For me Making Peace with Pink is the story of 2011. From the moment I understood and accepted the energy and power of the colour pink, my life changed. I now understand the saying “Seeing the world through rose tinted glasses.” After all these years of absolutely hating the colour, I can now feel the soft, smooth, gentle, comforting and ultimately happy effect that pink has as a colour. Just a I can also sense the soft energy of  unconditional or divine love that emanates from pink stones such as rose quartz, mangano (or pink) calcite, and my newest discovery, pink kunzite. After Romancing the Rose Quartz, I have embraced rose quartz like my long lost soul mate. At last count, my collection of rose quartz, currently housed in the relationship corner of my home, totalled eight; a year ago it was one meagre tumble stone given to me by Davina MacKail when she was teaching us about Dream analysis. That stone is still under my pillow. Blue is still my favourite colour and turquoise as a stone, I am always drawn to, but today I bought my second piece of pink kunzite from Venusrox; the first, a rough pointed shard, it seems did not want [...]

Last weekend was probably as close to hell on Earth as I have been to in my life. While Londonwas deep in riots, I was immersed in life with The Prisoners of Padua, who seem to be getting further and further from the edge of reality.  I woke up back in London on Tuesday morning, blissfully unaware of the riots and yet strangely calm and serene despite the tragedy I found in Italy. And not to mention the chaos  in Croydon that I subconsciously avoided with a “wrong” turn onto the M25 on my drive back from Gatwick Airport. Someone somewhere was keeping an eye on me. This same someone, however, threw The Raven in my path yesterday, an encounter that threw me more off balance than the mania in Italy. Although it was only today on my way to lunch, when I reverted back to my shopaholic tendencies that I realised something had thrown me off kilter. I had bought not one but two turquoise rings without even thinking about it. These two rings are gorgeous and original, and I would argue that one cannot have too many rings. That said, anyone who knows me knows [...]

Purple and I have always been friends: the smell of lovely lavender, amazing amethysts jewels, and fields of lavender or woods of bluebells that infuse me with a sense of tranquillity. In the garden, purple irises were always my favourite flower and bunches of purple freesias are a luxury I indulge in if I get up early enough to head to Covent Garden flower market or on a Sunday Columbia Road. Ten years ago, I adopted a newsletter with a purple masthead and prior to that had worked on the university paper called Palatinate; the name of a colour derived from the shade of purple used in County of Durham.  After a recent Feng Shui weekend workshop, a few amethysts, my lavender scented candles and a purple glass bottle found themselves re-housed in my bathroom. The North East corner of my flat is the area of wisdom and personal development and it needed to have the colour purple as well as images reflecting the nature of spiritual development. It was after this particular weekend that the colour purple, whose name is derived from the Latin purpura or porphyra in Greek, came to have a meaning to me that stretched beyond [...]

This week I roared at mum. I roared at people in the office and I have roared at a colleague in the US. Admittedly the latter pushed all my buttons when I was deep on deadline, but that is no excuse to let rip. In the last few years I have learned to leave (over) reacting alone and would have typically ignored his email interference until I had time to reply appropriately, or it became irrelevant. But it was only when I was getting ready to roar at my best friend about her 40th birthday trip I could ill afford after yet more taxes and my recent car breakdown that I realised I needed to stop and take a look at why I was roaring before some real damage was done. When my US colleague told me he had not seen me this stressed in four years, I knew something was out of whack. While I may have a valid reason to be cross, roaring is so unnecessary, even if being half Italian gives me a get out of jail free card. Most of my friends laugh off my moments of hot temper as genetic, but I have to [...]

The root chakra is the first chakra, which in Sanskrit is called the Muladhara chakra, and it is associated with the colour red.

The crown chakra is the seventh chakra, which is called the Sahasrara chakra, and for some is associated with the colour violet but for many white.

The brow chakra is the sixth chakra, which in Sanskrit is called the Anja chakra and is associated with the colour indigo.

The throat chakra is the fifth chakra, which in Sanskrit is called the Visuddha chakra, and it is associated with the colour blue or turquoise.

The heart chakra is the fourth chakra, which in Sanskrit is called the Anahata chakra, and it is associated with the colour green.

The solar plexus chakra is the third chakra, which in Sanskrit is called the Manipura chakra, and it is associated with the colour yellow.