Lessons from Painting a Mandala
Last summer, I saw a short on Instagram, a place I rarely find myself and this short was from Lauren Saunders of Love & Dots (https://loveanddotsshop.com/), she was showing a beautiful mandala that she had painted and talked about how painting mandalas actually helped her find clarity and a new direction in life.
I found myself thinking back to high school when I had painted last and how much I had loved it and wondered if I could quiet my own mind by painting a mandala. I signed up for Lauren’s initial course and ordered the materials to start but this idea collided head on with the other major decision I had made in my life of moving to France. I realized that I just needed to set my idea of painting aside until I was moved. In those final weeks of packing and trying to take everything I would need but limiting myself to three suitcases I had to face the fact that those art supplies were not going to make this initial cut. I decided to trust that there would be the right time.
Then in November on a Sunday which I have adopted as my quiet do whatever I want day. Since France usually shuts down for the most part on a Sunday and there are no shops open, very few restaurants and things are just quiet and slow. On this Sunday I saw that I had an email from Lauren, she was launching a masterclass membership for mandala painting. I decided then and there that with my new slower lifestyle in France it was time for me to return to painting. I decided that I would make room for those supplies on my return trip back to France after visiting my children for Christmas.
So once back in France and settled into my village house in Perigueux I began to prepare to paint my first mandala. Using Lauren’s courses as my guide I began to paint with my only goal to just quiet my mind, be present and have a project to work on when it was cold and rainy outside.
As I began, I noticed every small defect, but I decided to not get hung up on the defects, this was my first mandala, and it could be imperfect. It was freeing to release my expectations of trying to make it perfect, so I continued laying down the painted dots for each circle starting from the center. With the freedom for it to not be perfect I gave myself permission to try different things, pin drops of paint and then dragging them so they almost looked like tear drops or little swoosh marks. I lost myself in the process. There was complete quiet as my mind focused on each dot or thought about what I might try next.
After I had laid down about ten or so rows of dots I stepped back and looked at it and was shocked to find that when I stepped back to look, I didn’t see the imperfections, with the change in perspective it seemed to merge into a single piece that looked great. I was dumbfounded and then I thought, geez, wasn’t this a perfect metaphor for life. When I focus in on all the little details and pick them apart, I focus on what is wrong with something but with a simple change in perspective by stepping back and looking at the bigger picture you can see how everything is working together just fine.
I am loving my new mandala painting practice and I know this because each day I wake up and think of when I am going to carve out at least an hour of my day to paint and if I am too busy on a given day to paint, I miss it, I am thinking about it and planning for when I can sit back down and be in it. It is totally peaceful.
Here are the questions that mandala painting has taught me to ponder:
- Where am I expecting perfection from myself or others?
- How can I allow for imperfection?
- What would I try if I didn’t have to be perfect?
- If something is bothering you, sit back and look at the bigger picture, where in that bigger picture are things working out just fine?
Finally, some breadcrumbs of things I am noodling on.
- Exploring how I can share my planning experience with the rest of the world
- Connecting with Writing Wisdom again
- Exploring my own creativity
More to come on all these things as well as my continued goldilocks journey in France.
I blog because I love the process of questioning my life, questioning my beliefs and questioning the stories that I tell myself. If you want to question yourself, then subscribing to my email list will ensure you have an opportunity to do that. I blog about once a month so you will not receive a ton of emails from me, only what I hope to be the best questions that we can ask ourselves to move our life toward our dreams each day.
In love,
Renée
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