Defining who we are, what we love, and what makes us happy are seemingly simple questions, but if we stop to analyze them, they may not be so obvious. Answering them requires diving into a journey of self-discovery, which can seem like a daunting and difficult process. What if I told you that there is a colorful infographic that exposes aspects of our experiences and feelings based on lunar cycles – that is, it starts on the first day of the new moon, goes through the waxing crescent, full moon, and waning crescent phases, ending one day before the next new moon? Well, this is the Lunar Mandala.
On its pages, you will write daily records based on a color legend and bookmark icons. The colors will represent sensations and feelings (calm, intuition, love, creativity, sadness, anguish, for instance), each color alluding to one. Simple illustrations will do the job of icons. They can be hearts, dashes, polka dots, arrows, punctuation marks, elements of nature, or symbologies, the sky’s the limit! Their function in the mandala will be to mark actions (conflicts, sexual relations, dialogues, dreams, visits to different places…), habits (physical exercises, studies, meditation, practical hobbies, running…), and use of addictive substances (alcohol, tobacco, coffee, sugar…) and, in the case of recording the menstrual cycle, it is valid to add notes on ovulation, cramps, and pain.
After organizing your caption, just find the day of the month in the mandala and paint the rings with the colors of the emotions felt, also drawing the icons referring to the routine. It is worth mentioning that even the intensity with which the rings are colored is a given – the stronger the application of color, the more present the feeling was.
Okay, but how will the Lunar Mandala help me to know who I am and embark on this path of self-knowledge? Your answers are in the 7 reasons below!
#1 it Ensures daily time with ourselves
The rush of everyday life tends to keep us in a hurry and feeling the need to be productive every second. One function of the mandala is to calm tempers and set aside a moment each day for us to sit back, enjoy our own company, and do the daily report. “I came to understand the proposal brought in the book (Lunar Mandala), which is to have a history of everything you have been living, as well as a break time when you must sit down for a minute of your day and reflect on what you have lived, on your emotions, where you went that day and how it affected you”, says the specialist therapist Renata Harder.
It may not seem like it, but this time set aside to take a step on the journey of self-knowledge is essential for us to evolve more every day. In this way, we perform each activity with more attention and focus, in addition to actually understanding what we are doing, instead of just activating the automatic mode.
The proof is the therapist’s own experience during a career change process, which was only possible with inner attention. “The Lunar Mandala gave me more autonomy to make a lot of decisions. I made a career transition and in that period I started using it. That’s when I got to see many things that sometimes passed me by. (…) I questioned if I should be doing this, and it was then that I began to understand that it was just a phase – of introspection, for me to introject these projects, digest them and then bring them to the world. I established my career change project through the mandala. (…) I had more clarity and validated many of the emotions that were hidden, and being left aside, because the demand of the modern world does not look at this movement of the feminine, of menstruation”, Renata says.
#2 it Helps us build a sense of discipline and organization
As we mentioned before, a 24-hour day seems a little short for so many things we have to do. That’s why we tend to exclude tasks that seem to be “less important”, just because they are not linked to work or studies. As a consequence, we gradually lose ourselves for lack of moments with our own company, in which we can feel the pleasure of being with our thoughts. Therefore, as it is a daily requirement, the mandala must ensure this daily moment of peace. The photographer and designer Bruna Dédalo expressed: “I could see how it gave me feedback about myself. I was forcing myself more and more to do it every day until I got into the habit. Today, it’s a part of my routine. Nowadays I am a Lunar Mandala promoter because I have seen how many benefits it has brought me”.
#3 it Allows a broad knowledge of our emotions
“The mandala also proposes a connection with nature, with natural flows, spring, autumn, winter, summer, with the phases of the moon. It creates a more organic movement, taking you out of the routine of everyday life. It affects relationships, emotions, work, and financial life, as you build up a history, perceptions, actions… And just the act of having something to look at and perceive yourself allows for the development of self-esteem and self-care”, says the therapist Renata Harder. And I must say that her words express the most sincere truth. As the mandala is being filled in, the diagrams are revisited and interpreted, a fundamental action to establish correlations, and cyclical patterns and assist in the construction of personal history. By observing the constancy of certain colors or symbols and the absence of others over some time, it is possible to perceive our behaviors in certain phases, how we are affected by different places or people, and how the lunar and menstrual cycles cause oscillations in one’s body and way of thinking, which seasons provoke a greater predisposition or indisposition, among several other aspects. The math teacher Tai Guima shared how the use of the mandala was fundamental to processing her feelings at an unprecedented moment in her life: “In February I was robbed. I was with a couple of friends and only my things were taken. The mandala helped me a lot to observe how I behaved in this unpleasant situation. Taking my notes, I noticed that my anxiety increased a lot after what happened and I started to involuntarily strain my neck, so it got stiffed for almost a week. As I observed all these changes, I had to focus even more on my self-care. It was very important that I did my yoga practice at this moment, had my tea, really love and welcomed myself in this very destabilizing moment”.
