Mandala--a circular image that radiates out symmetrically. It is used by many religious traditions as a meditative tool. Only Planet Heart has Heart Mandalas. Planet Heart’s mandalas have special meditative qualities. The Heart Mandalas are both aesthetic and logical, creative and rigid, fluid and fixed. They unite many synergistic forces, but especially those of our right and left brain, into a peaceful harmony.
People have been working with mandalas for thousands of years, across cultures, religions, and art. However, many mandalas have not had elements that repeat radially in them! Until my work, no one has focused on the use of patterns to learn about oneself and harmonize the hemispheres of the brain.
The famous psychologist Carl Jung used mandalas to allow patients to draw their dreams in order to learn about themselves. The mandalas had no pattern, but rather a collection of images that he used for interpretation in order to help learn about the self. For Jung, the mandala was an organizing space. Jung felt that because the mandala has a center point, it allows people to travel inwardly to understand themselves. My explanation has nothing to do with the center point.
I agree that working on mandalas helps people know themselves better. However, to me it has nothing to do with having a center point and more to do with having some quiet time to activate both hemispheres of the brain and listen inwardly to one’s thoughts. In fact, I see parallel benefits in doing other activities that stimulate both hemispheres, like dancing or drawing. To me, the real benefits come from the ability to introduce patterns on purpose, to actively wake up the left brain, as well as doing activities to release the stream of consciousness to purposely wake up the right brain, and then to pay attention to one’s comfort level with these activities. I strongly favor combining the use of patterns and stream of consciousness activities to encourage the hemispheric communication and to practice this kind of exchange often. To learn more, you can explore other Planet Heart books or blogs.
I HeartMark You,
Tali