The Blues: A Wellspring of Peace
by Dr. Marie DiCowden

How many times have you had “the blues?”  Feeling blue or down is often the result of a combination of things: physical and emotional fatigue, a sense of loss or hopelessness that things will never change.  Being a caregiver often requires days and nights of intense giving that leaves a person feeling depleted and having a case of the “blues.”

If, however, you tried the meditation exercise that I talked about in the last issue (Tapping the Wellspring of Time and Energy, May/June ’97), you can build on that to turn the meaning of “the blues” around.  If you have not started meditating, now it the perfect time to start.

Take ten minutes a day, with the phone off the hook and sitting in a quiet space, allow yourself to breathe.  Be conscious of your breath.  Let thoughts pass without dwelling on them.  Then, to turn “the blues” around, try this:

1) Settle yourself in a comfortable sitting position.  Sitting up is better than lying down
2) Find a beautiful shade of blue.  It can be a favorite painting with varying shades of blue, a view of the blue sky, blue ocean, or just a beautiful blue object.
3) Just sit silently and look into the blue.  Let yourself become in tune with the blue.  Experience the deep silence of the blue.  Continue to meditate on the blue.
4) Let the blue fill from head to toe.  Let all thoughts come and go, passing through you as white clouds pass through the blue of the sky.
5) Become the blue.

Blue is a very spiritual color.  It connotes tranquility and relaxation.  If you continue with the meditation for ten minutes a day for three weeks, you will begin to find that whenever you have a glimpse of something blue, the blue will immediately tune you into the feeling of relaxation.  When you are feeling really relaxed, you will also experience the color blue in a very different way.

Being relaxed and changing your perception of the blues will not only help you but it will help the care recipients.  That person will begin to sense the increased peace in your presence.

Dr. Marie DiCowden, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of The Biscayne Rehabilitation Institute in Aventura, FL, which offers classes in meditation.  From Caregiver.com newsletter (February 6, 2009)