Soulandalas: Coursera Final Project

This is my artwork I created for Healing in the Arts offered by Coursera.  Following my soulandalas you will find a narrative of how I created these pictures. 

Joy

 

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
― Rumi

 

“I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.”
― Shauna Niequist



Connected

 

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
― Herman Melville

 

“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”
― Brené Brown

Confidence

“When someone tells me "no," it doesn't mean I can't do it, it simply means I can't do it with them.”  Karen E. Quinones Mille

 

“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”
― Lao Tzu

 

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit”
― E.E. Cummings

 

“Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others ... Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth." (Journal entry, 14 October 1922)”
― Katherine Mansfield, Journal of Katherine Mansfield    

“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Hope

“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.”
― Langston Hughes

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
― Emily Dickinson

Divine Mystery

“Because you’re a creation of God, you reflect the Divine qualities of creativity, wisdom, and love.”
― Doreen Virtue

“We can see the Divine in each speck of dust, but that doesn't stop us from wiping it away with a wet sponge. The Divine doesn't disappear; it's transformed into the clean surface.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello    

 

Laughter

“I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person.”
― Audrey Hepburn

“I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh.”
― Maya Angelou

“Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables    

Self Compassion

“Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”
― Louise L. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life    

“Talk to yourself like a cherished friend. Treat yourself with love and care. You are perfect, just as you are.”
― Amy Leigh Mercree, The Compassion Revolution: 30 Days of Living from the Heart    

Strength

“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”
― Maya Angelou

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations    

Worthy of Love

“Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn't have the time to sit around and talk about you. What's important to me is not others' opinions of me, but what's important to me is my opinion of myself.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“When you're different, sometimes you don't see the millions of people who accept you for what you are. All you notice is the person who doesn't.”
― Jodi Picoult, Change of Heart    

What did I do for my project?

I have been contemplating my next career journey.  My path will come to a fork in the road within seventeen months.  During this time, I’ve been exploring “What’s next?”  There are many possibilities to choose from that weren’t available when I was twenty.  In January, I began a year-long class: Come to the Fire (Heidi Sequoia Moondancer).  It is an on-line intentional creativity class to discover our sacred self.  Each week, I’m given a creative journal/art prompt.

Back in January, this month was devoted to my intentions for the New Year.  I wrote in my journal about where I was and what I wanted to bring into the different aspects of my life (e.g., spiritually, family, career).  To develop affirmations was an output of this exercise.  Since January, I have continued to explore these affirmations including what my life would be like if I embraced them fully.

You might say, this class fell into my lap.  Again being open to Spirit, I signed up.  I saw it as another way to explore my “words” by using different forms of art (i.e., music and dance).

Table:  Concepts to bring into my life:

Words                      Ideas Holding me back

Divine Mystery      Disappearance of Spirit

Laughter                      Sadness

Confidence              Distrust, Doubt and Uncertainties

Hope                      Pessimism

Joy                              Depression, Unhappy, Serious

Worthy of Love      Unloved

Strength                      Weakness

Self-Love              Self-hating and Indifferent

Why I chose my project?

My project is a combination of journaling and drawing mandalas or Soulandalas.  Soulandals is a concept that Jackie DeBlasio coined.  Mandalas are drawn over journal entry.  The design is a way for the soul to express visually what is written.  She writes drawing the repetitive designs often reveal messages that one might not recognize through word.  This art form, she believes allows one to look at the messages of the inner critic and identify if stories are align with what one wants in life.  Creating a mandala can change the story and provide a visual of what is possible.

Confidence

I took my words (see table above) and began creating soulandalas for each of them.  My journal entry discussed what was holding me back, but I also wrote what my life would be like if I had this in it.  I would start the “word” off by reading quotes from Goodreads.  For example within my journal entry for self-confidence is a quote from Karen E. Quinones Mille: “When someone tells me "no," it doesn't mean I can't do it, it simply means I can't do it with them.”  I would also look up symbolism and colors associated with the words.  Again, referring to my “confidence” soulandalas, I used gold and blue associated with confidence and a peacock feather design that symbolizes: vision, awaking and (inner) guidance.

An outcome of the project is twofold.  One, I have beautiful representations of my intentions.  Secondly, as a writer I have discovered that my writing is dark and lacks in joy.  Additionally, it has identified places that need healing and a new story needing told.  The drawings have moved me to bring color into my life and to try write on different subjects.