The mandala is an art therapy tool for making order out of disorder. Mandala is a Sanskrit which means “magic circle”. Mandala/ circular images have a widespread presence in spiritual or traditional practices of almost every culture in world.
Carl Jung, a celebrated psychologist saw mandalas as representative of the unconscious self, or some progress towards new self knowledge
He said “The severe pattern imposed by a circular image of this kind compensates the disorder of the psychic state–namely through the construction of a central point to which everything is related,”
He believed that it represents the total sum of who we are, circle/ Mandala incapsulate the conflicting parts of our individuality to come in some certain form of uniformity linked to that centre ( symbolism to the core self of an individual)
He found this sense of wholeness was reflected in the lives of his patients, as he was able to trace the progression of an individual’s psychological recovery by correlating it with the coherence of the mandalas they drew.
Jung said the urge for people to make mandalas emerges during moments of intense personal growth.
Why Mandala as an art therapy for anxiety?
Art making is a wholesome practice that can support our chaos, help in being optimistic, create a sense of achievement along with well being . It mushrooms are observation skills, expands the awareness towards details and further to self. Most importantly, it opens us towards kindness and self compassion.
Mandala can aid us when our emotions are total chaos and nothing really makes sense, when everything is overwhelming and exhausting. During these time of chaos, we need to find a centre and a pathway to this centre which help us recollect our scattered thoughts and emotions, and find a peaceful order among all the confusion.
Mandala is a perfect symbolism for that pathway. Anyone can draw a mandala. It’s a near perfect practice to achieve mindfulness after mediation. If you draw a mandala as a mindfulness practice, you will experience yourself getting relaxed. You will achieve a sense of connectivity with self. It helps you let know and understand that all your contradicting thoughts and personality traits ultimately are connected to your core self. They all collectively make you, YOU
I hope you find your core self .
Overthinking Artist 