Creating a Mandala

Purpose and goals:

To cultivate mindful awareness, emotional grounding, and self-reflection through the creation of a mandala—a circular form symbolizing wholeness. This intervention supports clients in shifting from mind FULL (crowded, overwhelmed, reactive) to mindful (aware, spacious, centered). Mandala-making offers a tangible way to explore internal states, reduce stress, and create a visual anchor clients can return to in moments of dysregulation.

• Increase mindfulness through focused, circular, repetitive art-making.

• Support self-awareness of internal states such as burnout, exhaustion, calm, gratitude, or clarity.

• Encourage emotional regulation through structured, rhythmic creative activity.

• Foster a sense of wholeness and integration by working within a circular form.

• Strengthen nonverbal self-expression and insight.

• Provide a grounding reminder clients can return to later when needing recentering.

Theoretical Rationale:

Potash and colleagues found that mandala-making among end-of-life care workers revealed patterns related to emotional exhaustion, burnout, coping, and internal landscapes. Mandalas acted as visual indicators of affective states and supported workers in recognizing stress, needs, and emotional boundaries.

• The circular form naturally guides the mind inward, promoting contemplation and calm.

• Creating a mandala encourages attention to breath, texture, color, and pattern. This shifts the nervous system from reactivity to awareness, helping individuals practice noticing internal states without judgment.

• Drawing, sculpting, or arranging mandala forms uses rhythmic and repetitive movements that support emotional grounding.

Art-Making:

Use circular templates or paper with colored pencils, markers, pastels, watercolor, or clay. Optional: natural or found objects (stones, flowers, sticks) for an arranged mandala

• Settle into mindfulness. Invite participants to pause, breathe naturally, and notice sensations.

Prompt: “Take a moment to feel your breath. Notice whether your mind feels full or spacious right now. There’s no judgment—just awareness.”

• Gather tools, templates, and materials

Prompt: “Create a circle—symbolizing wholeness, balance, and connection. This circle is the container for your inner landscape today. Inside your circle, begin creating patterns, colors, textures, or symbols. There is no right or wrong. Let your hand move slowly and mindfully.”

Encourage:

Give time check-ins: halfway, 5 mins left, 1-min warning before closing art-making phase

Reflection:

After art-making is done, cue the client to observe their mandala and observe their breathe.

• What does your mandala represent for you today?

• What feelings, images, or sensations emerged?

• What helped you bring you back when your mind wandered?

• What might your mandala be telling you about your needs?

• Is there anything you want to return to later as a reminder to recenter?