Which color do you have?

March is a month of colors. When nature blooms with vibrant flowers and fresh leaves, we prepare to embrace the festivities that follow. The first big celebration is Holi—the festival of colors. Many mythological stories are associated with it. Holi symbolizes forgiveness, love, joy, and the triumph of good over evil. It serves as a reminder to let go of bad habits and bury old grudges.

Overall, it’s a grand celebration filled with love, laughter, food, and color. However, due to social distancing, most of us are not playing Holi or visiting friends and relatives. Here are some thoughts on colors—what they represent, how we hold them, and how we share them with others. It’s a completely different perspective.

Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.

” – Paul Gauguin

How do we apply colors to others? It could be with water or dry powders. We can only share what we have. If I have green, I can apply green to others—but not any other color. Whatever is in my hand is what goes to the other person.

Does this say something deeper about life? If you are upset before getting behind the wheel and someone honks or overtakes you, what happens? It’s easy to get irritated with that driver. You may not have the patience to think that they might be in a hurry and deserve courtesy. But if you’re in a happy mood, it’s much easier to give way to others.

What do you spread when you’re angry? What do you radiate when you’re in sheer joy? Whatever is in our mind, we share with family and friends—unless we consciously observe and become aware of what we are giving to others.

This opens up the question: What are you putting into your mind—knowingly or unknowingly? In this information era, we consume an unlimited supply of content through newspapers, TV, the internet, countless mobile apps, WhatsApp, phone calls, or direct conversations. The sources that bring unpleasant thoughts into your mind influence what you transmit to others.

One way to manage this is to restrict those sources—avoid them or build a mental shield if they don’t give you positive thoughts or feelings. If that’s not feasible, then we need to control the internal processing that happens within us. (More on being susceptible to negative influences will come in a separate blog.

While we spend hours feeding external information into our system, it’s a good practice to spend at least 30 minutes a day reflecting on its impact on our behavior. Maybe through meditation, introspection, self-analysis, journaling, or simply being mindful of your feelings.

An easier way to work on what we transmit to others is to assess our feelings. Feelings are the conscious experience of our emotional state. Check in with yourself, identify your mental status, and work on moving it up—layer by layer.

—Anitha KC

Images: @beckerworks, @seitamaaphotography, google images