May 2012 MotM

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While drawing out this month’s MotM, I kept hearing Neil Young’s song, “Helpless” and it felt like it wanted to be this month’s theme.

We normally associate helpless-ness as a bad thing. Merriam-Webster.com defines the word as 1) lacking protection or support and 2) marked by an inability to act or react.

With so much going on in this mandala, it can be a bit overwhelming much like our lives can sometime be at times. I know for me I feel most helpless when I find myself running around in circles, being pulled in every which direction to the point where I wonder what the heck to do next, feeling lost and confused…basically…helpless.

So what to do…what to do…what to do…in these often helpless times?

Breathe…go within…feel your heart…be still…and listen  (repeat as needed)

Every time I do this, it surprises me how quickly an answer comes to me. This also happens when I color mandalas.

For those of you who struggle with meditation or quieting the mind, coloring mandalas can be a great alternative. You can experience the joy and the relaxation that comes with coloring.

If you have a particular issue, set an intention before you start coloring to receive insights about it while you color…then just be with the coloring.

Instead of feeling helpless, reach inward for help…it’s always there for us. While you’re at it, bring out your favorite set of color pencils and start coloring.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully,

Maureen, The Mandala Lady

Be sure to download/color Section 5 of the 2012 Mandala of the Year.

April 2012: Relax

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Hopefully you found time to relax while coloring March’s mandala of the month…and more importantly that you can continue to find ways to relax from now on.

This month’s mandala asks us to be open to new ideas, new perspectives, changing how we view things, ideas, people, our thoughts, our beliefs, and so on.

We can start by questioning our thoughts and beliefs by asking…”is that true?…do I really believe that?” We may find that we thought something for so long that now we believe it to be true when in reality it’s a veil covering our real truth.

Think of all the times you say hello: when you meet someone new, when you greet people at your door, when you answer the phone. Sherlock Holmes would say “hello” whenever he spotted a surprising clue to whatever mystery he eventually solved.

What new ideas can we be surprised by? What new perspectives can we be open to observing? How can we open our minds to new possibilities?

Ponder these questions as you color April’s mandala of the month.

Coloring Tip #4

Taking this month’s theme into consideration, change your perspective in how you color. Turn the mandala around, find a different viewpoint. For instance if you were to turn this mandala 180∘, the triangles will point downward, giving the mandala a whole different look.

Even if you’re coloring something that has an obvious right side up and an upside down, turn it around to different angles. You may be surprised with what you see and end up coloring it differently than had you left it at its original perspective.

Be sure to download/color Section 4 of the 2012 Mandala of the Year.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully,

Maureen, The Mandala Lady

March 2012 MotM

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It’s come to my attention that we need to relax…to calm down and just be in the moment. Everything seems to be moving faster and faster to the point of being overwhelming.

So for this month we have a doozy of a mandala to color. It feels like a side trip to candy land on the way to the wizard of oz with all variety of fun shapes and objects to color.

You have all month to play and relax while coloring this mandala. Allow yourself to go wild with the colors. Think 60′s psychedelic! What would your candy land look like? Above all, have fun with this one.

Coloring Tip #3

Gather a group of your friends, siblings, relatives, grand-kids, or co-workers and color together…have a coloring bee (vs. a quilting bee or spelling bee). It always blows my mind how one mandala can look so different when many different people color it. When you’re done…put them up on display for all to enjoy.Be sure to download/color Section 2 of the 2012 Mandala of the Year.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully, Maureen
The Mandala Lady

February 2012 MotM

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(link to motm fixed 2/3/2012)

For me the year 2012 is all about transformation…letting go of that which has stopped serving me and getting to the core of who I really am and who I really want to be.

This month’s mandala of the month encourages us to go beyond the surface to that place that lies beneath. Any changes we make on the surface are just cosmetic. To really transform anything, especially ourselves, we need to go to the core of our being.

I can wear clothes that make me look healthier however until I face my issues with food, my body still carries 40 excess pounds. I can make myself look busy with my business however until I really look at why I seem to be stuck in the role of a “starving artist” (which is ironic based on the previous sentence) I will continue to just “look” busy while completely missing the mark of my idea of success.

Time for us to dig deep and explore the deep recesses of our being-ness.  What could use some transforming? What works just fine? What habits and practices are failing to serve us?

