2012: Section 1

Happy New Year! I’m so excited to start another Mandala of the Year. Be sure to read 2012 MotY to find out about this year’s mandala.

Download 2012: Section 1

“A life lived in fear is a life half lived.” This quote leaped out at me while watching one of my all time favorite movies “Strictly Ballroom“.

I bring this up because the 2012 MotY encourages us to rise above our fear and soar like the ones we are meant to be. Of course you have the option to choose whatever theme or intention you want when coloring this year’s mandala.

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 1.

What are you afraid of and why

Dr. Jeffers summarizes our fears into 3 categories (and if you have her book, it’s well worth the read for more information on these categories and solution):

1. External [fear of something happening or fear of taking an action]
   1. aging, illness, death, falling, making a decision, public speaking, going back to school, etc.
2. Internal/State of Mind/Ego-Based
   1. rejection, being conned, failure, success, being ridiculed, etc.
3. “I can’t handle it”…the biggest fear of all.  To quote Jeffers “...the fear that you can’t handle whatever life may bring you.”

Applying #3 to the fear examples:

• I can’t handle speaking in public
• I can’t handle getting old
• I can’t handle failure
• I can’t handle being rejected

She offers a simple, yet powerful, solution:

“All you have to do to diminish your fear is to develop more trust in your ability to handle whatever comes your way.”

Thinking back to fearful situations in the past, I managed to handle them all…some more gracefully than others. For example, it used to be very intimidating for me to apply for jobs and for art shows for fear of rejection and ultimately feeding my “I’m not good enough” monster.

These days, I still get rejection letters along with getting ‘congratulations’ letters. Had I succumbed to my fear of rejection, I would have missed out on some wonderful opportunities. And the jobs/events from which I was rejected?…it often proved to be a blessing rather than a curse.

Your assignment should you choose to accept it…

• throughout the month and especially when coloring this section, let’s be aware of all the different ways our fear expresses itself.
• when a fear appears, rather than stuffing it down or ignoring it, just make note of it. Is it an external fear or internal fear or an “I can’t handle it” fear? For me, my biggest fears are internal: 1) being ridiculed, 2) being thought of as stupid, 3) getting in trouble, and 4) not being good enough. update 1/2/2012: forgot to mention fear of being a disappointment to others and to myself.
• when we notice a fear, take a deep breath and use Susan Jeffer’s affirmation, “I can handle it”.

I started reading this book last year and I noticed that when I applied the “I can handle it” affirmation, it gave me the courage to move past it, to go ahead and “do it anyway”. Unfortunately I let this habit fall away and stopped reading the book. This year I committed myself to reading this book and, more importantly, “doing” the book.

Coloring Tip #1

When faced with large open spaces, as you’ll find in this section, you can choose to color the whole thing in with some colors, leaving the space as is.

Or, you could do one of these options. Fearful of messing it up? That’s okay…feel that fear and do it anyway 🙂

• draw shapes or patterns inside the space
• draw something inside the space such as a landscape, a face, an animal, something you saw in a dream, etc.
• draw an image/shape/symbol to represent your intention or an issue/fear you’re working through
• fill the space with texture…see this site for texture examples and this site which can work for color pencils, markers, or crayons

Please feel free to share your experience with coloring this section of the 2012 moty. I’d love to hear about your progress. And if you’re feeling particularly brave, send an image of your coloring. 🙂

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

Happy Coloring!

joyfully, Maureen
The Mandala Lady