Mandala Classes - The story so far

Thanks to the Arnold Clark Community Trust, we have been able to run 'Mindfulness Mandala Classes' in our local communities.

[This page is 'graphic intense' please allow time to load to appreciate all the images in the gallery]

In these difficult times for everyone, we wanted to be able to give our community members a new 'tool' in their self-care wellness 'toolboxes'.

The following has been taken from: Exploring Your Mind

1. They bring relaxation.  Mandalas are designed to free us from worries because they favour concentration in the present, which is why they are a powerful relaxation tool.
2. Deep connection.  Mandalas make it easier for us to connect with the most intimate aspects of ourselves, thus promoting self-knowledge. They are a wonderful exercise in reflection of our place in the world and the relationship we have with others.
3. They promote harmony.  Mandalas are a form of meditation that help us focus our attention. In this way, they promote harmony, since through their shapes and colours, energies flow, which transform negative aspects into positive ones, bringing balance to our lives.
4. Creativity. Mandalas are an artistic representation of free design, that is, we can draw them as we like. An interesting aspect of the mandalas is that they are related to creativity because they allow colours and shapes to be used freely. In other words, they facilitate the creative process and are a source for generating new ideas. Furthermore, each figure and colour represent unconscious aspects of the person.

 We have been fortunate to be in such a position to run two-day classes:

• Day 1 - The techniques and processes, hands on knowledge and skill sharing
• Day 2 - Practice the skills learned in Day 1

We have been 'testing' how they'd run with our pioneer adults and will shortly be reviewing our thoughts and experiences to see about reducing the ages. 

Check out the feedback already received here.

These classes do require an element of concentration and the ability to sit for some time with one task, but we are always looking for ways to improve and become more inclusive.

Below are images of all the creations from classes we have run to date. Day 1 images (bottom display shelf) are under 'tuition' and Day 2 images (top display shelf) are 'free-style'

Below the gallery are images of our amazing 'pioneer' students

'Students' from our first class

'Students' from our second class

'Students' from our last class

It is our intention to continue with these sessions for as long as possible, watch this space or check out our Eventbrite page (click on 'Make a Reservation' in the menu above - this holds all our diary of events)

We want to enable this portion of our work to sustain itself but, as with so many other projects across the board in such testing times, it may not be possible. Therefore, we do ask all our student to make a contribution toward costs to enable us to run further sessions.

Funding for this project gratefully received from the Arnold Clark Community Fund,

Many venues have been a collaboration between Taff Rocks and Wellbeing@Merthyr