Circles for Self Awareness Advancement

Bee Happy from the Inside Out

The bees were out the other day. The weather was warm enough.

Today's a little too cold out there for bees to be out and about.

I wonder what that's like for them. To be frolicking in flight sipping the sweets of nature one day, and the next being held captive inside from an inhospitable environment.

How do we experience the same? Do we feel on top of the world when things go well in our life, and then turn inwards, feel insecure and out of sync when things do not? Is our way of bee-ing affected so much by the environment around us?  Possible. Maybe a little for some, and too much for others. Sometimes I too can forget my umbrella of self-awareness that shields out the rain.

If the environment (what happens on the outside of who we are), changes so much around us, why make 'happiness' reliant on it?  Is it not better to pivot around one's center of self-awareness, that sense of self that is connected to the source?

I don't believe the weather puts a halt on the work that bees need to get done for colony sustainability and well-being. There's cells to clean, honey to cap, brood to nurse and other to keep busy at on an 'indoor day'.

So here is what I propose: On the days where the world around us seems to be caught in a storm - look at them as "indoor play dates". Kinda like indoor recesses and lunches play time - once upon an elementary school time.... We can look at those inhospitable days as a 'play date with self', that is, a time of self-reflection, creativity, and self-awareness advancement - so that we can maintain that high frequency humming buzz within always enjoying the 'nectar' and sweetness of life.

Here's one way to practice an 'indoor me day':

MAKE A MANDALA.

And here's one way how-to:

1.  Create a ‘contained space’ in which you will communicate from the heart through creative artwork.  Find a piece of paper or another kind of blank canvass on which you will draw, trace or cut out a Circle - in which you will create your Mandala masterpiece.

2.  Choose your medium of choice. It doesn’t matter what you use to draw/paint with – go with whatever you feel like – this may change from creation to creation. Mix it up. Be color coordinated or chaotic – use one or a variety of mediums - it doesn’t matter.

3.  Let whatever surfaces manifest in art form. When you speak from the heart you are not thinking from the head – nor should you critic or judge what you are creating – it is what it is. Go with the flow, trust in what surfaces, allow it to manifest in creative form, don’t judge the finished product.

4.  Learn from the process. Learning is not so much from creating a finished product, rather it is in the process of creating itself, the thoughts and feelings that move through you as you create. Also, you may have no idea what it is your heart is saying until you reflect more deeply on the process, and on what you created.

5.  Believe that Mandalas are all about heart.  Some people think that Mandalas should be symmetrical in design, with repeated shapes & colors throughout the circumference of the art form to be considered a Mandala. This is not true, although there are many beautiful Mandalas that are like this. Open up to what your heart is saying and allow whatever shape, design, color that manifest within the circle canvass space. Creating Mandalas are about moving out of the head and into 'heart' space - a meaningful meditative creative expression of sorts.

6.  Enjoy the creative process. It is far easier to get the creative juices flowing, to undertake a creative task, etc. when one is "in joy" ("enjoy"), that is, when you engage in what it is you do from a place of joy and gratitude. Creativity and joy flow from the same place - the heart.
7. Reflect on the process. Opportunity to gain more insight and learning can be found when you take time to reflect more deeply on your work through creative writing (journal, freestyle, poems, etc.). Start with giving your Mandala a "title" and go from there.

Mandala Instructions from 2011 POST: http://bumblebeecircle.blogspot.ca/2011/12/creative-circles.html