Ponder this as you color this month’s mandala of the month.

Coloring Tip #2

Take your time with coloring mandalas. You can allow yourself more than one sitting to finish them.  This month you have 29 days to color this mandala. Take your time with it and enjoy the process of coloring.

Treat it like a meditation where you allow yourself 10-15 minutes each day or every other day, to contemplate the topic of the mandala or whatever topic you wish. Keep the topic in mind as you color. Be aware of any insights or thoughts that may come to you as you color. Let it talk to you. Yes they do talk…if you are open to listening to them.

Be sure to download/color Section 2 of the 2012 Mandala of the Year.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully, Maureen
The Mandala Lady

January 2012 MotM

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Happy 2012, Everyone!

This month’s mandala feels like a call to action, which seems appropriate for the beginning of the year when we tend to make new year’s resolutions.

I find it’s one thing to make a resolution and another to follow through on them. In a recent email I received, it stated that until we actually commit to doing something, we’re basically standing at the doorway with one foot in and one foot out.

Along with lacking a full commitment, we also tend to create either ambiguous resolutions (get in shape, read more books, etc) or make them so outrageous that we set ourselves up for failure (run 20 miles a day, read 2 books a week, etc.)

I’d like to offer another option…how about we strive to find a way to do a little better today than we did yesterday. So rather than having 4 servings of carbs in one day, make it 3 servings. If we did ten reps of weight resistant exercises last week, do 12 reps this week. If we remembered to give a smile to 3 people today, then give 4 tomorrow.

If you have some big projects, break them down into smaller, more manageable ones. Instead of trying to organize the garage in one day and feeling very overwhelmed by it, do one section at a time. Before you know it, you can finally park your car in the garage!

We have 366 days this year so spread it out. Keep it simple and easy…baby steps. Come January 1, 2013 we will be way ahead of the game and in a much better place than we were today.

I heard Dr. Phil tell a guest once that January 1 rolls around every year regardless of what we do or don’t do. So would your rather be better off  or worse off when it comes around again? It’s your choice…it’s our choice.

Pick one thing a day/week/month to improve on and, as Captain Picard on Star Trek Next Generation would say, “make it so.”

Coloring Tip #1

When struggling with what colors to use, try using complementary colors or a variation of the complementary color.

1. red <-> green
2. blue <-> orange
3. yellow <-> purple

So if you have a lot of blue in your piece, add some orange.  Too much pink? add some version of green.

Please feel free to share your experience with coloring this month’s mandala. I’d love to hear about your progress and/or see an image of your coloring.

Be sure to download/color Section 1 of the 2012 Mandala of the Year.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully, Maureen
The Mandala Lady

Like the glass half full/half empty scenario, have you just  come from the mountainous region in this month’s mandala or are you about to head into them? It might be fun to explore both directions.

You can decide how this scene plays out. While mountains exist off in the distance, and the path leads to/from it, does it necessarily mean that the path actually goes into the mountains or does it go straight on by, offering a very scenic, close-up view of the mountains? You can decide. If you came from the mountain region, what was it like there? Did you climb the mountains? Were you alone?

You could treat this mandala like a dream and analyze it in the Gestalt manner of imagining yourself to be each part of the mandala to find out its message or meaning. For example, as you are coloring it, imagine yourself to be the smallest of the five mountains. What does it feel like? What color(s) does it want to be? What does it have to say about itself and its place in this mandala?

What about the path? Where are you in relation to the path? How are you traversing it? What does the path mean to you?

And what about the window that we see between us and the whole mountain range/pathway landscape? I find it fascinating that it looks like the peace symbol from the 60′s. Is this mandala telling us to follow our path from the perspective of peace? What does it look or feel like to you?

“The Path” offers lots to ponder as you color this month’s mandala of the month.

And be sure to download/color this month’s section of the 2011 Mandala of the Year.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully, Maureen, The Mandala Lady

August 2011 MOTM

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What’s in your field of dreams? Do you have a field of dreams? At the moment I have a backyard of weeds, with some tomatoes and green beans making a valiant effort to thrive regardless of the condition of our yard.

I admit I lack any real talent when it comes to gardening. I envy my friends and neighbors who do remarkable things with their yards. They seem to live and breath gardening.

