2013: Section 5

Posted on May 3, 2013 by
2013: Section 5

2013:    Section 5

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For those of you following along with this year’s theme, section 5 focuses on the “parenting” category from the twelve categories of shame list created by Dr. Brené Brown. Her research on shame-resilience and vulnerability demonstrates for us all, how and why to live a wholehearted life.

When I first noticed the category for this month, I thought “oh…this is easy…I opted out of having children so there’s little to report on this topic.” Then a slew of issues came flooding through:

  • how I feel about my mom and dad’s parenting skills
  • how I feel about my dad’s parents and how they treated my dad and his siblings
  • how the ancestral parenting of the women on my mom’s side of the family still affects me to this day
  • how I feel about how other people parent their children
  • how I parent myself
  • how I parent our two greyhounds (sky & seti)
  • how I feel about passing on the opportunity to be a parent (although I did babysit for 12 years…that right there cured me of wanting to have and raise children)

For this month’s section, let’s explore all the different aspects of parenting…the good, the bad and the ugly. What worked? What needs tweaking? What failed miserably? And how can we rectify it?

Happy Coloring!

joyfully,

Maureen, The Mandala Lady
www.facebook.com/TheMandalaLady

Be sure to download/color the May 2013 Mandala of the Month.

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2013: Section 4

Posted on April 2, 2013 by
Section 4 2013 Mandala of the Year

Section 4 2013 MotY

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For those of you following along with this year’s theme, section 4 focuses on the “family” category from the twelve categories of shame list created by Dr. Brené Brown. Her research on shame-resilience and vulnerability demonstrates for us all, how and why to live a wholehearted life.

First we need to define family…and for each of us it will be different. We have our childhood family that we were born or adopted/fostered into and the family we grow into as we age, which may or may not include blood relatives or in-laws.

We have a lot to explore with this topic. Here are just a few questions I came up with to help you explore:

  • What was your childhood family life like?
  • Was it nurturing or dysfunctional?
  • Was it fun or painful?
  • Was traditional or unconventional?
  • How has your childhood family influenced you now as an adult?
  • What’s your family life like now?
  • Do you have a family of your own?
  • Is there anything you vowed to do differently when you grew up? Did you do it? Did it help?
  • Who do you consider to be family now?

Happy Coloring!

joyfully,

Maureen, The Mandala Lady
www.facebook.com/TheMandalaLady

Be sure to download/color the April 2013 Mandala of the Month.

 

 

 

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2013: Section 3

Posted on March 1, 2013 by

 

2013 MotY: Section 3

2013 MotY: Section 3

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For those of you following along with this year’s theme, section 3 focuses on the “motherhood and fatherhood” category from the twelve categories of shame list created by Dr. Brené Brown. Her research on shame-resilience and vulnerability demonstrates for us all, how and why to live a wholehearted life.

This is a loaded category on so many levels for me. It hits on my relationship with my mother and father and how I think they did as parents and how I wish they had done things differently…although I would have turned out differently as well…thereby making it a fascinating conundrum.

It also hits on my choice to forego having children and all the issues that raises because it’s so against the norm. I feel like I have to justify my decision (and myself) for making such a choice. The interesting thing about this decision is that all my siblings made the same decision. It speaks volumes!

So these are the issues I’ll be tackling while coloring this month’s section of the 2013 Mandala of the Year. How about you?

Happy Coloring!

joyfully,

Maureen, The Mandala Lady
www.facebook.com/TheMandalaLady

Be sure to download/color the March 2013 Mandala of the Month.

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2013: Section 2

Posted on February 1, 2013 by

 

MotY: Section 3

MotY: Section 3

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For those of you following along with this year’s theme, section 2 focuses on the “money and work” category from the twelve categories of shame list created by Dr. Brené Brown. Her research on shame-resilience and vulnerability demonstrates for us all, how to live a wholehearted life.

Both money and work bring up huge issues for me. I particularly struggle with believing I can make a great living as an artist…that I should give it up and get a real job.

When I’m at art fairs, I’m often asked by people questions like, “do you make a living at this?”, “what do you do for your day job?”, “how much money do you make doing this?”  Can you imagine me going up to a doctor and asking “how much money do you make doing this?”

All these questions on top of my own self-doubt about my earning capabilities, just adds to the shame/guilt of daring to be an artist. Added to that my flawed thinking of equating sales with my self worth. I struggle with this all the time.

To make it even more interesting for myself, I also do intuitive (psychic) readings using mandala art. If I thought proclaiming myself to be an artist challenged my self worth, throwing in some ‘woo-woo’ stuff on top just heightens the challenge.

And yet…the passion and drive to pursue my career as an artist and intuitive reader, allowing myself to be vulnerable, far outweighs the shameful thinking that has stopped me in the past. Thankfully, I seem to move forward despite myself.

This month as I color section 2, I plan to face these negatives thoughts and self doubt about being an artist and reader so that I can strive to reach my full potential.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully,

Maureen, The Mandala Lady
www.facebook.com/TheMandalaLady

Be sure to download/color the February 2013 Mandala of the Month.

 

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2013: Section 1

Posted on January 1, 2013 by
2013 MOTY: Section 1

2013 MOTY: Section 1

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For those of you following along with this year’s theme, section 1 focuses on the “appearance and body image” category from the twelve categories of shame list created by Dr. Brené Brown, whose work on shame-resilience and vulnerability demonstrates for us all, how to live a wholehearted life.

For me personally, 2013 is all about “out with the old, in with the new.” I plan to use the 2013 MotY and Dr. Brené Brown’s work to examine the beliefs and thoughts I have about myself and the world around me, letting go of that which has outlived its usefulness; adopting new beliefs/thoughts that best support my quest to live a wholehearted life.

