Great interest of participants was noted by the creative workshop from the cycle The creative canton, held last Wednesday, October 24, in the premises of the Opatija Association Kulturni front. This time, participants made mandalas using different techniques and used them for introspection and personal development. The organisers are extremely satisfied with the participants’ response and proud of their work – each of the mandalas made is special and different – as were the workshop participants.
They explained that mandala in Sanskrit means circle, and a word mandala translated and as the Magic Circle or The Holy Circle. Throughout history, they can be observed in the cultures of different peoples (Tibetans, Aztecs, Navaho Indians, etc.), and the very form of mandala can be found in nature all around us (e.g. snowflakes, flowers, spider web). Carl Jung used mandalas as a powerful technique for diagnosing his clients on psychotherapy, but also as a technique of integration, healing and return to oneself, and finding harmony with the world around us.
By making mandalas, we help ourselves to listen to our inner voice and find ourselves again, and achieve balance with the world / universe around us, by listening to our thoughts and feelings during the making of the mandala, and connect them into a whole after observing the finished mandala, which after receiving the instructions could be tried by the workshop participants themselves. The mandalas we make represent the image of us at this moment, all our thoughts and feelings that are currently conscious or unaware.
This was the fifth workshop from the cycle of creative workshops called The CreARTive Canton Organized by the Association Kulturni front, and was led by a member of the association, TajanaTopo Kero, graduate social worker, who has a fifteen-year experience of helping individuals, families and groups. In her work, she often uses creative expressive techniques, with additional four-year education from integral gestalt psychotherapy and educational art therapy workshop she attended.