Okay, I went a little off topic. This month’s mandala invites us to create a field of dreams, to make them a little more tangible than just mere  thoughts in our heads. Think of each ‘blossom’ in the mandala as a goal or dream.

What do you dream about? I have a few dreams that I tend to treat as passing fancies with thoughts such as “yeah…right” or “if only” or “impossible” … to name a few. It’s amazing how limiting beliefs limit my dreams from becoming reality.

So this month it’s all about planting the seeds of our dreams regardless of our internal neigh-sayers. Time to dust them off, take them from our thoughts and see them face to face. That’s all we have to do for right now. Just writing them out starts the ‘planting’ process. If you feel compelled to take any additional action towards making the dream a reality, by all means, do so.

I know we’ve held back from pursuing some of our dreams by taking to heart what  those close to us say such as “you don’t want to do that” or “you’ll never be able to that” or maybe we were the ones saying these things to ourselves.

Here’s a new response to such comments…”yeah, you may right but I’m going to go for it anyway.” Usually our biggest ‘failures’ are not from trying something only to have it not work out the way we expected…they become learning experiences. Our biggest failure is to not have tried at all. Just feel the fear and do it anyway. To quote the movie “Bounce”…it’s not brave unless your scared.”

So I ask again…what’s in your field of dreams?

Ponder this as you color this month’s mandala of the month.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully, Maureen, The Mandala Lady

MotM: July 2011

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It seems quite fitting (at least in the states) that “bursting with light” is the theme for July as we usually celebrate our independence (4th of July) with fireworks. They light up the sky with bright colors, explosions and beautiful starbursts and flares.

This mandala focuses on more than just fireworks in the sky…it’s about the fireworks in our hearts and souls. It’s that part of us that we all, to some degree, hide from the rest of the world for any number of reasons, with fear being at the core.

“Bursting with Light” encourages us to let our light shine…and more than just by a little. We only need a small spark on which to grow and shine light on our true, authentic self.

In the movie “Runaway Bride”, Julia Roberts’ character runs away from every man she’s about to marry. A clue to her reasons comes with her taste in eggs. It seems that depending on how her fiance likes his eggs cooked, she unconsciously adopts the same style. Later in the movie she decides to cook eggs every way she can to find out for herself what she really likes. You’ll have to watch the movie to find out which one she picks.

This movie offers a metaphor for our lives…are we making our own choices or letting others decide for us, consciously or unconsciously? Are we letting our fear of what others say/think, hide our light?

The time has come for us to come forward, bursting with light, letting our true selves, our true natures shine forth.

Ponder this as you color this month’s mandala of the month.

Also…be sure to check out Section 7 of the Mandala of the Year.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully, Maureen, The Mandala Lady

June 2011 MotM

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What does it mean for something to be “heartfelt”? By definition, it means to be sincere, open and genuine.

Are we living a heartfelt life? Do we go about our business in a sincere, open and genuine manner? I know for me, sometimes I catch myself being different depending on whom I’m with and what I’m doing…mostly because it’s scary to be and say and act how I really am.

Recently I started doing Mandala Readings (www.MandalaReadings.com) both on a general level and for individuals. I have yet to fully broadcast to the world that I’m doing them…of course now the cat is out of the bag, isn’t it. All the silly little fears about approval, rejection, ridicule, etc. have stopped me from fully jumping into the deep end of the pool with letting people know that my mandala art has taken me to a new and exciting level. The amazing thing for me has been that the more I do these readings, the more acceptance and approval I’m receiving.

I watched a video of a woman talking to an audience telling them that as soon as she accepted her “freak-ness”, that’s when she could drop the fears and limitations of who she was; it gave her freedom. She could stop hiding behind a false persona and finally be genuine and true to herself.

How many of us let the fear of what others think and say affect how we are? I know my hand is raised. When I catch that happening, I remind myself of a simple mantra…so what. So what if others think I’m weird/strange/odd. Because as many people who think I’m weird, there are that many and more  who fully appreciate and love who I am and what I do.

So back to heartfelt. What does it mean to live a heartfelt life? It means connecting more with our true passion, our heart’s desire without the fear and judgment that the mind often interjects. It means being genuine.

Yes, I know the fears will pop up. The trick is to recognize them, even talk to them. When we can bring them to the light of day they often diminish and can even disappear. I have this strong suspicion that most people who disapprove of others for truly expressing themselves, really harbor their own fears about being true to themselves for fear of the very same ridicule. How silly is that?

