I’ve been drawing mandalas for a few years now, in front of my child. I have a young son (he is five now) so there isn’t much space to do things without him next to me. Hehe. He was curious to see what I was doing and once he tried to help me colour one but that’s it. This year, he asked me to draw a mandala together. He loves using the compass, the ruler and my other drawing tools. So we sat together with the tools and I let him start as I usually do, I didn’t give him to many instructions, I let him do what he wanted. I was curious to see what he had in mind. Once the grid was done. We started colouring and drawing shapes together. The result is so colourful and joyful. We’ve drawn a few mandalas together now. And I love it. For many reasons: I don’t take it as a time to analyse my son. It is just some time that we share doing something we like. The rest are extras. I think it is nice to start with nothing in mind and see how it unfolds. If you want to […]
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Colouring mandalas has gained traction in the last years. Why? Because it has many physical and mental benefits: -Relieves stress -Promotes mindfulness -Helps you sleep better. How, you may ask? Well, research says that you can’t stress about things in your life and focus on colouring in the lines at the same time. Those two activities require the activation of different parts in your brain and it can’t be done simultaneously. Thus, it creates a meditative state. So you can get the well-known benefits of meditation. Being in the present relaxes us, releases feel good hormones, that in turn helps regulate our nervous system etc. What I’d like to add to the conversation: The need we, humans, have to create and to use our hands. In a world that is so technological and where you can find everything ready made, we often forget to “do things”, to create. And this lack of creation brings us sadness and a feeling of uselessness. So, colouring a mandala (a real one, on paper) is relaxing but it also gives us the satisfaction of seeing the mandala coming, of seeing the end result. To know that we’ve done it. 🙂 There is also the […]
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