The mandala is an ancient symbol of wholeness, balance, and the infinite nature of the Universe. It has been used in countless cultures throughout time and has become a powerful tool for exploring challenges. Its intricate design represents the interconnectedness of all things, encouraging introspection and fostering a sense of unity and harmony within oneself. Through its circular form, the mandala invites the viewer to journey inward, confronting obstacles, fears, or imbalances within their own mind. By focusing on its symmetrical patterns and colors, individuals can find a calm center amidst life’s complexities, using the mandala as a meditative anchor that grounds them. This process can reveal insights, promote emotional healing, and cultivate resilience, making the mandala not only a spiritual symbol but also a valuable tool for personal growth and self-discovery.
The practice of coloring a mandala combines meditation with contemplation, allowing you to engage both your conscious and subconscious mind in a creative process. Use the meditative practice of coloring a mandala as a focal point for exploring and transforming your beliefs about any situation. This practice allows you to bring subconscious beliefs to the surface, reframe them through mindfulness and contemplation, and align them with divine principles.
Materials:
Download and print out this month’s Mandala
Colored pencils, markers, or crayons
A journal or notebook and something to write with
A quiet, sacred space
Time: 20–30 minutes, depending on how long you wish to color and contemplate.
Selecting Colors
Coloring a mandala can be a deeply meditative and spiritual experience, especially when choosing colors intentionally for their symbolic meanings. Here’s a look at how various colors can symbolize different aspects of the journey to self-awareness, balance, and connection:
Red – Strength, Energy, and Passion
Symbolism: Red represents life force, courage, and physical strength. It connects to the root chakra and signifies grounding and survival.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Choosing red brings vitality and stimulates the spirit, empowering one to face fears or challenges.
Orange – Creativity, Joy, and Enthusiasm
Symbolism: Orange embodies joy, emotional health, and connection to others. It's linked to the sacral chakra, often associated with creativity, relationships, and desires.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Incorporating orange supports embracing change, expressing creativity, and nurturing joy in life.
Yellow – Clarity, Wisdom, and Personal Power
Symbolism: Yellow reflects intellectual energy, mental clarity, and personal empowerment. Tied to the solar plexus chakra, it fosters self-confidence and inner strength.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Using yellow encourages optimism, openness to new insights, and the realization of one’s power and wisdom.
Green – Growth, Harmony, and Healing
Symbolism: Green represents balance, compassion, and nature. As the color of the heart chakra, it’s linked to love, forgiveness, and emotional healing.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Green can help foster a sense of peace, love, and connectedness, supporting heart-centered growth and empathy.
Blue – Communication, Calm, and Truth
Symbolism: Blue connects to the throat chakra and signifies truth, communication, and serenity. It encourages openness, honesty, and listening to one’s inner voice.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Using blue supports clarity in communication, fosters inner peace, and encourages truthful expression.
Indigo – Intuition, Wisdom, and Spiritual Awareness
Symbolism: Indigo is linked to the third-eye chakra and represents intuition, insight, and a deeper sense of awareness. It helps in bridging the conscious and unconscious mind.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Incorporating indigo nurtures spiritual insight, supports intuitive abilities, and enhances focus on inner wisdom.
Purple/Violet – Transformation, Spirituality, and Enlightenment
Symbolism: Purple or violet connects to the crown chakra, symbolizing the bridge to the divine and higher consciousness. It represents spiritual awareness, enlightenment, and transcendence.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Choosing purple can support spiritual growth, foster a sense of mystery and wonder, and promote transformation.
White – Purity, Wholeness, and Peace
Symbolism: White symbolizes purity, clarity, and openness to the divine. It represents unity, healing, and peace, often associated with spiritual purification.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Using white invites a sense of calm and wholeness, offering balance and space for reflection.
Black – Mystery, Depth, and Protection
Symbolism: Black reflects the unknown, introspection, and the protection of one’s energy. It can signify the void and potential within.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Incorporating black encourages introspection, supports protective boundaries, and invites exploration into the mysteries of the self.
