I’m visiting Hemla to uncover connection between UTI and anxiety. “Choose 5 bottles with your left hand”, said Hemla, “and place them in any order on the table.” This is how every session of Color Therapy begins. 

Hemla creates her color ranges herself. Each bottle has water, essential oils and crystals.You can pick from any of the 66 bottles that together amount to the whole color spectrum. Each color is represented by several bottles with subtle color variations (lighter, darker, more intense). Surprisingly, I felt a strange connection with one shade of yellow and had an almost repulsive feeling towards another slightly different color of yellow. Per Hemla, this strange attraction toward a small bottle filled with a colored substance is expected during the Color Therapy session.

The shades of color that you pick will provide an insight into what you may be feeling or experiencing. Hemla explains: “Sometimes you may not be aware of what it is that you feel so color is powerful in that it  helps to bring emotions from the subconscious to the conscious.”

After you chose “your colors”, Hemla interprets the esoteric meaning of each color and the conversation goes places. You find yourself discussing long forgotten stories from your childhood, your family issues or things that are tormenting you today. The conversation develops naturally, and each color that you picked is a key that unlocks more associations, brings up more memories, and helps you to connect with your subconsciousness.

Hemla’s approach to therapy

Hemla is from South Africa and she has always been fascinated by color. In her 20th, while studying fine arts, she met her first Color Therapy mentor who taught her the meaning of colors. Color Therapy became her main therapeutical modality and she later studied Reiki, Quantum Energetix, Regression, and Family constellations.

Hemla believes that all diseases start in the subconsciousness. An illness is your body’s way of getting you to look at something that you might not have been aware of (a spiritual issue or emotional trauma). UTI and problems with reproductive system, for example could be linked to anxiety and unrealized anger. 

“I don’t look at UTI as a main problem” she says. “There is always more to it than just symptoms of physical body.”

Are you unhappy with yourself? With your partner? Are boundaries in your relationships respected? Can you say NO? These are the questions that Hemla suggests that women with chronic UTI should explore more.

Hemla shared an example of a patient who went to the bathroom 6 times during a one hour of Color Therapy session. Her anxiety, that she was not recognizing, was manifesting itself through the urgency to urinate. Through the work with Hemla she learned how to set boundaries in her relationships, that reduced anxiety, and that in turn relieved her of the chronic symptoms of urgency.

“Even though the symptoms could be the same, the path to healing is different for each patient”, says Hemla. But in general, there is a connection between urgency and anxiety, as well as a connection between inflammation and feeling of frustration and unrealized anger that Hemla suggests to explore if you continue to suffer from chronic UTI.

Body-mind connection and UTI

Here are couple tips from Hemla if you are suffering from chronic urinary tract infections and would like to explore the “body-mind” connection:

1. Be compassionate to yourself and treat yourself kindly.
2. Meditate on the inquiry: “ Why I’m feeling this way?” and observe the answers that come up. Be patient and give yourself plenty of time to tune into your subconsciousness to learn the answers.
3. When meditating, imagine yellow light around your belly to empower you. You can also add green light to heal you as Green is the color of healing.
4. Ask yourself, “What do I feel guilty about? What is the story I’m telling myself?”. Give yourself a permission to not feel guilty.

By giving up negative emotions you can heal the body from the inside out. If you are stuck and nothing seem to be working, trying to understand  the source of your stress can help you to heal.

Meeting Hemla for the first time feels like reconnecting with an old friend. She has an amazing ability to put you at ease and create a comfort zone around you. It feels safe to share and you feel understood with no judgement. In fact, she believes that “If you are judging, you are in wrong place”. The work that Hemla does is pretty unique and if you are interested to experience one of her therapeutical modalities you can connect with Hemla online through her website.