by atmara | Mar 5, 2012 | Art, Healing, Mandala Monday, Mandalas
Author: Paulo Boranti
Like the rest of the global village, Indians also experience anger, that raw, powerful emotion that seems to take over our lives, consuming our thoughts.
Indian people use an art therapy technique, drawing ‘mandalas’, to help calm and express their rage in a careful and controlled way.
Mandala, is the Sanskrit word for ‘circle’. Within this circle the Indians say there are no rules, a space in which you alone exist. A place where you can let your feelings come out as a swirl of colours and lines.
The Times of India recently featured an article on how this process works.
How Mandalas Work
Participants find that once they finish drawing an angry mandala, they are tempted to draw a new, happy one, since their anger has been released through artistic expression. If you suffer from anger management issues, perhaps you should give it a try.
Participants like Manju Mohinani says:
“You get lost with the colors and the movement of your hands and thus you express yourself clearly without even realizing it. The best part is that when you do mandalas you are not thinking, you get so lost in the drawing. You don’t feel that you are working on yourself, its so easy and so much fun.’
Manju is a real advocate of drawing mandalas – it’s the way she as dealt with her anger for years, stating that she just takes out paper and crayons and lets go. Once the drawing is complete, she feel at peace with herself again.
Manju Mohinani
Drawing Materials is All That’s Needed
Drawing a mandala is very simple. All you need is a sheet of paper and a box of crayons or coloured pencils, the kind used in schools by children is fine. Mandalas are not an art, so you do not need to worry about how they look or whether you are doing them right or wrong. You’re not trying to create a masterpiece, the point of the drawing is to express how you feel.
Manju says:
‘to sketch an anger mandala , just sit and feel your anger. When you feel, it clearly takes up the colour that fits the best. Then draw a circle on the paper and let the feelings emerge on their own. Let them get expressed inside the circle, using whatever lines or colors that come. Don’t censor yourself and don’t think, just let go.’
Participants find drawing mandalas is something that is easy to do, and is a novel way of revealing your true feelings, break down some boundaries and show that you are in control. And of course, if you are in control, you can take steps to solve the problem that was causing the anger.
The Benefits of Drawing Mandalas and What They Might Mean
The primary reason for drawing a mandala is to be an outlet for anger, but sometimes people see a certain significance in what they have drawn.
If you do give mandalas a try, have a look to see if your drawings are full of ‘fighting spirit’, passion and frustration shown by heavy, jagged, red lines? Are the drawings made up of more gentle, softer colored, curved lines, showing you are more depressed and apathetic about your situation?
Red, brown or black are the typical colors for angry mandalas. The shapes and their position are also quite indicative of inner feelings. The overlapping shapes and black crosses and show a lot of anger. Anger spills over when your drawing extends beyond the confines of the circle.
Mandalas provide a way of dealing with turbulent events in our lives, providing an almost childlike way to express yourself and have fun. You might find that the drawing helps you understand a little bit more about the cause of your anger.
While there are plenty of other therapies, none are quite as much fun as mandalas .Using a crayon to scribble on a simple piece of plain paper takes us back to those carefree childhood days. It’s a satisfying and fun therapy. And remember, you do not have to understand your drawings, just the process of drawing the mandala is enough to relieve the burden of anger.
So, the next time you find yourself getting wound up, instead of grumbling and grizzling for weeks, just grab some colored pencils or crayons, place out a sheet of paper and let go. You will not only deal with your anger, but have a wonderful time doing it as well. And the best part, you will relish every moment.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/stress-management-articles/indians-use-art-therapy-to-reduce-anger-877125.html
About the Author:
Paulo Boranti has recently published his guide to job seeking, Job Hunting – Getting the Job You Deserve. Paulo is a motivational coach, who has run his own freelance consultancy practice for many year, and now passes on his knowledge online. Paulo also writes an interviews and jobs blog.
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by atmara | Feb 13, 2012 | Art, Mandala Coloring, Mandala Monday, Mandalas
Mandala coloring pages are getting to be more and more popular on the web. For a much better understanding of this art form, this post offers a history of the sacred art. From the Indian Sanskrit, Mandala signifies “circle” and is one of the world’s most historical forms of artwork. All mandala patterns and designs use the circle. The spherical shape represents eternity and nature, particularly the sun, the moon, the earth, and all points depicting life. In each elements of religion and psychology, the distinct kinds of mandalas can be found.
For religious purposes, mandala designs symbolized the world as sacred, and so does everything that exists in the world. Spiritual practices such as Hinduism and Buddhism used the mandala for inner peace and healing. Buddhists created mandala sand paintings to symbolize healing, and as soon as the objective is served, these paintings are then destroyed.
Mandala coloring pages are being used all over the world as a form of remedy. Mandala pictures and patterns are utilized to signify the wholeness of a patient as an individual. This technique of healing has been traced back over a thousand years of analysis and observation with babies having a preference of circles over other styles. This pertains to the ideology that people have an innate fascination with and want to look at circular designs. The generating of mandala designs and patterns as a part of a remedy allows people to collect on their own and recognize their part in the culture and in the world.