Pink – Love, Compassion, and Kindness
Symbolism: Pink is often associated with unconditional love, compassion, and emotional healing. It brings softness, gentleness, and acceptance.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Using pink fosters warmth, kindness, and emotional well-being, helping to soften energies and promote a loving atmosphere.
Gold – Illumination, Abundance, and Divine Wisdom
Symbolism: Gold symbolizes spiritual awakening, wisdom, and prosperity. It’s often associated with the highest form of enlightenment and divine wisdom.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Incorporating gold can be a reminder of one’s connection to a higher self, offering encouragement on the path to enlightenment.
Silver – Intuition, Reflection, and Feminine Energy
Symbolism: Silver is linked to the moon, intuition, and feminine qualities like receptivity and introspection. It represents calm and a reflective, contemplative nature.
Use in Mandala Coloring: Using silver enhances intuition, brings balance, and fosters self-reflection, nurturing one’s connection to the inner self.
By choosing colors thoughtfully, a mandala becomes a tool for expressing and balancing energies, supporting personal growth, and connecting with deeper spiritual insights. Allow your intuition to guide you as you choose colors. Let them speak to what you need most – whether that’s stability, courage, or new opportunities.
Choosing Different Colors
Consider choosing colors are not normally part of your preferred color pallet. Choosing colors that differ from your usual preferences is a powerful, yet subtle way to disrupt habitual thought patterns and create new neural pathways in your brain. Colors have a unique influence on our emotions, perceptions, and energy, often evoking feelings and memories tied to past experiences. By intentionally selecting colors outside of your comfort zone, you signal to your brain that it’s safe to explore beyond the familiar. This choice can interrupt automatic responses and stimulate new areas of the brain, fostering flexibility in your thought processes. Over time, embracing unfamiliar colors can help shift limiting beliefs, release attachments to past identities, and even inspire more open-minded perspectives in other areas of life. In essence, this small act of color choice can lead to an expanded, more adaptive mindset.
The Coloring Process
Start in the Center: The center of the mandala represents your inner self. As you begin to color, focus on grounding yourself, recognizing that everything comes from within. Visualize yourself connected to an infinite source of all.
Move Outward: As you work your way out from the center, imagine that with each section, you’re expanding your awareness. Each line, curve, and shape can be seen as a barrier to achieving your desires, and by coloring them, you dissolve these limitations.
Set Your Intention and Center Yourself
Begin by finding a quiet, comfortable space where you won’t be disturbed. Place your mandala and coloring tools in front of you. Take a few deep breaths, centering yourself in the present moment. Close your eyes and feel the peace of the Universe within and around you.
Set a clear intention for the practice. You may say silently or aloud:
"I open my mind and heart to the wisdom of the Universe. As I color this mandala, I become aware of my beliefs about _______ and align them with the truth of unconditional Love."
Feel a sense of openness and willingness to explore your beliefs, knowing that you are supported by the Divine.
Begin Coloring the Mandala Mindfully
Start coloring the mandala with the intention of using it as a meditative and contemplative tool. As you color, remain mindful of the colors you are choosing, how the patterns unfold, and the overall process of creation. Stay fully present with each stroke, focusing on the movement of your hand and the flow of color.
Let this process help you enter a state of flow where your conscious mind relaxes, and your subconscious thoughts and beliefs begin to rise to the surface.
Contemplate Your Current Beliefs
As you color, gently bring your attention to your current beliefs. Without judgment, allow whatever thoughts or feelings arise to flow naturally. Here are some reflective questions that can deepen your contemplation as you color a mandala. These questions align with different aspects of inner growth, spiritual insight, and self-discovery:
1. Setting Intention
What intention am I setting for this mandala coloring practice?
What do I hope to release or welcome into my life through this experience?
How can I bring more mindfulness into this process?
2. Exploring Emotions
What emotions am I experiencing right now, and where do I feel them in my body?
Are there any emotions I’ve been resisting that need acknowledgment?
How might this coloring practice help me process and express my current feelings?
3. Finding Inner Balance
What areas of my life feel balanced, and which feel unbalanced?
How can I cultivate more harmony between different aspects of myself?
As I work on this mandala, how can I bring balance into each section with color, shape, or intention?
