Mandala, image-circle - is an ancient form of creative activity that exists in every culture. A piece of paper, colored pencils and a bit of slack - so little is needed to feel the child's joy of creating again! Spontaneous drawing allows you to express yourself and reach what we hide in the deepest recesses of the soul. This is called process work.
Mandalaor image-circle, allowed the primitive man to express his unity with the world and faith in the existence of a higher, cosmic order. And by indulging in creative passion, it relieved tension and cleared the mind. One of the psychological techniques, the so-calledwork with a process .
The word mandala comes from Sanskrit and means a picture in the shape of a circle. It is the most primal image existing in any culture, often of a sacred nature. According to Karol Gustaw Jung, who introduced this theme to psychology, the mandala, as a sign of wholeness and wholeness, symbolizes the self and is the best way to reach the subconscious and communicate with our deeper self. Jung himself practiced the daily mandala creation for many years before using this method in his work with patients.
- With the help of drawing, we release emotions, we get to know ourselves and the world better, and as a result we develop our personality - explains Agnieszka Czapczyńska, a trainer from the Women's Place foundation in Warsaw.
Mandala: Drop the critic's vote
Eight women came to the workshops led by Agnieszka. The topic of the meeting is relations in our relationships. We sit in a circle on the floor, on comfortable cushions, and look with some anxiety at the colorful cardboard boxes and pastels lying in front of us. Which card will I choose? What crayons? My head is empty, I can't draw. - It does not matter. No talent is needed here - the trainer calms down and asks us to close our eyes. We start out with a short mind-calming exercise. The point is to forget about problems, be only here and now. I breathe calmly. I let my thoughts flow freely through my mind without stopping any of them. “This introduction is very important. The image is supposed to arise spontaneously, without the participation of consciousness. Therefore, you must first clear the field of unnecessaryvoices that everyone has in mind. We are culturally oriented towards the outside world and we constantly listen to our inner critic who tells us what to do and think. So it is important to feel your body, your emotions, determine the place where I am at the moment. Only when we are so quiet do we reach for crayons - says Agnieszka.
Mandala: feel the joy of creating
Amazing, but after this short meditation, I choose the yellow cardboard without hesitation. I start drawing a circle with a blue crayon. At first hesitantly, then a bit bolder. I reach for more crayons: red, white, pink, navy blue … Smaller circles appear inside my circle, spiraling towards the center. I draw more and more confidently. After a while, I start rubbing the pastels with my fingers, enjoying it like a child. From time to time I glance at my neighbors. Apparently, each of them feels a similar joy in creating. I draw without thinking, instinctively. From the center of my mandala I draw pink rays that pierce the outer rim. With sweeping movements, I thicken the circle. I can't get over the passion I put into my drawing …
- The very moment of drawing is healing, because apart from being pure pleasure, it allows various things to emerge that would not normally appear. We reveal hidden emotions without self-censorship - the trainer explains. We put the drawings on the carpet, waiting impatiently for interpretation. Here, however, comes the surprise: Agnieszka does not make a diagnosis. Guided by the trainer's questions, we talk about our mandalas. We have a chance to understand their hidden meaning.
ImportantMandala good for hyperactive children
The therapeutic importance of the mandala was appreciated by Karol Gustaw Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist, founder of analytical psychology. Observing this type of creativity in young patients, he stated that painting pictures in the form of a circle allows a child to go into a state of deep relaxation, even meditation. Peace and relaxation achieved in this way regenerates the psyche and sensationally alleviates the physical symptoms of stress. Contemporary psychotherapists and educators use this method - and with very good results - incl. at work with psychomotor hyperactive children. The mandala makes the inhibition processes dominate over the stimulation processes. As a result, the concentration of attention improves, and the child can perform tasks with greater persistence and consistently pursue the goal. Mandala also reduces the number of episodes of violent behavior, so it is sometimes used in working with aggressive children.
Mandala: see your shadow
- Working with a drawing is often narrowed down inpsychological practice for diagnostic purposes. I help to reach the individual symbolic code by means of which the hidden in the subconscious is revealed. But everyone has to go through the path to understanding alone - says Agnieszka. So my task is to find in the drawing what irritates me the most, what I consider the most foreign. I am thinking about my mandala. I don't think I like that navy blue hoop that I was drawing so stubbornly. Yes, she irritates me the most by far. But what does it mean? - The least accepted element of the drawing symbolizes the part of ourselves with which we have no conscious contact - explains Agnieszka. - This is the part of us that is the farthest from our identity, that is, from how we perceive ourselves and how we want to be perceived by others. Because identity is only a part of ourselves, a kind of suit that we fit into and which deprives us of contact with our full potential. Each of us has many more possibilities than those we use every day. The moment of finding this lost part and integrating it with the identity is precisely the task of these workshops. I am trying to answer the question of what is a thick rim in my mandala. The wall that separates me from the world and which I would like to get rid of? I wonder what that might mean in terms of my relationships with other people. Bow? Need approval? I realize that this wall does not have to be the enemy at all. Maybe it defends my limits, defines my individuality? I am starting to like her, although I still like the pink rays shyly coming out.
Mandala: turn negative into positive
- Once, also during a relationship workshop, a woman drew a mandala cut in half. One part was cheerful, warm, "smiling"; the second - cool and distant. It was this division that she did not like the most. She found herself two-faced and liked herself as a kind, caring and sacrificial person. In the course of work, we changed her negative way of thinking about herself. This woman understood that she does not have to be always soft and warm, that she has the right to be closed and distanced in her relationship with another person. She realized that there could be both such and such. She learned to say "no", she became more assertive and, as it turned out, she needed this dramatically in her life - recalls Agnieszka. The purpose of working with the process is to tame the part of our potential that we cannot use because it does not fit into our image of ourselves. Someone who, for example, sees himself as a calm person, displaces more aggressive features. What happens when we block access toany part of your "me"? Energy that finds no outlet turns against us and causes many problems. We fall into conflicts, we have problems in relationships, we get sick. That is why it is so important to reach out to the rejected aspects of yourself and integrate them with your identity.
- We are whole. That part of your personality that you don't like is also you. If you try to look at it without judgment, look at it as a friend and not as an enemy, it will turn out to be a very important aspect of your “me” - explains Agnieszka. If we want the mandala to be a therapy, we must have a guide psychotherapist. But if it is to help us in personal development, we can follow this path on our own. Just stopping on the run and devoting several minutes a day to calm down and creative work is enough practice. After some time, we start to learn our language, understand more and more and accept ourselves better and better.
ImportantIn the depths of the soulWorking with a drawing gives you the opportunity to quickly and deeply penetrate into the recesses of the subconscious. It allows you to combine the various pieces that we make up together. It restores to us what we have lost through upbringing, cultural stereotypes or traumatic experiences from the past. Thanks to this, everyone who chooses this path has a chance to become a full, self-aware, integrated person. Creating a mandala is just one of the many tools in working on personality development, but it is an effective and fun tool.
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