Gentle Spirit: Accessing the Light Within

This has been a few week of enormous change in the collective whether we support this change or not. I found myself getting very caught up in fear based media posts both on the radio and online, something that I usually don't allow myself to do. Catching myself in the act, I took time out to meditate and to connect to the inner self, the light within. That which we can control. I began to reflect on the piece that you see here which I created perhaps a week or two ago. When I was making this, there felt to be a very gentle energy and light about it and a profound sense of something higher at work.

Oftentimes when we do inner healing work or energy work, things that need to be healed will present themselves into our lives, sometimes quite forcefully and in ways that we might not relish. Reflecting on this mandala, it felt that there is a healing happening on a collective level, something that needs to be brought to the surface in order to be cleared, difficult though it might be, depending on your outlook. When doing personal healing work, it is always important to stay grounded and to self care radically. One thing that I have learned from mandala making, is that what happens on the micro level also happens on the macro level...it is a mirror. The principle of correspondence. So taking that philosophy to what is perhaps a collective healing would imply a need for us as individuals and as a society to stay grounded and for self care and care for those around us.

If you haven’t already read Viktor Frankl’s wonderful book, Man’s Search For Meaning, you should try get yourself a copy. Frankl, a prisoner in a Nazi death camp and also a trained psychiatrist, writes about the psychology of imprisonment from his own experiences during WWII. He describes how he found beauty in the most horrendous of circumstances. One of the most striking parts of the book for me was his observation on the contrasting psychologies of those who survived and those who tragically met their end. He describes how survivors had an ability to find small joys in the every day, be that savouring a hot drink, watching a sunset or simply sharing a smile with a fellow inmate. By seeking and choosing to appreciate the smallest moments, these people were able to focus their attention on what little they could control: their own emotional response.

So the message with this mandala is to take time to savour the good things in life with gratitude, be they big, be they small. Take time to go to a silent space and connect with yourself in whatever way works for you. Random acts of kindness might also be a good one...pay the toll for the car behind you at a toll booth, give your shop loyalty points to the person behind you in a queue and watch how they light up! We have more power to change what is around us than we can possibly imagine!
 
This work measures 42cm x 42cm and is available for sale. Please email me at [email protected] for details. If you are in Christmas shopping mode, my book is available in all good bookshops in Ireland and also on Amazon. It would make a lovely gift.