Who would have known how much of an impact a class could make in just one semester? I have learned so much -- not only about who I am, but also about relationships with other individuals and how we are all connected and how important it is to have a positive outlook on life. I have also learned that we, as humans, all have these hidden senses that can be harnessed if we really try to get to know our bodies well and treat them like the temples that they are, listen to them, and let them do what they wants instead of trying to control them all of the time. Between the dancing mindfulness days and the reflections on daily meditations, I feel like I have had the opportunity to really get to know my body and what is good for it. However, it has been challenging due to a busy schedule to really keep up with listening to my body while also having to do things that require me to do what I need to do with it as well, such as complete assignments, stay up late, not have time for mediations (mostly towards the end of the semester) and the list could go on. What I believe is most important though, however, is that I have learned the important skills needed to take care of my body in a mental way, which is weird to think about as the brain is mental, but to really let my body go and do what it needs to do.

The dancing mindfulness days have really helped out with that and it allows my body to speak to me, which I did not think was necessarily possible before. This class has equipped me with the tools to not only take care of my body in a different way than I thought possible before, but to also approach thinking in other ways as well. Before the class began, if I were to have seen a mandala, my interpretation would have been vanilla or just taken at face value. However, through learning about Jung and how he interprets them, my mind feels like it has expanded and I can see the world in a different view, which is weird to think about, but it really has.

The tools that I have learned in class will definitely be used in my everyday life, and for that I will be forever thankful for the opportunity to experience this class, especially with the other students I was able to experience this with. The class has been truly remarkable and I will be sad to not have this class next semester.

The mandalas I have drawn throughout the semester, I believe, have grown and expanded immensely. One thing right away that I would like to point out about them is that they used to be full of color and drawn with a lot of thought, but as the semester goes on there is less color, and eventually I change to drawing in pencil and the drawings look as if I spent no time really thinking about it. This is a huge step for me because as someone who does not think of themselves as an artist, everything that I ever drew I tried my absolute best and thought about every little line that I drew. By the end of the semester, however, there is a drastic change in the fact that I no longer used color pencils and barely even thought about what I was drawing. I associate this with the growing ability to not think as much during the dancing mindfulness portion. At the beginning of that all I did was think as well, so I never reached that amazing part where everything was so different, new, and just beautiful.

There is something that I notice right away that changes with my mandalas throughout the semester. The drawings go from being colorful and thought out to being black and white and whatever I was feeling at that moment, and therefore not as neat and infinitely more symbolic of myself. I would like to think that the mandalas that I drew later on in the semester are more symbolic of what Carl Jung would say is “the psychological expression of the totality of the self” (mandalazone).

There is one mandala in particular that I would like to really delve into, and it happens to be the one that I drew during our most recent dancing mindfulness day. The mandala depicts what I believe is the world or place that I go to during meditations and during dancing mindfulness. There is a sun that is made up of squiggly lines and swirls and clouds. Energy can be seen in the sky with the wind and the ground as well. In the middle there are of course flowers, which seem to be a recurring theme with me, as well as an individual who seems to resemble me who is emitting some energy. Around the individual there are words such as peace, non-judgement, headspace, truth, spirituality, nature, and love. What I really like about this mandala is how much it focuses on the energy. At the time I was just drawing whatever came into my head, not really thinking about any of it. But as I am looking at it now, I am finding that there is a lot of energy going on, and in the sky it all seems very relaxed, but in the ground it all looks chaotic with all of the lines going on top of one another. This tells me that the earth or wherever I may be is very chaotic. This could be a model for how mother earth is feeling, but could also be what I am feeling at this time as well. Since it is the end of the semester and finals are approaching, it would make sense that the energy in the ground is very hectic and all over the place. However, in the middle and above that, however, it is much less chaotic and in the sky the energy is once again very relaxed. I believe that this could mean that after finals there is a sense of peace that will be waiting for me in the summer; the sun and how it shines could resemble the Florida sunshine that I will definitely be in this summer at Disney.

What is interesting, however, is how Jung says that mandalas that people create tend to have motifs that are symbolic to the number four, or something he calls, “quaternity” (redicecreations). What is crazy to me is that I had to do a double take when I read this because I knew that I had this quaternary factor in my mandala because of the flowers I drew. Jung says that this was symbolic of “squaring the circle” and also symbolizes chaos in four elements, which will then be combined to form a higher sense of power. This could be found in the flowers I drew because there are four petals that are coming out of the center of the flower, which are the petals forming into one.

