Download and color the May 2023 Mandala of the Month
“Express yourself,
— Madonna
don’t repress yourself.”
“Always be yourself,
— Bruce Lee
express yourself,
have faith in yourself,
do not go out
and look for a successful personality
and duplicate it.”
“I believe in finding
— Philippe Coutinho
somewhere you can express yourself,
play without fear,
play with everything you have.
When you find that place, stay.”
This month’s MotM encourages us to express ourselves.
Our challenge becomes allowing ourselves to express ourselves in our truth. Even more so may be determining the truth of who we are and learning how to express that. For many of us, especially for myself, we may struggle with this idea because we were raised to follow other people’s guidelines, their expectations of us, and dealing with social norms of which we may not fit into so readily. If we’ve been stuck in these “molds” for any length of time, it may be difficult to break out of the “mold”. Just take it a bit at a time, test the waters.
From Courtney E. Ackerman, MA. in her article “What Is Self Expression?” on PositivePsychology.com: “self-expression is, at its core, the action of expressing yourself, and it can take a wide variety of forms. You can use your words, your facial expressions, your body, your movements, clothing, actions, and possessions to express your authentic inner self.” In her article she provides 20 activities plus examples, including one entitled “Activities to Increase Self-Expression for Adults”. While some of her activities are geared for children, chances are our Inner Child could use more opportunities for expressing itself.
Probably the biggest component of expressing ourselves, is the fear of rejection (people not liking us, worrying about what others will think of us, being judged harshly, etc). Intellectually, I know that people are going to like or dislike me regardless of what I say or do, people are going to judge me regardless of what I say or do. Now I just need to know it in my heart, so I can free myself, to better express myself.
“People’s opinion of you
— Steve Harvey
is none of your business,
nor should you
make it yours.”
You may want to color this mandala several times with a different focus of self expression each time: ie, your personal life, your work life, your family life, your social life, your health (physical, mental, emotional, etc), and so on.
An Invitation
I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in a more self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”.
Feel free to share you colorings on social media with the hashtag #2023MotM. I’d love to see your colorings. I’ll be posting my colorings here on the MandalaoftheMonth.com as well as on FB and IG (@themandalalady)
Blessings,
Maureen,
The Mandala Lady
All Things Mandalas
btw…if you share your mandala colorings on social media, add the hashtag #MotM2023 I’d love to see them. I’ll be sharing mine on FB and IG (@themandalalady).
Mandala of the Month 