When you can't find the words,
...or when the words are sometimes too much. Too triggering....or if you aren't particularly a loquacious person, then there is something about putting a pen to paper and making patterns that can be of much benefit to you...
especially, when creating your own mandala.
Mandalas go back thousands of years and across many cultures, serving a harmonising and meditative purpose amongst others.
It is no secret that ethnic ''minority'' communities ( oh, how I dislike that term ) encounter discriminatory experiences. As Professor Laia Bécares, Professor of Social Science and Health said*:
''We clearly document that there is a high level of racism in the UK which permeates all aspects of people’s everyday lives and impacts their health, wellbeing, and socioeconomic circumstances.''*
and at the top of the list are ''Black'' people of the African diaspora**:
So although, I'm sure that we can agree, that as ''Black'' women experiencing a near daily dosage of racial trauma (directly or indirectly) may be a predicament however, it becomes crucial, if not a necessity, with having to juggle what life has to throw at you from work, home and socially, to find ways to help manage those heightened stressor levels in the blood steam whether you are conscious of it or intentionally choosing to suppress it as a coping mechanism.
When drawing your own mandala, both positive & negative emotions can be evoked.
The experience I'm inviting you to is to "know thyself'' in a subtle and creative way. An experience of self-discovery & a useful tool to get curious about oneself without the intention of creating a masterpiece. Instead, the aim is to engage in spontaneity & enjoy the free-flowing process with a little help of a supported framework.
When I started the mandala, I wasn't sure what to expect. Neither did I have the type of pen that I wanted in order to create a particular effect that I'd desired.
So right off the bat, I was feeding myself with negative energy. Which I had acknowledged and then decided to counter by using the best of what I had at the time and see where this would take me.
I found myself choosing shapes and patterns that were inspirations from the west, south and north of the African continent. I became aware that my intentional marks were crossing roads with my subconscious mind and bringing it to the surface.
It was interesting how despite my genetics had revealed an ethnicity estimate rooting back to East Africa & North-Western European heritage, this was not included in my mandala, reflecting where my focus was, at the time.
On creating a vase-like shape inspired from a South African pattern, I found serenity. This peaceful feeling seemed almost in alignment, with an energy feminine in nature. This experience was then infiltrated by negative experiences & societal stereotyping.
There was a point where I didn't want to continue because it'd felt like it wasn't going where I wanted it to go. Ironically, as with life, we can be in moments where we throw in the towel due to expectations that are not met with the efforts we put in....but I decided to continue making the best out of the experience & again my conscious mind continued to cross roads with my subconscious. This in turn was interrupted by moments of epiphany and enlightenment, helping me to further understand my outlook at certain aspects of my life.
My initial mark was made with the Arabic letter 'wow' drawn almost in mirror like positions at the centre of the mandala, and Ironically, it was a wow of an experience!
With all that goes on during the week, especially if you are a ''Black'' woman always on her toes like me, then the weekend is not enough time to decompress and de-stress. Yet alone process how the world is influencing you and how you are influencing the different spaces you encounter.
Finding pockets of time even when racing here and there to de-stress and process even if just with a pocket size journal can be a tool to your aid in managing your stress levels in response to trauma and better enhance the quality of your experiences throughout the weekdays before the week ends.
If you'd like to be informed of any upcoming Art Life Coaching workshops, you can click that 'follow' button on my homepage.
May you have a fruitful rest of the week!
**[Fortune]
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