use art to calm your mind
18-Mar-2020 18:00
If you feel your mind needs a break from all the noise, fear and uncertainty of recent days with COVID-19 changing our lives. If you're fidgety and have done cleaning your home top to toe and having a good clear out of your wardrobe for when the charity shops open again.
I'd like to share with you a practice I started last year that may help calm your mind and while away hours during social distancing/lock down.
Mandala Meditations
Mandalas are such a good way to calm the mind, their repetitive nature will automaticlly put you in a place of peace. If you don't want to think about drawing your own I'm giving you these two free templates to bring to life with your own colour choices. They focus on plants and flowers which can also help us find our peace.
Print these templates onto A4 watercolour or heavyweight printer paper. Use coloured pencils, felt tips, watercolours, guache or even acrylic paints, whatever you have to hand. If you don't have any of these try different levels of shading with a regular pencil, cross hatching, dots, anything. You could colour true to nature, but hey, go with the colours you like and that make you happy. Print them out a few times and try different colourways. The point isn't in the finished piece, it's in the doing.
To get the most out of the meditative, calming nature of a mandala, work in a circle coloring the same element (or grouping) all the way around, turning the piece as you go, until you complete the circle. Then move onto the next element and do the same. You may need to let the paint dry so it doesn't smudge as you turn the work. Painting slowly and with consideration will increase the benefit.
These are hand drawn all the way around, not duplicated in Photoshop, so you'll see that each element is slightly different from the last. This is done so the final piece has a subtle difference which better reflects nature. Your hand painting will add to this quality too.
I hope you enjoy these and they help calm your mind and find peace through these challenging times. If you do and would like more let me know by commenting below or emailing me.
If you'd like to try your hand at making your own wild plant mandala drawings sign up above to hear when the instruction tutorial is available.