4. Embracing Change and Growth
What changes or transformations am I currently experiencing?
How am I evolving, and in what ways am I growing?
Is there anything I need to let go of to allow space for new growth?
5. Strengthening Connection
How connected do I feel to myself and my inner wisdom?
How can I use this time to reconnect with my true self?
Are there any relationships or connections in my life that need more attention, compassion, or healing?
6. Reflecting on Gratitude and Abundance
What am I grateful for at this moment?
Where in my life do I see abundance?
How can I cultivate a deeper sense of appreciation in my daily life?
7. Exploring Purpose and Meaning
What brings me joy and a sense of purpose?
How aligned am I with my core values and life goals?
What steps can I take to live more fully in alignment with my purpose?
8. Trusting the Process and Letting Go
How comfortable am I with letting go of control and trusting the flow?
What aspects of my life could benefit from releasing expectations?
How does it feel to simply focus on the present moment as I color, without concern for the outcome?
9. Seeking Inner Peace
What inner peace means to me, and how can I bring more of it into my life?
What practices, beliefs, or routines help me stay centered and grounded?
How can I cultivate a state of calm even in challenging situations?
10. Nurturing Self-Compassion
How do I speak to myself in times of difficulty or stress?
What would it look like to be kinder and more forgiving to myself?
How can this practice of coloring be a gentle act of self-care and love?
11. Opening to Intuition and Inner Wisdom
How open am I to listening to my intuition?
What is my inner voice guiding me to focus on right now?
How can I trust and act on my intuitive insights?
12. Embracing Joy and Playfulness
When did I last allow myself to play or create purely for joy?
What small things bring me happiness, and how often do I make time for them?
How can I infuse more playfulness and lightheartedness into my life?
Reflecting on these questions as you color can turn the process into a form of meditation, allowing you to explore, release, and embrace various aspects of yourself.
Reframe Limiting Beliefs
Once you’ve identified some of your limiting beliefs, use the coloring process as an opportunity to reframe them in alignment with universal principles. As you continue to color, visualize your new, empowering beliefs becoming part of the mandala. See each color as a representation of the energy of abundance you are aligning with. This part of the practice helps you energetically and creatively integrate your new beliefs.
Reflect and Journal
Once you have completed your mandala, pause for a moment of reflection. Look at the mandala as a symbolic representation of your new understanding – one based on the truth of love, abundance, worthiness, and trust in the Universe.
Hold the mandala in your hands and close your eyes. Offer a brief affirmative prayer or declaration to solidify your new beliefs. Feel the truth of this prayer resonating deeply within you, knowing that you are shifting your consciousness to a higher vibration of prosperity.
After the prayer, take a few moments to reflect on the practice. What did you notice about your thoughts and feelings as you colored the mandala? How do you feel about the situation now compared to when you started the practice?
In your journal, write down any final thoughts, insights, or affirmations that came up during the session. This reflective step is important for integrating the practice into your daily life.
Use the Mandala as a Visual Anchor
Once your mandala is complete, place it somewhere where you can see it regularly – on your altar, desk, or a special space in your home. Each time you look at it, remind yourself of the new beliefs you are embodying. Let it serve as a visual anchor for your alignment with Universal Abundance.
Whenever you feel old limiting beliefs about money arise, return to the mandala, take a few breaths, and reconnect with the affirmations and truths you explored during the practice.
Aligning Beliefs with Universal Truth
This practice of coloring a mandala while contemplating your beliefs helps bring subconscious patterns to light and transform them through creativity, mindfulness, and awareness. By engaging in this contemplative process, you are able to align your beliefs with the truth of Infinite Nature of the Universe, allowing you to experience greater of love, prosperity, ease, and flow in your life.
The mandala becomes not just an artistic creation, but a mindfulness tool – a reminder that the Universe is always available to meet your needs and that you are a vital part of this flow.
Laura Hallett is a professional educator, curriculum designer, author, artist and illustrator of four books. Laura regularly speaks, conducts workshops, leads spiritual retreats and teaches on meditation and transformational spirituality. Rev Laura is the senior minister at Centre for Spiritual Living Greater Las Vegas.
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