Mandalas

Create Inner Harmony

 

Mandalas are way to come to wholeness. Psychologist Carl Jung maintained the practice of drawing mandalas for an entire year to resolve inner conflicts and restore inner peace. Jung thought that drawing within a circle helped balance inner conflicts and dualities. 

  

When the opposites in our psyches become polarized and conflicted, a painful symptom initiates our healing process back towards balance. Drawing within a mandala format can support you come to your peaceful center. The mandala process helps to unify the opposing forces of the psyche, and brings about inner harmony.

 

As Jung wrote, "When I began to draw the mandalas...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."

 

The Challenge

 

1. Number your sketchbook pages from 1-30.

2. Each day, for 30 days create a spontaneous drawing.

3. Make notes of any insights that arise.

4. When you are finished, you are welcome but not required to write to me (at shelley@expressiveartworkshops.com) with a few photos and a description of your process. You are invited to share your process (anonymously if preferred) on my website as an inspiration for others.

 

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. With a pencil or a black pen, trace 30 circles on each right hand pages of your journal.

 

As you are drawing and coloring within your mandala circle, words or phrases might spontaneously arise in your consciousness. Write your random notes and insights on the left side of the page. 

 

At the end of 30 days of creating mandalas write me at shelley@expressiveartworkshops.com and tell me about your journey, accompanied by a picture of 1-3 of your mandalas, if you feel like sharing! Or, tag me @shelleyklammer on Instagram and I will follow along! #30dayintuitiveartchallenge

 

Mandala Gallery

This has been both motivational and healing for me over the month.  

 

~ A. E California, USA

 

 

 

Thank you so much for this challenge! I expected ‘conflict’ and ‘hurting’ (i.e. Jung) but surprisingly the process has been a happy one.

 

I enjoyed it so much! Ideas kept appearing and it was fun to follow the pencil line/colours and to discover the final result.

 

K.L. Scotland

I started off the 30 days with drawing intricate mandalas with markers and gel pens but was quickly drawn to the playfulness of a brand new watercolour set I bought.

 

Although they were indeed fun and playful, I found the abstract watercolour mandalas to provide a more deeper experience for me as I delved into their multilayeredness.

 

Over the course of the 30 days, I found insights surfacing that helped provide clarity. The synchronicity of several of them were very amusing, like the universe reaching out and saying, "See, I told you so!"  ~ R.B.

 

"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

The journey of using mandala drawing for healing has been a telling one for me.  I have actually been doing this for longer and saw your wonderful site and offer.  Each time I face the circle on the page of my journal, whether I have something in mind or waiting for inspiration, I always end up with exactly what I need.  It is my way of grounding, of expressing feelings that have difficulty coming out any other way and it gives  my creative spirit room to breathe and grow. - Kehau, Honolulu, HI

 

It made me aware of mechanisms that otherwise go unnoticed. There was more fear/anxiety involved than I would have expected - different fears, different kinds of anxieties, anxieties concerning different parts of the creative process - like... would I be able to actually show up on page every day for the next 30 days, would I be able to keep at it, would I be creating something (interesting, nice) to look at or just something dull, the same usual stuff again and again, would there be some balancing or not, would I be able to "burn through" and not be controlled/held back by those "formal worries"...

 

These fears/anxieties would/could be connected somehow, could feed (into) each other, or trying to cope with one/tackle one would make one of the others stronger, sometimes resolving one helped resolving some of the others too, almost magically. Often I would rather need two attempts to burn through, those fears/anxieties & control mechanisms.  ~  Astrid, Germany