This email is going out as I drive home from an epic camping weekend in Cederberg Wilderness Area, three hours north of where I’m staying in Cape Town.
I stole these photos off of Google, because I’m out of cell range. If you want to see my actual photos, follow my Instagram – I’ll probably post them there.
Coincidentally, I had an intense nightmare about the planet before leaving. Actually, not quite a nightmare – that’s more associated with fear. Is there a word for experiencing intense grief during a dream? (ChatGPT suggested ‘drerning’: dream + mourning — I’ll stick with that.)
In this drerning, I saw how viscerally alive the planet was — the dung beetles struggling to heave turd piles up a sand dune, the ferns purposefully unfurling to take a whiff of spring time, the fish actively enjoying their gravity-defying stunts in the water. I saw how each one had a unique perspective. They were a contributing eye on our world. I felt immense sorrow watching humans unknowingly hurt these beings.
Having just been in Dubai where natural landscapes are minimal, it is a breath of fresh air (literally) to see the plants and wildlife thrive so completely here. This planet remains untamed, vast. I am once again humbled and grateful.
I hope you enjoy this week's {Body} • {Mind} • {Soul} Newsletter and have a beautiful Sunday, - Ethan ॐ
Ethan Hill Owner, Yoga with Ethan
Colors impact on your body
In yogic philosophy, everything in manifest reality is light — varying densities and frequencies of the same fundamental luminous energy. Matter itself, according to this view, is simply light vibrating at lower frequencies, condensed into apparently solid form (crystallized light).
Modern science confirms aspects of this, though in more mechanistic terms. Light isn't just visual information — it's electromagnetic energy that directly influences your physiology. When photons of specific wavelengths enter your eyes (or hit your skin), they trigger cascading neurological and hormonal responses affecting everything from alertness to digestion to emotional regulation.
Three examples:
Red and warm-toned wavelengths (amber, orange, red) signal evening or firelight to your body. These longer wavelengths correspond to the lower chakras—root and sacral — grounding you and allowing natural melatonin production. They permit your parasympathetic nervous system to become dominant as darkness approaches. Yogis associated red with earth element, stability, and the body's connection to material reality.
Blue wavelengths, particularly around 480nm, are interpreted by your brain as "daytime." Specialized photoreceptors detect blue light and suppress melatonin while maintaining cortisol levels, keeping you alert and active. Yogis associated blue with the throat chakra and ether element — the realm of communication and subtle perception. During daylight hours, this activating quality supports mental clarity and expression. After sunset, it disrupts your natural sleep-wake cycle.
The yogic and Daoist traditions teach that violet and white light correspond to the crown chakra — pure consciousness itself, the source from which all other wavelengths emerge and to which they return. Interestingly, full-spectrum sunlight, which appears white, contains all visible wavelengths simultaneously, offering complete energetic information to your system.
Practice Step-by-step instructions to turn theory into healing.
Morning sun gazing practice: Within the first hour after sunrise (when UV levels are safe), spend 5-10 minutes gazing softly toward the sun with eyes open or closed. This ancient yogic practice calibrates your circadian rhythm while providing what practitioners describe as “direct prānic absorption”.
Eliminate blue light after sunset: Install warm amber bulbs (2700K or lower) in evening spaces. This honors the natural cycle of light.
Observe light as information: Throughout your day, notice not just what you see but how different lighting makes you feel energetically. Fluorescent office lighting versus natural sunlight versus candlelight — each communicates different information to your system.
Practice ‘trataka’ with colored flames: Light candles of different colors and practice candle-gazing meditation. This traditional yogic technique combines the benefits of steady-gaze meditation with specific color frequencies.
Whether you interpret light through the lens of modern neuroscience or ancient yogic wisdom, the principle remains: you are a light-responsive being in constant communication with the electromagnetic spectrum surrounding you. Honoring this relationship supports both physiological health and (what yogis would call) energetic alignment.
I mentioned last week how thoughts are the strongest drug in the world. They lure us into sweet promises of fame and fortune, distorted fears of dread and destitution.
Getting clean from them is quite a journey. In fact, getting clean from compulsive thought patterns is the Journey.
Sobriety from thought addiction hinges entirely upon (1) your desire to do so and (2) your ability to value other things beyond your narratives.
Let me say it another way: you are addicted to thinking because (1) you like the feelings thoughts give you, and (2) thus value them as your primary tool for navigating the world.†
The first point is very hard to overcome; it is virtually impossible not to find pleasure in the highs a thought offers! My suggestion, then, is to stop placing stock in them from the outset (the second point). This has helped me immensely. Stop believing your own narratives have your best interest at heart!
Once that belief is fully installed in your mind — once you actually stop taking your stories so seriously — here's what you can expect during meditation sessions going forward:
A thought or belief is noticed spontaneously. You cannot force yourself into noticing them. Again, the only way to create conditions where noticing happens more frequently is by devaluing the thoughts to begin with. The less you value compulsive narratives, the more naturally you'll catch yourself thinking them.
Once a thought is seen, you're given a binary choice — engage or not; identify with it or let it pass.
Identification comes fast and hard, leading to more suffering and entangling your sense of self back into the mental dream.
If you choose to "let pass," expect a wave of emotionality to crash directly after. Whether the thought was terrible or wonderful, disidentifying comes with a crash — the sudden recognition that the entire mental drama was nothing but a dream. This emotionality is withdrawal. This is the detox. There's no way around it.
All in all, the process gets easier. Once you realize that the half-life of a thought's affect is very short (in my experience, less than 20 seconds most of the time), it becomes much easier to bear, especially knowing you're becoming more liberated with each disidentification.
†You might wonder, "But don't I need thoughts to solve problems?" The answer is no. Intuitive action and present-moment awareness handle what compulsive mental narratives cannot. Problem-solving happens; obsessive thinking does not need to.
Meditate Bite-sized audios to help you become the master of your mind.
"You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.” — Hermann Hesse
You fear a dark attic because you cannot see what it contains, and thus create stories of the dangerous ghosts inside.
So, too, internally. There is a murky, unexplored mystery within you — one that contains the library of your wrongdoings; your accumulated storehouse of karma and sin.
Those ghosts of your past whisper terrifying ideas in your ear: “You are unforgivable.” “You cannot change.” “You will never find what you are looking for.”
And you believe them? Would you really let a shadow keep you from heaven? Look, see, repent, let go. Then walk away reborn — in harmony with who you've always been.
Journal Contemplative questions on the nature of inner freedom.
Hesse says people are afraid because they've never owned up to themselves. Identify one truth about yourself—a mistake, a wound you've caused, a pattern you're ashamed of—that you've been running from. What would "owning up" to this actually look like? What becomes possible on the other side of that honest reckoning?