So why are these mandalas so important? Mandalas are used as symbols of our natural energy that we feel and helps us become a more holistic version of ourselves. The mandalas that we end up drawing are really symbols of ourselves in a physical state as our body and who we are in the world as well as psychologically, and we can see this through what we draw, the colors we use, and where things are drawn within it (Lecture, April 2016). For instance, in class when we did an exercise, we noticed that my shape was outlined in green, which could signify that I am outwardly making an effort to begin healing, like resting after a long last few weeks of the semester. Even though we may not be able to fully understand mandalas, they are a great way to in a physical sense see what our bodies are feeling (creatingmandalas).

Through these experiences I have learned so much about non-judgement and how it does not matter what people think outside of class either. I should do what I want when I want because I want to. This may seemed self-centered, but in a world where everyone does things so society can judge and say that that is normal and okay, this is a huge breakthrough. Everything that happens in this class can truly be applied to real life and can be used every day, and that is not something that I can say for every class so it is really much appreciated.

This semester we, as students, have been given the opportunity to not only draw and interpret our mandalas, but also interpret other students’ mandalas as well. Tatyana was nice enough to interpret my mandalas, and she had some great input about them. I absolutely loved what she had to say about my mandala that included the boat that had a bubble with different universe’s and possibilities within them. While she clearly cannot read my mind and no exactly what I was drawing or thinking about in that moment, she did a spectacular job at interpreting the mandala in a way where I can see where she is coming from and agree with that interpretation as well. Tawney is able to fluently talk about the moon, the stars, and the boat concerning how the boat longs to be with the both of them, but the moon does not require company. She also talks about how the stars represent the want for control, but as a boat the sea is endless and there is really no way to truly control an ocean that big when your boat is so small.

Tawney also talked about how she had some issues coming up with interpretations for the mandalas that were colored in because she had trouble relating to them, which I understand completely, and she is not necessarily wrong either. Like I said before, I really had these thoughts planned out in my head about what I was going to draw for the most part when I drew in color, so it would make sense for Tawney to have difficulty really being able to interpret what was drawn. However, I still think that she does a great job at doing her best to interpret them. She was absolutely correct in the drawing of the couple and the colors when she says that it does not suggest sadness. I love her idea of two ideas of art, one being nature (the sky) and the other manmade (the umbrella) coming together to make something beautiful. She continues to do a beautiful job when she interprets the third mandala of a couple looking up at stars at night as well. I love how she says that the couple star gazes to try and understand and appreciate the unknown and beauty of that in the universe. Tawney also mentions the couple trying to find a true meaning in the sky even if the meaning they are looking for is clouded by the earth.

This class has caused a whirlwind of emotions in the best possible way. I have learned so much about who I am and how much I can truly accomplish in this world. I feel as if I have formed a better sense of self and my worth in this world as one individual on this huge earth and even bigger universe that is amongst many more. There is so much that is to be taken away from this class, and Marich does a beautiful job at describing what it truly is.

“Dancing Mindfulness uses the art form of dance as the primary medium of discovering mindful awareness. Dancing through seven primary areas of mindfulness in motion: breath, sound, body, story, mind, spirit, and fusion (of all elements), with a respect to the attitudes of mindfulness, participants tap into their body’s own healing resources and realize that we all have a unique creativity just waiting to be cultivated” (dancingmindfulness.com).

Everyone on this earth should be able to take time out of their lives to at least try this out once because it is something that is priceless to experience and there is so much to gain. I am so happy that I was able to experience the class exactly the way it was with the professor, the students, and all the memories that came along with it. It was truly an experience that I will never forget and will be used for the rest of my life.

References

Barreda, P. P. (n.d.). Archetype of Wholeness: Jung and the Mandala. Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://mandalazone.com/wordpress/archetype-of-whol...

Clogston, C. (n.d.). On the Nature of Four – Jung's Quarternity, Mandalas, the Stone and the Self. Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=1722

Eastman, R. (2016, April 19). Lecture.

Fincher, S. (n.d.). Psychology of the Mandala. Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://creatingmandalas.com/psychology-of-the-mand...

Marich, J. (n.d.). The Practice. Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.dancingmindfulness.com/the-practice.htm...