Mandalas

Creative Harmony

Psychologist C.G Jung had a practice of drawing mandalas to restore his inner peace. He had the insight that drawing in a circle helped balance dualities. The psyche operates in dualities or in the tension of opposites. For example if you have an area of your psyche/life that feels very repressed - you will have a corresponding area of your psyche/life that is overtly expressed. Where we have darkness in our psche we have a corresponding light.

 

When the patterns of opposites in our psyches become extreme in it's conflict, a painful symptom initiates the process back towards balance. Drawing in a mandala format helps you to balance or come to your creative and peaceful center. The mandala helps to unify the opposing forces of the psyche and bring about conscious creative harmony by drawing a center or mandala that unifies them.

 

Jung began drawing mandalas spontaneously to deal with his inner turmoil. Healing symbols are generated through the unconscious psyche to become conscious through the everyday mind. Mandalas are a universally embedded way to come to wholeness.

 

As Jung wrote, "When I began to draw the mandals...I saw that everything, all the paths I had been following, all the steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point - namely the mid-point. It became increasingly clear to me that the mandala is the center. It is the exponent to all paths. It is the path to the center, to individuation."

 

30 Mandalas in 30 Days

To begin your mandala journal gather up an array of pencil crayons, and fine tip felt markers in a wide range of colors. It is helpful to use a good sized sketchbook, at least 8 1/2" x 11" works well. Find a circular item to trace such as a plate or a tupperware lid - and with a pencil or a black fineliner trace 30 circles on each right hand page of your journal.

 

Leave the left side of your journal free to write your insights down. As you are drawing your mandala, words or phrases might spontaneously arise in your consciousness. Write your random notes and insights on the left side of the page. Spontaneous insights may come up from your unconscious mind as you draw and even if they do not make sense, write them down. Meanings and connections often come later when you are bringing up buried aspects of yourself. If you want to explore mandala making in a one to one therapeutic setting contact me here.

 

At the end of 30 days of making mandala you will likely feel more integrated. Write me at expressiveart@yahoo.ca and tell me of your journey accompanied by a picture of one of your mandalas and I will send you the e-course The 10 Minute Collage for free. I hope this begins you on a journey to wholeness.

 

 

Your Mandalas

 

"This 30 day mandala project has been an interesting and provocative challenge but this completion is yet another beginning for me.  I found myself to be particularly fascinated and intrigued by the boundary that was defined by the outside edge of the circle.  At times, I felt a need to move beyond this edge and at other times I was comforted by the opportunity to keep my focus inside the circle.  - D.M Kelowna, BC, Canada 




This is interesting 
and useful! 

I learned many 
new things 
about me.

Thank you! 

Irina