Centering

I'm often asked, how do mandalas aid in healing? I reply that when we focus and allow our attention to be present, in this case on the circle or center, our minds become centered and relaxed. They are at rest from the constant chatter that our thoughts create. It is why, I begin the mandala workshops with a meditation to help bring the mind into a peaceful & rested state. For those who struggle with calming their minds, creating mandalas can be a tool to help center them and provide a space for calm to enter. Using already designed mandalas are one way to begin to learn how to relax the mind. This way, you do not have to think or worry about what you are going to draw when creating a mandala from scratch. There are many mandala coloring books that provide different mandala designs, which can be photocopied and colored. I recently took a training where I colored in a mandala design using Crayons. The use of Crayons I was told allows us to tap into the child in us helping to eliminate the "shoulds" and perfectionist adult within us.

Here are a few mandala color books to get you started:

Enjoy in peace.

Everyone's Mandala Coloring Book, Monique Mandali

Mystical Mandala Coloring Book by Alberta Hutchinson by Alberta Hutchinson

Coloring Mandalas 1 by Susanne F. Fincher

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.