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Mindfulness and the Creative Process

by Zangmo Alexander

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Arranging One-to-One, Mindful Art and Photography Lessons, Workshops or Retreats with Zangmo Alexander

01379 897393

Mind­ful Art and Mind­ful Pho­to­graphy Lessons, Work­shops and Re­treats can be from one day to one week in length. They are en­tirely per­son­al­ised around your own in­terests, needs and prior ex­per­i­ence of mind­ful­ness, art and pho­to­graphy. Mind­ful Art and Mind­ful Pho­to­graphy Work­shops and Re­treats can take place either in Botes­dale, Suf­folk or at your own venue in the UK or world­wide.

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Mandala Drawing and Painting Workshop

Botesdale, Suffolk
Everyone welcome!

What is a Mandala?

Man­dala means 'centre' and 'peri­phery' in Sanskrit. Man­dalas al­ways have a cent­ral focal point from which ele­ments of the image ra­di­ate. They are found in­nature and in the art of all cul­tures - rose win­dows found in me­di­eval cathed­rals, Tibetan sand­painted and painted man­dalas, Hindu Yan­tra dia­grams, Navajo sand paint­ings, Is­lamic sac­red geo­metry.

West­ern psy­cho­lo­gist C.G. Jung viewed man­dalas as a sym­bol of the self, the soul, going to the cen­ter. They can also be used as a tool for con­tem­plat­ing some issue or wish in one's own life.

Mandala Painting can:

  • help calm the thoughts and emotions

  • be a centreing and joyful experience

  • help in healing, bringing a sense of wholeness

  • be a fulfilling way of self expression 

What will we be doing on our Mandala Painting Workshop?

We will use simple re­lax­a­tion and centre­ing tech­niques to help us con­nect with heart centre. From this centre we will allow our own per­sonal man­dalas to evolve or­gan­ic­ally to ex­plore a per­sonal or heal­ing thought we are hold­ing.

Do I have to be able to draw and paint?

No artistic abil­ity or ex­per­i­ence is needed. You don't have to be able to draw or paint to come on this man­dala work­shop, and all ma­ter­i­als are provided. The main aim is to ex­press your­self rather than make a 'good' work of art.

About the facilitator Zangmo Alexander

Zangmo Al­ex­an­der is an Art Teacher and pro­fes­sional artist who reg­u­larly med­it­ates and has been on an 8 week Mind­ful­ness Based Cog­nit­ive Ther­apy Course with the Uni­versity of Bangor. She was also a Buddhist nun for seven years.

Art activ­it­ies have for the past 30 years been part of her own inner jour­ney ex­plor­ing psy­cho­ther­apy, art ther­apy, and the per­en­nial wis­dom at the heart of the world's spir­itual tra­di­tions, help­ing her to find her own per­sonal path, which is rooted in Buddhism, yet still re­joices in the rich­ness of all the dif­fer­ent tra­di­tions.

She has ex­per­i­enced very clearly how cre­at­ive activ­it­ies to­gether with mind­ful­ness prac­tice and meth­ods from art ther­apy can lead to in­creased in­sight, cre­ativ­ity, heal­ing, en­joy­ment of life and an in­creased sense of pur­pose and con­nec­ted­ness.

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01379 897393

What is Mindfulness Meditation?

Mindfulness meditation or awareness meditation involves getting to know ourselves, how our mind works, how we cause ourselves suffering, discovering who or what we are in essence free of suffering and training in recognising and resting in that essence. Originating from the Buddhist tradition, much of it can be practised in a secular way by people of any faith or none.

 

Progressing takes regular practice, like working out or cleaning our teeth each day, or the perseverence needed to get good at doing anything, including art! Through regular mindfulness meditation practice, we learn to be aware of sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, emotions, energy, sense of a self, plus our whole field of experience as we experience it.

 

This awareness can be discovered as a vivid spaciousness much vaster, more joyous and clearer than the claustrophobia and stress of habitual, conditioned thought patterns such as negative self talk, opinions, biases, preconceptions and unhelpful beliefs that we get lost in which drive our lives and cause stress. These negative thought patterns also stultify our capacity to wisely and compassionately express ourselves creatively from our essence.

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Meditation or awareness practice is a training which can lead to calming down, feeling more ourselves, more content, more connected, more appreciative of the joy and vitality of the ever living present, and more able to be naturally creative from an awake, wise and compassionate space.

 

Mindful awareness meditation can be used just to lessen our stress, improve our health and well being, or it can also be a path to permanently awaken from the delusions causing suffering.

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Mindful Creativity

Since our mind is inescapably with us all the time, why not learn to integrate awareness practice into everything we think, do or say, as this will increase our well being, creativity, wisdom and compassion and decrease our stress?

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We are all creative, it is what we do, every second, 24/7. But we may not be aware of what of what we are thinking, feeling, sensing, nor are we necessarily aware of how our motivation drives our action, so may be causing ourselves or others harm through our creative action. We may not experientially know who or what it is that is thinking, doing, experiencing, creating our own reality.

 

Creative energy is not necessarily good or bad, it just is. Untold harm has been done through creative action motivated by greed and anger. Learning mindfulness increases our awareness of motivations and intentions informing creative action and helps us lean to direct energy in ways that are compassionately and wisely beneficial for ourselves and others.

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For some years now, I have been exploring secular ways of integrating art and mindfulness meditation, as part of a path of healing, well-being and awakening, to help art students and mindful creativity coaching clients who come to me.

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