Creative Expression
Creating in and with nature is as ancient as painting images on cave walls and adding shells to animal skin clothing as both decoration and to convey symbolic meaning. Through expressive art, we focus on the process, not the end product to unleash our intuitive intelligence. Insights, revelations, epiphanies, and bursts of ideas flow through us when we allow images to simply unfold and speak to us. Like reflective journaling, expressive art is a contemplative practice that taps into our wellspring of inner wisdom to deepen self-awareness and guide us towards well-being and living authentically.
In most cases, creating expressive art with nature is ephemeral or impermanent. By creating ephemeral art we practice letting go to make space for the new.
Mandala Making as Storytelling
Mandalas are symbolic images that have been used by cultures around the world for millennia as a part of religious and spiritual practices. In Buddhist traditions, they can reflect both the movement from outer or worldly consciousness to inner, higher levels of conscious. Carl Jung, the father of psychoanalysis, believed that the impulse to create mandalas signified a time of profound re-balancing of the psyche resulting in a more integrated personality.
Creating mandalas in and with nature allows us to open the door to our intuitive energy and let it speak from our inner most being. The elements we choose as well as the design weave a story. When we reflect on our mandala, we can release hidden emotions, unleash our creative juices, and explore who we truly are.
Mandalas are most often circular because they represent wholeness and unity of self as well as the wholeness of the universe. Creating mandalas is a very subjective activity; each mandala you create will tell a different story. Although there are no strict rules, these two basic keys are most important:
Focus on the process, not the result. Mandala-making is a reflective practice more than an art project. Allow the design to emerge intuitively without judgement.
Create balance. If you divided your mandala into four equal sections, each quadrant would be a mirror image. Your mandala is a physical representation of your inner world: creating symbolic balance extends to creating inner balance.