If you’d like to play along with this theme, in the bottom blank section, draw, collage, journal, etc. your awareness/feelings/thoughts/beliefs/about “appearance and body image” and how it plays out in your life right now…the good and the bad, exploring how it impacts you and the world around you.

In the upper section, play with representing how you want to feel and think about appearance and body image…both about yourself and about others. What colors, shapes, words would you use? What media would help you represent your new-found beliefs and thoughts? crayons? markers? glitter gel pens? color pencils? all of the above? :-)

Here is an opportunity to take a rather serious subject and be creative with it, explore it, and most importantly have fun with it.

Dr. Brown’s vision of living a wholehearted life resonates beautifully with the “out with the old, in with the new” theme for this year. I look forward to playing through these categories as part of the 2013 Mandala of the Year.

I’ll have more details about this year’s theme and Dr. Brown’s work in a new page I’ll be adding to this blog site soon.

UPDATE 1/2/2013: a wonderful blog post that ties in nicely with the 2013 MotY by Hiro Boga: The Nearness of You

Happy Coloring! Happy 2013!

joyfully,

Maureen, The Mandala Lady
www.facebook.com/TheMandalaLady

Be sure to download/color the January 2013 Mandala of the Month.

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2012: Section 12

Posted on December 3, 2012 by
2012 MotY: Section 12

2012 MotY: Section 12

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For those of you following along with this year’s book “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers, PhD, here’s a bit of Chapter 12 (“There is Plenty of Time”).

As we come to the end of the year and the end of this powerful book, let’s take the time to absorb what we’ve learned, see where we can make improvements and set up…and implement…a plan to help us continue on our journey towards living a more joyful, confident, and peaceful life. A journey, Dr. Jeffers calls the Path of the Higher Self.

She brings up the issue of “impatience.” It is our biggest pitfall. “Remember that being impatient is simply a way of punishing yourself. It creates stress, dissatisfaction and fear. Whenever your Chatterbox is making you feel impatient, ask it, “What’s the rush? It’s all happening perfectly. Don’t worry. When I am ready to move forward I will. In the meantime, I am taking it all in and I am learning.”

She equates our path to a climb up a mountain. At times it’s tough and when we stop to take in the view we can see how far we’ve come, with the view becoming more spectacular. We’ll have times when we stop, rest and regroup. We’ll have times when we move forward.

Some of the things we’ll gain along the way: insights will occur more frequently, the Conscious Mind will become more open to new ways of thinking, we experience our lives more as learning/growing opportunities rather than as victims, we start detaching from the heaviness, we feel lighter, we feel freer.

“Say YES to life. Participate. Move, Act, Write, Read, Sign up. Take a stand. Or do whatever it takes for you. Get involved in the process.” – S. Jeffers

In closing, she asks us to commit to pushing through the fear and becoming more than we are at this present moment. “Commit to learning how to bring to whatever you do in life the loving and powerful energy of your Higher Self.”

We just need to be kind and patient with ourselves. More importantly we need to befriend ourselves…treat ourselves the way we treat our friends.

I know we can do this. If this blog post were a movie I’d play this song about now…enjoy.

Ponder this as you color the final section of the 2012 Mandala of the Year.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully,

Maureen, The Mandala Lady
www.facebook.com/TheMandalaLady

Be sure to download/color the December 2012 Mandala of the Month.

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2012: Section 11

Posted on November 2, 2012 by

2012 MotY: Section 11

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For those of you following along with this year’s book “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers, PhD, here’s a bit of Chapter 11 (“Filling the Inner Void”).

In this chapter, Dr. Jeffers reminds us of our connection with our Higher Self, that part of us that transcends all the petty negative stuff. It’s the part of us that is self-affirming, loving, giving and abundant. Throughout our whole life we tend to operate from one of two places: our “chatterbox” negative self or our Higher Self.

Our challenge, our task becomes one of striving to connect with and listening to our Higher Self, every moment of every day. From this space of the Higher Self we can connect with Universal Energy through our Conscious and Subconscious Minds.  I realize that this is a tall order and yet it is one that has rewards beyond our wildest imaginings. All it takes is practice (see November 2012 Mandala of the Month).

From this place of our Higher Self we also connect with our intuition which Dr. Jeffers states is “one of the tools the Subconscious Mind uses to connect you with what you are looking for.” We just need to open up to it and act on it. She suggests that whenever we need help with an issue or problem, to turn it over to the Subconscious Mind and Universal Energy trusting they will give us all the answers and guidance we need.

Our intuition is that gentle voice in our heads that says “go here”, “do this”, “call this person”, “go home”, etc. To differentiate between that voice and the chatterbox voice, I find that the chatterbox voice comes from a negative place saying things like “you don’t want to do that”, “I don’t think so”, “you better watch out”. It also usually includes “I” or “You” in it. My intuition usually speaks to me in short commands without any pronouns. Test it out for yourself…notice what the voices in your head are saying to you and how they are saying it. It only takes an extra moment to process what we just heard to determine “who said that?”

By focusing on our Higher Self, the loving energy that flows from this place, spills over into every area of our lives. We can do this for mere minutes a day to start, working our way up to the point where in any given moment regardless of what is happening around us, we can immediately connect with our Higher Self and know instantly what the next step is to take.

Just keep practicing…it does get easier. And know that it’s a life long process…so we need to be kind to ourselves as we allow ourselves the time it takes to reconnect with our Higher Self…who is very eager to help us. All we have to do is ask.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully,

Maureen, The Mandala Lady
www.facebook.com/TheMandalaLady

Be sure to download/color the November 2012 Mandala of the Month.

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