While stuck in isolation, we’re all focusing on a few main goals including keeping busy and managing anxiety levels. Originating in Buddhist and Hindu tradition, mandalas have always had a way of helping us achieve both with mindful grace.
Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health’s Kathryn Costa is here to help, sharing her top 5 reasons to start a Mandala practice, and providing a downloading coloring book to get started, no matter where you’re hunkered down:
Relaxation of the body and mind. Given the recent progression of self-quarantining and social distancing, it is necessary for us to find ways to mitigate stress and keep anxiety levels at bay in a rather stressful period. Focusing on filling the repeating shapes with color gives our minds a break, eases stress and anxiety, and helps regulate sleep cycles.
Activation of creativity. This practice requires no artistic background. We use the same lines and shapes – vertical, horizontal, curved, diagonal – used to print the alphabet. Allow this activation of creativity to bring creativity to other areas of your life.
Improvement and enhancement of focus and clarity. Drawing mandalas requires a dedication of focus; your mind is unable to think of anything else. When we reach the coloring stage, our attention can shift to our thoughts and feelings. The process of mandala making allows for self-reflection and the acknowledgement of appreciation, intention or otherwise.
Centering and connectivity. The outer circle of a mandala offers a safe container to focus your thoughts, feelings and ideas. Traditionally, the shapes within the circle radiate from the center. However, a more contemporary design permits freeform and abstraction. Either way, patterns emerge which may reflect the centeredness and connections found within ourselves.
It’s fun! The joy emitted from this practice is perhaps the number-one reason to begin; witness art emerge from your own hands.
Kripalu Mandala Coloring Book – Anyone interested can also visit Kripalu’s blog for more information on attaining mindfulness.
Relax, create and connect with mandala art!Do you love coloring mandalas? You’re not alone! Adult coloring books are gaining in popularity every day. Do you want to learn how to draw and color your own mandalas? In The Mandala Guidebook, Kathryn Costa shows you how with easy instructions perfect for the beginner. You’ll find a wide range of projects, each with beautifully illustrated step-by-step instructions covering more design styles and artistic mediums than any other book out there.
Simply put, a mandala is a circle with a design in the center, but psychologists and spiritual leaders have used mandalas as a tool for self-reflection and self-exploration through the ages; they have intrigued cultures around the world, from Celtic spirals and Indian mehndi to medieval church labyrinths. And now it’s your turn. If you can write the alphabet, you can create beautiful and expressive mandalas! Journey with “100 Mandalas Challenge” creator Kathryn Costa to create spontaneous and spirited mandala art:
- Enjoy prompts and questions to practice self-discovery, gratitude, relaxation, meditation and explore your unique talents and artistic path as you create
- Discover 24 demonstrations with clear step-by-step instructions to master the mechanics of making mandalas–both freehand and geometrically symmetrical designs
- Explore mixed media and textural painting techniques within the boundaries of a circle using everything from a simple pen and paper to watercolor, collage, acrylic and stamped Gelli plate
- Get pattern inspiration and discover how to play with color using common palettes from the world around you
Set your intention and learn how to use mandalas to solve problems, let go of fear, lean into love and gain clarity and insight as you create!
Kathryn Costa is author of The Mandala Guidebook: How to Draw, Paint, and Color Expressive Mandala Art. She hosts the 100 Mandalas Challenge and has taught thousands of people throughout the world how to create mandalas in her popular YouTube videos, online courses, workshops, and book.