Therefore, the Lunar Mandala acts as a behavioral autobiography, revealing how the external impacts us and how we exhale our internal energy, varied according to our emotions and sensations.
#4 it Reveals how we are affected by different periods or environments
Since it is organized by lunations, there is a cyclical rhythm in the record of the Lunar Mandala. This way of writing allows us to perceive how each month, season, or moon phase affects our emotions and our routine. The intense presence of a certain color or symbol in the full moon phase can mean something that only the registration in the mandala will make you realize. In addition, for those who record the menstrual cycle in parallel, the role of the mandala as a guide to body behavior is fundamental so that we can understand how our body behaves in each segment of the cycle and notice any eventual changes. Thus, we can enter a difficult phase more prepared.
It is worth mentioning that variations in daily practices and access to new environments can also affect us, and this impact is easily perceived if we compare the notes of the day in question with the rest of the cycle. Therefore, it is possible to know if the place was beneficial or not to our emotions.
#5 it helps to understand the menstrual cycle
If the mandala is already a powerful tool for everyone in many ways, for women who choose to record their menstrual cycle it’s like a best friend giving you advice and explaining the reason for every pain and emotion you feel. “It helped me a lot in every way: getting to know my emotions better, feelings and changes in the body during my period, realizing when I’m ovulating and how much all these changes affect me, cross me and change my mood, my body, my emotions”, said the teacher Tai Guima. The therapist Renata Harder adds: “It proposes themes from all sectors of life, proposes looking at the body. Because we, as women, have a special physical dynamic, that sometimes the routine does not contemplate”.
With the record, it is possible to see your patterns and potential during the menstrual cycle. For this, the appointments should be started from the first day of bleeding, lasting until the beginning of the next menstruation. At this point, as in the case of the lunations, a new cycle begins. Due to the similarity in the duration of these two processes, making a red dash on the mandala to separate the cycles is a good idea. After the analysis, issues that until then were pains and complaints during the cycle will have their causes explained and extraordinary capabilities of the female body will be shown.
Not only menstruation but also its absence through the use of birth control can also reveal countless layers of our inner soul. “I had been taking contraceptives for about ten years and I stopped two years ago. At that moment I was able to identify my entire cycle. I felt the variation of all feelings, emotions, and appearance – things I didn’t notice with birth control. I could understand another side of me that was quiet for ten years, because of the very linear contraceptive use. I was able to perceive my monthly patterns” – shares the photographer and designer Bruna Dédalo.
#6 it Serves as a point of support in difficult times
“I got to know the mandala in 2018. I was going through a process of change in my life and approaching my feminine, starting a deeply therapeutic process”, says Renata Harder. Like her, Tai Guima also shared the use of the Lunar Mandala as a guide for her questions: “I am loving to experience this, my doubts and confusions regarding certain situations flow over time. It’s as if my ability to look inside and see what I need to change was intensified”. And believe me, they are not the only ones. The mandala is much more than a drawing of your sensations. It is also support so that, during difficult phases, we can acquire self-knowledge on how to face them, whether based on our previous recorded experiences or just the feeling of being able to express pain and anguish as a way to take this weight off, understand it, and then overcome it.
#7 it Develops exploration of creativity
There are no rules when it comes to the Lunar Mandala, just as there are no rules on the path of self-knowledge. The space is completely blank, and it’s up to you to fill it with your physical, emotional, and mental aspects in whatever way suits you. You can change your subjects of study, organization of practices, decisions in professional life, and relationships, among many other things whenever you want! “At the end of the lunations, I even analyze in a critical way what has passed – to give me feedback about myself and evaluate emotions and behaviors – as well as my plans”. Just like Bruna Dédalo, after evaluating your cycle, you can decide how to proceed and what decisions to make. “You start to develop that self-knowledge and that self-responsibility through choices”, completes Renata. “For me, it was and still is a very important tool. I feel that I’m always rediscovering it because it has infinite possibilities of use. Nowadays I even work with men, with the same mandala – so it’s for everyone who struggles with emotions. And who doesn’t have feelings to be seen and taken care of, right?”, finalizes the therapist. Rediscovery is there and it is not a problem, but an opening to the freedom to be ourselves.
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The article above was edited by Giovana Lins Barbosa.
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