89. Mandalas, Art for Self Care & Protest Art

I've been looking around for inspiration, in my own artwork and writing, and then looking to others to lend some hope and inspiration right now. And then I remembered that I could be giving some of that that I'm looking for and we can work to inspire each other. I imagine that many of you are looking for some encouragement right now. This episode is all about the art of the mandala, which is a healing circle to contain your essence. And it's about what you might do with the mandala, the art you make and what you might do with that piece of art to support yourself and your community. 

Transcript

Welcome in. 

This episode might sound a little different, and I'll tell you why. I've been looking around for inspiration, both in my own artwork and in my own writing, and then looking to others to lend some hope and inspiration right now. And then I remembered that I could be giving some of that that I'm looking for. And I imagine that many of you are looking for some encouragement right now. This episode is all about the art of the mandala, which is a healing circle to contain your essence. And it's about what you might do with the mandala, the art you might make on the inside, and what you might do with that piece of art to support yourself and your community. Let me know if this resonates with you. You can message me in the show notes or find me over on Instagram. 

Welcome to the modern creative woman. I'm Dr. Amy Backos. I'm your hostess. And we are talking all about the art and science of creativity for women to live a life they love. This episode is all about what you can do to support yourself and support your neighbors and your community. And it starts with art. I want to give you a quote from Pema Children, and she's a Buddhist monk who studied here in San Francisco, and she writes prolifically, dozens of books, a lot about the use of the mandala. And I'll tell you more about what mandala is and what it means in a little bit. Suffice to say, it is a circle magic circle, healing circle. It's a universal in all cultures. So permission says everything that shows up in your mandala is a vehicle for your awakening. From this point of view, awakening is right at your fingertips continually. I want to strongly encourage you to take the time to make our reflect on what's happening in your mind, in your body, in your emotions, and put it down on paper and inside the membership. This month, we've been focusing exclusively on mandala art, and we're going to continue to do that and really excited about kind of the direction we're going into, which is much more consistent art making and writing in the class. And the mandala aspect of healing is just this incredible space in which to work. The circle creates a boundary for us to make art in, and it offers a container, a space, a receptacle for all the things that we want to put into our artwork. And I really want to invite you to do some deep reading on the mandala. Of course. Metatron Carl Jung, you can look at rose windows in a Catholic church. You can look at the sand mandalas created by the Buddhist monks. It is everywhere. Once you start looking for circles in the shape of circles, you'll see it everywhere in architecture, in art, you'll see it everywhere, I promise. Pam Holland states that art speaks where words are unable to explain. Art speaks where words are unable to explain. If you're feeling particularly frustrated right now, if you're struggling with what's happening in the world, I think the first place to begin is a little bit of quiet reflection on what's important to you, what your values are, and what you want to move forward with in your care of others, and how you support your friends and your family. So let's talk about a mandala. Mandala, of course, is a Sanskrit word, and it derives from the root bandha, meaning essence, energy or spirit. And if you put a lot to the end of the Sanskrit word, it becomes a container or vessel. So a mandala is a container for your essence, your energy or your spirit. What a great way to start off making art! And again, you can find this symbol of the circle inside Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, nature, religions. It's a shape that children draw. The living mandala is a way to reflect on your life to. Help you examine life and the breadcrumbs that life gives you to kind of have a look at, to follow what's exciting and interesting to you. And using the mandala as a metaphor, it allows you to keep moving inward towards your true self and in acceptance and commitment therapy, we would talk about that as the self, as context that we become the context for our lives. And mandalas can be used really to guide you on your path to knowledge, understanding something more deeply about yourself and what's important to you. It can help you with your patience and help you become more enlightened. It's a shape that you can really meditate on, and imagining that a circle is a place where spirit and mind converge in the artwork, drawing mandalas is all over in the literature. The literature about drawing mandalas shows that it helps ease anxiety, improve clarity of thought. It enhances your self-worth and your self-confidence. It's easy. It's simple. People really enjoy it. You can get a mandala coloring book and work with very sharp colored pencils, and that has been demonstrated to give you calm and peace. The circle is the container or our boundaries, and within that structure we can expand our awareness and we can enhance our emphasis on our purpose. Making a mandala is a universal activity. It is a self integrating ritual. That's a quote from Jay Arguelles in the state of consciousness, natural to the field within the mandala is that of self-realization or non-duality. This is a quote from Judith Carnell. And she goes on to say that such opposites, the inner and the outer, or the subjective and the objective, the male and the female, the matter and the spirit are really all grasped, connected and ultimately unified inside a mandala. That non-duality allows us to embrace the whole, all the parts of ourselves, the parts we like, the parts we don't like, are more stereotypically masculine or feminine ways of being a part of who we are and our spirit, and the matter of who we are and what we do and the roles we play. All of that can be integrated inside our mandalas. If you do one thing for yourself this week that could help you feel really good and strong and safe, it would be a mandala to create that structure and boundary, to give you a sense of feeling safe and secure. And then within that personal boundary of the mandala, you