Two wonderful books that helped me handle fear are “Love is Letting Go of Fear” by Gerald Jampolsky and “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway” by Susan Jeffers.

So here’s what we can do. Start with baby steps, pushing the envelope a little further each time or we can be really brave and just take a flying leap. If we stumble, just get up, figure out how to do it better next time, and then continue onward and upward. Remember and adopt easy mantras like “so what”, “keep moving forward”,  “I can handle this”, and “it’s not brave unless you’re scared.”  Most people will forgive and honor anything as long as we come from a genuine, sincere, and heartfelt place.

Ponder what heartfelt means to you as you color this month’s mandala of the month.

Also…be sure to check out Section 6 of the Mandala of the Year.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully, Maureen, The Mandala Lady

May 2011 MotM

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How much of what we experience in our lives is factual? I know with our current state of the media, often times what is reported as fact is really someone’s opinion stated as if it was factual. Most people who watch it think “If it’s reported as news, it must be true.”

To take that comment on a more personal level, if someone of perceived authority says to us, “you’re stupid”, “you’re smart”, “you’re skinny”, “you’re fat”, “you’re ugly”, “you’re pretty”, “you’re a klutz”, “you’re a jerk”, “you’re a sweetheart”, etc”, well then it must be true…why would this person lie. All of those statements are opinions; and some can hurt. Statements of fact would be more like “you’re 5’2″ tall”, “you have blue eyes”, or “you weigh 150 lbs.”

How much of what we’ve been told over the years have we accepted as fact when in reality it is opinion? As a kid I spilled milk at the dinner table a couple of times and from that point on “they” called me a klutz…which I bought into and accepted as a fact for a good portion of my life. And yes, I have cried about it on a few occasions.

For years I hated meatloaf and declared it as if it were fact. Then one day, as an adult, I decided to make a meatloaf and found out that I love it! While that too is an opinion, it’s an opinion made after testing out my previous opinion. In another experiment I found out that “yep…I hate peas.” Still an opinion however I based it upon testing it’s validity.

A fact is black and white…it either is or it isn’t. Opinions, however, can change…and opinions vary based on perspective or context (one woman’s junk is another woman’s treasure). If I stand next to a person who weighs 102 lbs, I would be considered overweight. On the other hand, if I stand next to a morbidly obese person, I would be considered thin.

My father calls himself stupid because while growing up during the depression he had to drop out of school to help support the family. To me he’s a genius…and I make sure to tell him often. He can walk into a room and tell you how much dry wall it would take to cover the walls just by visually scanning the room. He can calculate in his head, in fractions, measurements for perfectly installing a door, building a house, making a wooden rocking horse, and so on. My dad considers himself stupid because he lacks book smarts. I tell you this, when it comes to carpentry and all things construction I’d go to my dad before I’d go to any professor at MIT. Being “stupid” is an opinion.

In my opinion I consider myself to be fat (the medical industry calls me overweight). However calling myself fat is yet another way to belittle myself and sabotage my overall well-being. The fact is, I weigh 150 lbs. Looking at it from a factual perspective, I can choose to continue to be 150 lbs or I can choose to do something different. Regardless, I am worthwhile and deserve to be happy and at peace with myself.

As we go about the month of May, let’s pay attention to the comments we make to others and especially the ones to ourselves. Is what we’re saying a fact or opinion? If it is an opinion, is it the truth? From where did this opinion originate?

Affirmation for the month: 

Even though I am (fill in the blank), I am worthwhile and deserve to be happy and at peace with myself just as I am.

Keep the affirmations in the positive and factual vs opinion. Examples:

• Instead of saying ‘even though I am fat…’ say “even though my body weighs 150 lbs…”
• Instead of saying ‘even though I’m stupid…’ say “even though I dropped out of school…” (or whatever the basis is for you thinking you’re “stupid”)
• Instead of saying ‘even though I can’t afford to buy a new computer… ‘ say “even though I currently lack the funds to buy a new computer…”

Feel free to share any affirmations you are using in the comment section.

Also…be sure to check out Section 5 of the Mandala of the Year.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully, Maureen, The Mandala Lady

*IMHO – in my humble opinion