Nature Mandalas - Circles of Insight - Marilyn Laughlin, LCSW, RYT-500, Certified Nature Therapy Guide
- anewleaftherapy
- Sep 15
- 2 min read
Nature Mandalas. Ever make one? I had not. But the activity was suggested to me by a fellow therapist as a popular and effective therapist’s tool in groups or on retreats. Using nature-based therapy models, creating a nature mandala can help any of us identify and express emotions, provide insight about the present moment, or use it as a metaphor or intuitive message about a particular situation we are facing.
Fashioned after Tibetan mandalas (sanskrit word meaning circle) created by Buddhist monks using painted sand, a nature mandala is defined as:
an integrated structure organized around a unifying center that represents cycles and rhythms and a reminder that life is continuous. It is a grounding, restorative practice, inviting us to slow down, listen and find something you want to intuitively express.
With traditional sand mandalas, the art is destroyed once it is completed. When we create and destroy our own nature mandalas it represents a personal “letting go” or recognizing the impermanence of our suffering, or joy, and staying open to the positive benefits of our immediate experience.
Creating a nature mandala can also represent positive, new beginnings - finding seed pods or bird feathers both connote new growth and finding what you need for your future. Notice how you choose to arrange your pieces. Why do you choose your center piece? What is significant about the order you choose for the pieces in the circles? The items and their finished arrangement can represent our reflections about the recent past as the seasons change, or what we look forward to in our own cyclical changes.
Making a nature mandala can be incorporated into any nature walk or from items in your own gardens or on a walk in your neighborhood or park. Collect a few pieces (easily carried), and find a spot on the trail where you can spread out the items and create your own mandala. Starting with one central, unifying piece, place all of your items in a circular design around it. You can create multiple, small circles, or one larger circle depending on the amount of items in your collection. The theme for the mandala is based on your experience (open minded), intentional (focused to problem solve or inspire), or a “quest” (seeking spiritual or ethical messages). When you are finished, if you choose, take a photo of your mandala and then leave it as an offering of the sentiments it generates or scatter it as a symbol of letting go of control or releasing difficult, negative emotions.
To test out the fun and effectiveness of making a nature mandala, I collected pieces over 2 afternoon hikes, from the same woods in Beulah, CO. The recurring themes I found were resilience and the recurring of life and death (pine cones and acorns), wild flowers (cyclical changes and purposes), rocks (stability and continence), a Northern Flicker woodpecker feather (grounding and connecting with nature). I also brought mine home and created the finished mandala and then scattered the pieces into my back yard because I was writing about it and needed more time. Maybe I will get a mighty pine out of the seeds.
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