How To Create Mindful Mandalas

Drawing mandalas can be a simple creative way to connect to your spirits voice or intuition, they also offer up peace, stillness, mindfulness and beauty. 

The “circle with a center” pattern is the basic structure of creation that is reflected from the micro to the macro in the world as we know it. It is a pattern found in nature and is seen in biology, geology, chemistry, physics and astronomy.

On our planet, living things are made of cells and each cell has a nucleus — all display circles with centers. The crystals that form ice, rocks, and mountains are made of atoms. Each atom is a mandala.

Within the Milky Way galaxy is our solar system and within our solar system, is Earth. Each is a mandala that is part of a larger mandala.

Flowers, the rings found in tree trunks and the spiraling outward and inward of a snail’s shell all reflect the primal mandala pattern. Wherever a center is found radiating outward and inward, there is wholeness–a mandala.
Source: http://www.mandalaproject.org/Index.html  and http://www.arttherapyblog.com

I would like to share one way i like to create mandalas simply using pen and paper

Lets create one together

Step 1.
The first thing to do is make sure you are comfortable.
Then connect with your breath and let the mind come to the present moment.
Start with a small central shape, the important thing is to tune in and trust which ever shape first pops in your head, today i chose a circle, do this too for our first mandala together.

Step 2. 
Connect back in with your breath, with the moment right here. Choose a number to radiate around the centre, i like 8 - on its side it transforms into the symbol of infinity. 
Focus back on your breath, then choose another simple shape or lines and place 8 of them around your centre 

Step 3. 
Sit quietly and come back to your breath and keep tuning into your first thought. Very simple lines and shapes repeating around to create patterns. Keep to the initial number your chose to create harmony throughout your mandala.

After every round i come back to my breath, i come back to this moment and tune in. It is really important to follow your first thought and trust it, this opens you up to your intuitive wisdom, it becomes a mandala filled with your intuition reflecting back at you, rather than a mandala of second thoughts and self doubt.

If you have connected back with your breath but you are feeling stuck and unsure what shapes and lines come next, tune into your heart space and follow the squee! 

There is no way to do this wrong, there are no mistakes, there is no wrong way to create a mandala. So just trust each mark, each wiggly, wobbly, imperfect line and accept it as an organic thing of beauty filled with your energy.

This is not about "A" art, this is about heart and Art Love, about honouring the process, the creative journey, it is about trusting the wisdom of our inner voice and expressing it on the page.

The mandala size is only restricted by your time and paper size really. You can continue around and around repeating simple shapes and lines infinitely! Go with the flow and explore small simple ones and large intricate ones, create for 15 minutes or a few hours it doesn't matter, so long as you breathe, relax and go with the flow.

Enjoy!

Brightest blessings
Love faerie xx