses?

The question that a psychiatrist must face is the consideration whether a patient is suffering from an acute temporary state of upset of mind and emotions that could be considered a ‘normal’ life experience or whether it is a more serious issue.

We would all hope that professionals to whom we turn will first offer a natural and simple solution rather than treatment that diminishes our independence, as occurs under chemical drugs. The common-sense alternative to psychiatric drug therapy we would anticipate as the application of the normal self disciplines, positive exchanges between friends or professional counsellors and a happy involvement in a creative life enterprise.

What psychiatrist has the vision to foretell just how long a patient’s depression will last – or how severe a state it is – and if the sufferer has family and friends to give real psychological support?

Without sensitive probing and enquiry, the real causes of anyone’s unhappiness or hopelessness, are not likely to be easily revealed at first. A psychiatrist fulfils his duty by first recommending such a patient suffering ‘depression’ for instance, attends counseling with a professional psychologist well trained to seek insight into causes and they will work in collaboration.

When considering the overall picture, we acknowledge that most of us would know that any disturbed or extreme state of our mind or emotions requires adjustment.

We would then be inclined to seek help through a psychologist who can assist us in making the corrections we need to restore a balanced state of our psyche. Only then if all simple efforts fail, it may be necessary to considered wise to seek further help from a psychiatrist.

Drugs are becoming a serious issue with much controversy about the risks in administering mind changing psychiatric chemicals. Regrettably, many psychiatrists rely upon them for quick results.

However, we must always remember that our mind and consciousness is our very own. We are free to choose . But our first positive step begins with us as we decide to build our physical health and fitness knowing that exercise is a wonderful tonic for creating a positive mood change and also for ensuring long term health and peace of mind.