Don’t be fooled, doodling is a powerful tool to activate your divine creative self.
When doodling is combined with the power of the mandala, you are accessing deep parts of your creative self!
Carl Jung encouraged his patients to doodle and color mandalas. I explain this in much more detail in the book, but for now, here are the 8 steps you can use right now!
Step 1. Draw a dot
Put a dot in the middle of your paper/canvas. This represents the “seed” of an idea you want to explore and get creative with. It’s like the big bang. Everything creative started from a simple seed.
Step 2. Draw 4 lines
Next you expand on your idea and your creativity. Draw four lines out from the dot – North, South, East and West.
Step 3. Draw 4 MORE lines
Keep expanding your idea. Draw the next 4 lines out from the dot, which will look like lines stretching NE, SE, SW and NW.
Step 4. Draw a petal on each line
Draw a petal on each line. This represents your personal, creative growth.
Step 5. Draw a heart in between each petal and a circle around the lines.
Draw a heart in between each petal and a circle around the entire center. This represents further creativity and growth within the circles you have created with the communities and relationships you have formed.
Step 6. Draw a dot where each line meets the circle
Draw 8 dots on the circle. This represents co-creation within your relationships and communities and planting seeds of growth along the way.
Step 7. Draw the symbol for the lotus petal, connecting the dots.
Draw a lotus petal which connects each dot. It’s easier than it sounds! I promise! It’s the “curly bracket { }” we learned to draw in school to combine words. In the book I explain why the lotus is used as a powerful symbol for “grace and ease”.
Step 8. Draw a symbol of your choice inside each lotus petal (the same symbol)
Inside the lotus flower, draw a symbol that represents something meaningful to you. Like a flower, a musical note, a football. It doesn’t matter what you doodle here. Just doodle anything that pops into your mind. It’s your mandala!
You can keep expanding out and adding details. There is no limit to how big or how much you draw. And remember, it will NOT be perfect, but it will be beautiful!
Every time you doodle a mandala it will be different. Doodling is powerful and can help you in many ways.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article:
Doodling Helps People Stay Focused, Grasp New Concepts and Retain Information
Long dismissed as a waste of time, doodling is getting new respect.
Recent research in neuroscience, psychology and design shows that doodling can help people stay focused, grasp new concepts and retain information. A blank page also can serve as an extended playing field for the brain, allowing people to revise and improve on creative thoughts and ideas.
Doodles are spontaneous marks that can take many forms, from abstract patterns or designs to images of objects, landscapes, people or faces. Some people doodle by retracing words or letters, but doodling doesn’t include note-taking.
“It’s a thinking tool,” says Sunni Brown, an Austin, Texas, author of a new book, “The Doodle Revolution.” It can affect how we process information and solve problems, she says.
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