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During this busy time of the year, with screens lights galore, I invite you to turn off the lights for a bit and light a candle for your soul!
The constant light from our multiple screens and lighting around us creates a sensory overload to our brains. While we need these lights much of the day to work and function, we also need a break from them to preserve our sense of peace, not to mention our eyes!
Remember that for hundreds of years, fire was our primary source of light and focus. Only very recently in human history do we have artificial light to serve us.
If you shut the lights for just a few minutes and light a candle to focus on, the results can be transformative – for your body and soul.
Gazing at a lit candle in a dark room is literally calming on the brain. When we gaze at a flickering flame, our brain begins to shift out of our constant beta brainwave state, which is associated with reactivity, thinking, and alertness, into the alpha brainwave state, associated with a relaxed and creative state of mind.
Alpha brainwaves then become theta brainwaves, which are associated with meditation and intuition.
As a result in this shift of brainwaves, our mind becomes more relaxed, open, and receptive. This transformation happens during just a few minutes of gazing at a flickering flame!
This brainwave shift is pretty amazing. Whether you regularly practice meditation or not, the benefits of sitting to gaze at a flame with the lights turned out sets your brain up for a meditative state – without “doing” anything!
Our days are filled with computer screens, smartphones, and televisions. These images send a constant barrage of information to our brains, leaving little time to process and reflect. When fire becomes our focus, the mind is able to relax and process all of the information it has been taking in throughout the day.
During the winter months, candle focus can be a particularly powerful practice. The winter season, as the days grow shorter and darker, is a perfect time to turn out the lights, light a candle, and sit comfortably to gaze. Don’t worry about your mind wandering or “trying” to meditate per se. Just this act of gazing and allowing your mind to relax and disengage from having to “DO” will be therapeutic.
You may find that a candle has a presence of its own, a soothing energy that helps you just BE, and not have to DO.
