{"id":1045,"date":"2015-06-12T15:45:15","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T15:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.healingicons.org\/?p=1045"},"modified":"2016-08-26T17:14:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T17:14:04","slug":"tranquility-practice-creating-radiant-mandalas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healingicons.org\/tranquility-practice-creating-radiant-mandalas\/","title":{"rendered":"Tranquility Practice: Creating Radiant Mandalas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Corporate<\/a>

Corporate Board Room at Lexington Medical Center<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a wonderful strangeness about meeting in a classic business boardroom for our Lunch and Learn series. A very large, stately, dark mahogany table fills the room. Two of the four walls are almost floor-to-ceiling glass. It is an elegant space that holds us well. This boardroom is transformed when we meet the first Wednesday of each month. Instead of left-brained corporate discussions, we hold council around right-brain, creative, soulful dialogs. We are explorers, healers of our interior worlds.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Circles of Tranquility and Peace<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Each month, we gather for a little over an hour. It is supposed to be an hour long, but we always run over. No one wants to leave. Our community playfully investigates methods to engage our imaginations in the hope that our minds will quiet and the roar of worry and concern will lessen. We learn a different specific technique each month, and our creative practices are usually contained within a mandala.<\/p>\n

\"Playful<\/a>

Playful investigation peels away our outer layers of stress and anxiety.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you are not familiar with the word mandala<\/em>, it simply means \u201ccircle,\u201d a shape without beginning or end. It is a symbol of wholeness, balance and renewal. Working within this shape allows us to intuitively resonate with feelings of calm, tranquility and peace. Our March post Calming Practice: Creating Mandalas<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0explains a bit more about this process.<\/p>\n

Beginning the Tranquility Practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Studies suggest that taking part in a creative activity is good for your health. Imagination helps us loosen the hold on things that binds us \u2013 the well-worn, entrenched habits that keep us frozen and overwrought. The more worries we can identify and let go of, the stronger and healthier our immune system becomes. Tranquility is a by-product of all of Healing Icons\u2019 practices<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

No matter what is going on in your life, who doesn\u2019t want to orchestrate their healing and move forward into a day that might just be better than yesterday? Who doesn\u2019t want to revive their spirit and learn to\u00a0live more frequently in a space of calm tranquility<\/strong>? We are here to tell you that anyone can do it. It just takes a bit of practice.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A simple clean dot represents the seed, the potential of discovery<\/p><\/div>\n

Our materials are simple \u2013 a blank index card, a pencil or a pen, and a scrap sheet of paper to record your feelings and associations on.<\/p>\n

We begin by planting a seed in the center of the index card, encircling it and drawing radiating lines and shapes outward. It is as if we are creating an abstract map of our interior life. As the relaxing background music carries us deeper into ourselves,\u00a0a quiet calm blankets the room.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Art to Words<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As we record the symbols and shapes we have used, our mandala\u2019s map legend is coaxed into existence. Intuitively, we begin to freely and uninhibitedly make word associations with our core symbols and shapes. Then we link these words together with other adjectives, adverbs and verbs into a free-style form of writing in which there is no right or wrong, no good or bad<\/strong>, just whatever appears on the paper. We trust the process.<\/p>\n\n\t\t