Creating Mandalas in Sickness & Health

Recently, I was under the weather with bronchitis and a flare-up of a foot issue. Not only did I turn to my antibiotics, vitamens, nasal sprays, tissues, and chicken soup, but I brought out my colored pencils and square paper. It was relaxing and calming to draw mandalas while not feeling much like doing anything else. I wanted to space to let my body speak. I let the pencils lead me and found for that moment in time, my illness was not in center stage. Creating my mandala provided a distraction from my sniffling, coughing and fatigue. I like to call it creative alternative health. Next time you're down and out with a cold, flu or other alment, bring out some paper and pencils and add drawing mandalas to your arsenal of remedies.

Mandala Painting Workshop

Saturday, September 5, 2009, I ventured down to Laguna Beach to take my first mandala acrylic painting workshop.

Paul Heussenststamm's studio is about a mile up the road from the coast, in a small brown building along route 133. Arriving an hour early, I drove down to the beach and looked out at the Pacific centering myself before the workshop began. At 10am, I walked into Paul's studio and was greeted with a hug and hello from Paul. There were already 3 other women there. I was told to pick a spot and pick a color to paint my canvas. I chose a pinkish violet color and began giving birth to my first acrylic mandala. This was a different process from mandalas I've created in the past, because we used a design already made. With the help of one of Paul's friends, we marked the center of the canvas and then placed transfer paper and the mandala design I chose onto the canvas. The next step of tracing the design onto the canvas seems to take the most time, especially if you choose a detailed and intricate design. As you trace, it is important to lift the paper to make sure the design is being transferred onto the canvas.

I started painting from the outside of the design and made my way to the center. The nice thing about acrylics is that you can paint over colors if you don't like them, or feel another color would work better, which I did more than once. The original pink seemed to become more pink as I went along and towards the end of completing my mandala I had had enough of pink staring back at me. Though Paul remarked that pink is the color of my soul speaking to me, I found I was not responding to pink and went ahead and painted over it with violet. An outcome I was very pleased with.

Paul's studio is adorned with his sacred art creations from a painting of the Chakra system to Buddha, the lotus and many more spiritual designs. I recommend the workshop to anyone who would like to learn more about mandalas and who enjoys painting. Paul does make his artistic suggestions known and will put a paintbrush to your work if he feels it will be helpful to your piece. That didn't bother me, because I was there to learn, but my art therapy training strongly frowns against touching others' work unless you ask first.

The cost of the workshop is $150 - $125 if you pay in advance and $10 for lunch. Check out www. mandalas.com for more information.

Internal Critics Move Aside

Many of us are haunted by our internal critic: the "shoulder," the judge, or whatever name you would like to give him or her. For those who try art therapy for the first time, who have experienced ongoing battles with these negative voices, a new process begins to take shape. Process versus product. It is difficult at first to move beyond the idea of an aesthetic and beautifully pleasing piece of art to staying in the moment with the process of creating. This is one of the key elements to using art therapy and how art therapy and an art lesson differ. Staying in the process becomes freeing and enjoyable when staying in the here and now is the goal. Clients many times tell me how much they enjoy not worrying about what their art will look like and just let what will happen happen. Here, we begin to see how our internal critic really works as its voice tries to be heard and as we develop a new voice that asks the critic to please step aside.
Learning to talk to your internal critic can be a daily practice that takes place in a journal or whenever you encounter the negative-thinking voice. Awareness that it is taking place is the first step. Acknowledging that it exists must happen before you can confront it. I tell clients to draw or write in a journal to practice working with the judgemental voice inside of them. When issues of perfection, or feelings of making a mistake arise, I ask clients to acknowledge the feeling, and try to stay with the process allowing their art to be what it wants to be. So, as you work in a journal, be aware of what is happening as you draw or write. Be aware of your reactions, and instead of doing what you've done in the past, try something new. Try gently asking the critic to please step outside, because, you know what you are doing and do not need his or her help. Continue to work with this process until you feel you can work freely and comfortably allowing the process to take place without judgement.