Mandala coloring pages come from any inspirations. One of these is the kaleidoscope. If you look carefully into it, you will recognize that all the patterns are symmetrical in all angles and equivalent with all the intricate patterns. Other kinds of mandala artwork take form in recycled vinyl data and compact discs as the foundation, and even dinner plates and fabric garments. Other people make use of fractal designs and geometry in creating mandala designs and designs. There are hundreds of internet sites these days that supply a wide selection of mandala patterns and picture galleries from which anyone can get inspiration.
If you carefully analyze a mandala pattern, it is noticeable that there is an image or a dot at the very middle. This is really the basis of the entire piece. This little dot or circle represents a seed, a drop, or a egg, which are both spherical or circular in shape. Its symbolism is that this is where the energies from exterior are drawn into. Apart from the designs and line patterns in a mandala, the colors also symbolize something. The most dominant colors in a mandala are blue, yellow, red, green, and white. Based on what you use for mandala coloring pages, each piece will be unique. Blue represents the delusion of anger which becomes the mirror of knowledge. Red represents the delusion of attachment which becomes the wisdom of discernment. White is the delusion of ignorance which turns into the wisdom of reality. Green is the delusion of jealousy which turns into the knowledge of accomplishment. And last but not least, yellow is the delusion of pride which becomes the wisdom of sameness.
Article Source – http://www.basearticles.com/Art/434599/24/Mandala-Coloring-Pages.html
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For sources of mandalas to color see my post 10 Links to Free Mandala Coloring Pages
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by atmara | Dec 26, 2011 | Art, Healing, Mandala Monday, Mandalas, Peace
The circle is a universal symbol. It appears everywhere in nature that we chose to look: sun, moon, rings on a tree trunk, in a bird’s nest or a lotus flower. It can be found in the iris of the eye or in the cells of the body. These are portals to the greater world, the unseen the Divine. Mandalas are a part of many spiritual traditions around the world. A major part of most eastern religious traditions, mandalas take the viewer into the mysteries of the mind in a wordless meditation. Usually in Buddhist traditions, the circle is enclosed with a deity at each corner, by absorbing the Deities into the unconscious mind, the viewer can shift their focus from the distractions of the outside world into self awareness, love and healing. C.G. Jung the famous Swiss Psychologist instituted the use of mandala in Western Europe as tools for integrating the psyche and accessing the unconscious. He believed that by putting personal symbols in the circle, the mandala itself had healing properties. In Native American tradition, sand mandala is used for healing and teaching about life and community.
In the realm of healing and holistic medicine, mandalas are powerful forms of transformation and integration. They can express anger, pain, grief, and sorrow all within the safe and sacred experience. Mandalas can show us where we have been and where we are going. The process of creating is transformative in itself. The process of viewing can take us deeper into ourselves, creating profound changes. According to David Fontana, PhD. Author of Learn to Meditation. “Their images speak directly to the unconscious, producing and experience of profound harmony and a mystical sense of oneness with the spiritual forces that they represent.” In recent years, Mandalas have been used to enhance Western medical practices. Linda Cornell, PhD., has been using this work to help people in physical crisis create symbolic healing. She used this in combination with traditional medicine when dealing with her own cancer.”Combining these methods proved quite successful. I felt happy that I had taken sensible responsibility for my part in the cure while working in tandem with established medicine.” A number of years ago I participated in one of her workshops, I was personally amazed and in awe at the healing that came through. One of my favorite exercises tapped into our own ability to heal, to be conduits of Divine Light.This exercise is adapted from her book, Mandala Luminous Symbols for Healing. Draw an 18 inch circle on black paper with a white pencil. Within the center draw a smaller circle. Next use a white pencil to trace the outline of your hands and arms inside the larger circle. Leave the center circle blank. Draw very lightly. Have your hands overlap or touch in some way. Now close your eyes. Feet flat on the floor, hands in your lap. Slowly take three deep breaths. With each inhalation bring in peace, joy and love. With each exhalation, release tension, stress and worry. Keeping your heart and mind open, imagine bringing a golden light down through the top of your head, the Divine Life Force through your head, neck and shoulders, arms, into your hands and fingers. Concentrate on this beautiful divine light moving through your body, your lungs, your heart, your other organs. Feel the warmth and healing light moving into your pelvis, down your legs and into your feet and toes. Continue directing this love energy into all the cells of your body. Know that you have the ability to radiate health and happiness, love and peace at any moment into the essence of who you are. Imagine the Divine Light coming through your hands and fingers as vibrant good health. When you feel or have an image of vibrant good health open your eyes.Take your white pencil and draw the vibrant good health image in the center circle. Then draw the Divine Light coming from your fingers. When you have finished your drawing, step back from it. Spend a few minutes just looking, contemplating the possibility that the answers are always within you. There is a life force within each of us that can be accessed and used to transform our lives. Remember you have the ability to heal yourself. The final part of this exercise is to write an affirmation affirming your good health. I am healthy, whole and complete. I listen with love to my body. The answers are within me.
About Author : Rae Luskin, a Chicago artist, teacher, activist and the author of ART FROM MY HEART, is a leader in using creative expression to foster self-worth, resilience, healing and social change. For more information, visit our site : www.raeluskin.net
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