can begin to express yourself in a really powerful way. Pema children also says each person's life is like a mandala, a vast, limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle and everything we see and hear and think forms the mandala of our life, what goes around us. If you have not made mandala art before. I definitely encourage you to have a look. Do a search online. Grab some books to understand a little bit more about the mandala. You can look on my Instagram page Doctor Amy Bacchus. I've got a couple pictures and videos of mandalas. But let me give you the gist. It starts with a basic structure, and that basic structure is a circle. All you need is a pen and a piece of paper. It's fine if all you have is computer paper and your pen. It's great if you've got colored pencils, paints, watercolors. Draw a circle and then divide your image into four sections. And here's how you do it. You put a dot in the middle, and then you can draw lines to create the intersections, add colors, lines, shapes, whatever you want goes inside that circle. I personally love using watercolors for my mandalas and then using a sharpie to enhance outline, emphasize different areas, and the sharpie could be any kind of permanent marker. And it becomes important when you're working with watercolor that the ink you use is a waterproof ink. When you're done with your mandala. Have a look at it. I like to think of it as an art walk, where you put your mandala a little bit away from you, and you get up and you kind of walk around it. You could set it on the floor, set it on a table and have a look at it from up close and from far away, and really see what you notice about your mandala. Hanging the picture up and looking at it on a regular basis is really important as well. When you're done with your painting or drawing, write down three words or phrases that describe your art or describe your experience making your art or how you feel. And this part really matters. For bilateral processing, getting in touch with both sides of your brain and focusing on taking the abstract, the vague, the visual into another symbol, which is words. And the art is a symbol. It often reflects an unconscious symbol, but the words are more precise, and we want to be able to use both parts of our brain. So be sure and do a little writing when you're done with your mandala. If you're feeling especially inspired, you could send a mandala to someone you love, someone you care about, someone perhaps you want to inspire, to make change in your community and encouraging your leaders, politicians, supporting teachers, people that are taking care of you. Figuring out how to ask for change at the higher level, and be appreciative of people that you see on a day to day basis. I think it's an incredibly powerful thing to take a piece of your artwork and send it to the people who are in elected office, or people that you really want to support in some capacity, and let them know what matters to you, what's important to you. One thing that's extremely important to me I believe in the value and dignity of every single human being. And this was something that I learned from the Sisters of Notre Dame, and working with them and learning from them. It's one of their strongest values, that every person is worthwhile and they deserve dignity. They also have a a list of guidelines for their work that they do. And one of them is to value the gift of diversity. And in valuing diversity, we are open in whole new ways to creativity and possibility and learning new ways of doing things, experiencing the world in a new way. There is so much to be learned and gained by appreciating and valuing each and every single person. Maybe that can go on the back of your mandala art that you mail in to someone in a position of power. I was really quite cheered and encouraged to learn that Audrey Hepburn used to dance and give the money that she earned from dancing to the resistance to fight Nazi occupation where she was living. And I offer that story as a way for us to be encouraged to know that there are people who are supportive and working towards peace and harmony in the world, and we can do the same. It's not always a big thing that we do, and it can feel maybe like we're not making much of a difference. I really want you to know that your actions and how you continue to take care of your community and support the people in your community has a huge impact. The ripples of your kindness and the ripples of valuing the dignity and sacredness of every single person extend far beyond what we can see. Just matters that we keep showing up with kindness and compassion and understanding. That each of us contribute in a different way, and how we make meaning of our community and support the people in it looks different for everyone. If this work resonates with you and you want to do more. I really want to invite you to come join me inside the modern, creative woman. We're spending a lot more time using mandala as a tool to understand ourselves, and as a tool for understanding the world. The mandala is a powerful way to engage in self-understanding and using it to create the The Living Mandala, where we start to understand the impact of our life and the impact we have on others with more purpose and meaning. I think right now, times feel particularly heavy for therapists and teachers, counselors, social workers in making sure that the work we're doing still has meaning, and to continue to do the work we do to support people in their mental health, their behavioral health, and having a life that is interesting to them. That's part of what therapy does. Helping students learn to create a life that they love. And if you're in any of these helping professions, I just want to continue to encourage you to do the work that you know how to do, and that you are already making a significant difference in the lives of so many people, even if you can't feel it right at this moment. Know that the people you're serving are benefiting from what you're doing, and thank you for doing those things. So now that you know about mandalas, what will you do? How will you engage yourself in your artwork in a way that gives you a container and a space to put your essence, to understand yourself more, what you're feeling, what you're going through, how your body feels, and then what will you do? Going to the edge of the mandala and then interacting with the world in a way that moves us closer towards peace and understanding, giving dignity and sacredness to everyone. Have a wonderful rest of your week and take extremely good care of yourself. I will see you in the next episode.