Mandala drawing became hugely popular recently during the pandemic. Not only as an art form but even as a form of meditation, as a way of therapy. Yes, mandala meditation is not a myth, it’s as real as Earth being an ellipsoid. Doable at home, full of simple steps and varying benefits. Are you ready to start your colorful journey?
Mandala means ‘circle’ in Sanskrit and depicts the life of a man, i.e. a limitless and boundless circle with different features.
It has been used as a form of meditation since ancient times. In modern times, it has become a way of therapy that heals anxiety, stress, and self-doubts.
Now you may ask, How? How is it possible that an art form has so many healing properties? How does mandala meditation work?
Well, you’ll get answers to all of these questions in this blog.
Several psychologists have found mandalas as a form of self-expression that soothes your mind, reduces anxiety, stress, and pain, eases depression, promotes sleep, and boosts the immune system.
Carl Jung was the first psychologist who used mandalas in therapy. He found that drawing mandalas had a calming effect on patients which in turn facilitated psychic integration.
Thus, let’s get into learning more about this whole concept of mandala meditation and understand better about it:
Mandala Meditation: 3 Important Tips to Ease Your Stress With it
Mandala is a form of art, expression, meditation, and prayer; it is a whole different world.
With its unique, never-ending geometric pattern, it depicts that human life is never-ending. All the emotions are eternal, be it happiness, or sadness, they start all over again, like a never-ending loop.
As you learn the significance of this never-ending loop, what you gain is compassion and wisdom. A never-ending one.
3 Tips to Start Your Journey With Mandala Meditation:
1. Start with your WHY
Start with finding your reason for starting this practice, it can be any of the above-mentioned ways in which a mandala helps you.
When you’ve found your ‘WHY’, start drawing, stick to your why, and think about it throughout the process.
2. Don’t strive for perfection at first
You won’t become a perfectionist at first, you don’t even need to have perfection at all in the entire process.
Your mandala may not be as appealing as other Mandalas. The last thing you have to think about is comparison with others. What’s yours is yours, no matter good or bad. It reflects your mind’s state.
What you need is to make something unique of your own, what you see in your surroundings, what you can think of, what you have in your mind.
No matter if the ending is perfect or not. You need to be content, not perfect on the way.
3. Go as far as you can, don’t overburden yourself
You can leave a mandala unfinished if you feel it’s too much to finish it in one sitting.
There is no compulsion for you to complete it at once, you can pick it up again after some time the next day, or whenever you feel like completing it.
Do it at your own pace, at your comfort. After all, it’s to make you feel better, not to make you feel further burdened.
What are the 3 Types of Mandalas?
Although Mandalas can be different, based on its structure or design. There are 3 major types of Mandalas based on Tibetan Buddhist culture.
They divided mandalas based on their purpose into sand mandala, healing mandala, and, the teaching mandala.
1. Sand Mandala
Sand mandalas are huge mandalas made of colored sand that take weeks to complete by several monks.
Tibetan Buddhist culture involves the creation and destruction of this mandala to depict detachment from the materialistic possessions in life.
It depicts that all human emotions based on external factors are transitory. All the material possessions are transitory, what’s eternal is what’s within the human body and mind.
2. Healing Mandala
Healing Mandalas are used for meditative purposes and are intuitive in dealing with a free mind, without any proper fixed structure or design. They drive your mind towards focus and concentration.
3. Teaching Mandala
Teaching Mandalas are specifically made by elder monks, in intricate designs specific to a message. The entire geometric pattern is a depiction of a larger message embedded with small details, all with meaning.
What are the Benefits of Making a Mandala?
Mandalas can be conducive in a spectrum of ways, be it as a way to come out of your art rut or acting as a meditative form. Here are a multitude of ways in which you can start spending your time with mandala meditation:
1. Mandalas Help You Reconnect With Your Art
If you are an artist and you don’t feel like drawing anything or can’t seem to have any ideas or you are just feeling disconnected from your art form, or you want to try something new. This is the art form you can freely jump into.
