Continuing with Principle #1 from Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles” about being 100% responsible for your own life, I set the intention today to examine the idea of change. If I’m not happy with what is, than I’m responsible for changing my part in it. He reminds us also that we only have control over three things: the thoughts we think, the images we visualize, and the actions we take. If we don’t like them, change them.
For this version of “Responsible” I felt compelled to paint it using acrylics on an 8”x8” canvas. This is the first time I’ve ever painted a Mandala of the Day. Several things I had to change in order to make this happen. 1) I couldn’t print the mandala on the canvas, so I “drew” out the pattern with paint, 2) I had to let go of drawing out precisely, so I allowed myself to do a loose interpretation, and 3) I had to pay attention to when the paint was wet and when it was dry so as to know whether I wanted to blend or have a definitive edge. All in all it took a different skillset than usual to create this mandala.
I’m realizing that the more I embrace change, the smoother things go for me. In one of my therapy sessions years ago, I was complaining yet again about what my parents were doing or not doing. She suggested something that I needed to change, to which I whined to her “Why do I have to change? Why don’t they change?” To which she replied: “because you can. They can’t. It’s not even in their awareness that they can change.” Essentially she was telling me that if I want to feel better about things in my life, I’m going to have to change. It sucks sometimes but in the end it’s totally worth. I’m grateful for this reminder about change.
“If you change the way
— Wayne Dyer
you look at things,
the things you look at
change.”
An Invitation
I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in more of a self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”.
Feel free to share you colorings on social media with the hashtag #2023MOTD. I’d love to see what comes up for you. I’ll be posting my colorings here on the MandalaoftheDay as well as on FB and IG (@themandalalady). On IG I’ll also be posting time-lapsed videos of my colorings.
BTW…on my IG postings (@themandalalady) I also include time-lapsed videos of my colorings/paintings.
Mandala of the Day 