Mandalas are beginner-friendly in their simple form. Without the use of any fancy equipment, it is something that even a kid of age 6-7 can try his hands on.
My niece is an aspiring artist and she recently tried her hands at creating this art piece, which is not essentially a mandala but is inspired by one.
2. Mandalas Works as a Meditation
If you are someone who feels that meditation is not your thing but you want to practice mindfulness, mandalas can be your go-to method of practicing mindfulness.
Mandalas have a benefit in that they have been used as a form of meditation, as mandala meditation, but don’t feel as boring or strenuous as traditional meditation.
Starting as a single dot or circle and turning into a whole-scale art piece, it helps you focus on small things rather than focusing on a larger picture.
When you add on small things with time, it turns out to be a beautiful scenario as a whole.
The same is true with life, when you add on small things, small efforts, and small moments in life, life turns into a beautiful thing as a whole.
3. Mandalas Build Your Focus
If you feel like you lose focus easily and want something to help you focus, mandala meditation is a great way to do that.
In mandala, you focus on small details and small pictures or designs that capture your attention and focus. Doing this practice daily and then continuing it as a habit will help you build the required focus you need in life to achieve the set goal.
4. Mandalas Help You Reconnect With Yourself
When you feel aloof, unconnected to everything or just want a distraction to your anxious mind, try it.
Apart from keeping your mind distracted, it’ll calm your mind and help you focus on something better with a calming and soothing effect.
This way mandala meditation can also help you reconnect with yourself.
Testament:
Some of the people who tried Mandala meditation and healing were asked about their experience. This is what they said:
One of them said, “Whenever I see mandalas, they energize me, comfort me, and soothe me.”
Another said, “Mandalas make me feel calm, complete, organized and make my heart at peace as if I’m in full control of my life.”
This is what mandala mediation has done to several others.
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My Personal Experience With Mandala Meditation
My personal experience with mandala meditation happened recently. My niece decided to create an art piece for her content creation. So, I also helped her with it. Though this is Lippan art, the initial artwork required drawing these intricate patterns which were inspired by a mandala.
The whole experience of this process was quite peaceful yet liberating at the same time.
While she created this entire art piece from scratch, from nothing but a dot, I also learned to create beautiful designs with my free flow.
Of course, I made a lot of mistakes within them but I learned something.
After drawing many of them, I realized that even if I made a small mistake within the drawing, it never reflected on the overall mandala.
Even if I drew a wrong design somewhere, it didn’t make the whole mandala useless or unattractive.
Instead, it added a human touch to it, that we aren’t machines and we are made to make mistakes. It told me that mistakes cannot define me, you, or anyone else.
You know, even a machine or computer can make a mandala, it’ll be perfect without any mistakes but it won’t have a human touch to it.
A Mandala With or Without a Grid: Which is better?
You can draw a mandala with or without a mandala grid, there is no compulsion.
A benefit of a grid is that it gives you a direction and a sense of measurement.
The other benefit is that it makes it easy for you to make a better-looking mandala, with perfect circles.
A mandala grid is a specific grid consisting of concentric circles along with division according to degree measurement.
How to Draw a Mandala Grid?
To draw a mandala grid, follow some simple steps, stepwise.
Step 1- Find the midpoint of your canvas or sheet.
Step 2- At this point start drawing concentric circles, and different radii, starting with low and then continuing to the size you prefer.
Step 3- Draw a line horizontally to the sheet, passing through the point.
Step 4- Using a protractor, mark angles at a distance of 10°/15°/20°.
Step 5- Draw lines passing through all those points.
Viola, your mandala grid is ready.
Conclusion
Mandalas are a package as a whole and a gift to us from Tibetan Buddhist culture. With being beginner-friendly, an art form, a healing form, mandala meditation therapy is a whole world within itself.
There are many people out there who started drawing mandalas during the pandemic and are continuing. Some have even adopted it as a secondary income source.
You can adopt it too, either as a hobby or even as a lifestyle, as you deem necessary.
I hope mandala meditation helps and heals you as it has healed so many others around the world.
