Creativity in the Time of Covid-19 – Mandala Coloring – Free Downloads #1
April 2nd, 2020
Creativity in the Time of Covid-19 – Mandala Coloring – Free Downloads #1
This blog post is part 1 of mandala coloring downloads from my Mandalas Every Day coloring book. I’ll share more of these and other mandala downloads in weeks to come. Instructions* and notes** about printing the PDFs, sending via the internet or snail mail are at the end of this blog.
Here’s more info and photos of my coloring book
Many of us are staying at home in this strange space of “extra” time, mixed in with the stress and worries about the dangerous corona virus and uncertainty of the future. Hopefully this form of coloring will help bring some calm in this very scary time for all of us. Of course, mandala coloring is more that calming, it is a fun creative activity too. Children and adults can color these pages as shared creative projects or they can be colored alone as serene solitary creating.
In my mandala coloring book there are two pages of the same design.
One page has 4 of the same mandala so color variation can be done on the same page.
Here is the PDF download of 4 Celtic Knot mandalas mandala-1-celtic-knot-4-up
These mandalas (from the book cover) were colored with color pencil.
It’s fun to create all the variations
My own experience with coloring mandalas began about fifteen years ago. I was searching for a form of deep creativity. Mandalas showed up. I spent weeks painting my own mandala designs and had an at home mandala “retreat”. That retreat was as powerful as some of the months long meditation retreats I experienced decades before. Soon after I developed mandala workshops so others could share this deep way of creating. In 2008 I created and published a coloring book titled “Mandalas Every Day, for Children and Adults”. Until 2018 I experienced mandalas as a way of connecting to a deep inner creative core of, but never to calm me down.
Here is a PDF download of the Celtic Knot mandala mandala-1-celtic-knot-large
This is the 2nd mandala download in the blog post,
4 Arrow mandalas from my mandala coloring book
Here is the PDF download mandala-9-arrows-4-up
Here is the PDF download for the Arrow mandala mandala-9-arrows-large
This Arrow mandala was printed on cardstock paper.
The red, green and blues are oil pastels.
The black, yellows and brown are watercolor.
The oil pastels hold the water colors inside their outlines.
Watercolor works best with heavy paper.
I never knew how powerful coloring mandalas could be until this was the only thing that would calm me down during a very scary experience that took place during a silent retreat in Big Sur, California.
Big Sur Mandala – Created to calm myself
In late Feb. 2018 I went to a Benedictine Monastery high on a hillside looking over the Pacific. I was there by myself in a small cloistered cottage, spending every day in silence. The only contact with others was in the serene chapel and at the bookstore. A year before I scheduled a similar retreat at the same place, but it was cancelled when heavy rains caused huge mudslides closing off the roads north and south of most of Big Sur, trapping people with no way in or out. A year later, only the north road was open. I drove along Hwy 1 with many newly paved roads to the Monastery. The southern route was still buried under a land slide. The first two days were sunny and beautiful, then it started to rain.
As always, this part of Big Sur had no cell phone service or internet. A day passed with lots of rain. My cottage was cozy, but safe in a mudslide? In the morning of the second day of rain I went to the bookstore. The monk at the counter said only .5 inches of rain were forecast. But that day it rained all day and night. I panicked. I tried yoga, I couldn’t do it. I tried meditating, I couldn’t do it. I took out my papers and pens and started creating familiar round shapes. I colored and colored the mandalas I created. The shapes and bright shiny inks brought a sense of peace. I wrote prayers and words thinking about the healing of those I knew. I wrote about safety, family, friends and about the world. I imagined safety and healing for all in the embrace of the mandala’s beauty. After hours of coloring, I was able to I sleep. In the morning the rain had stopped, but more was coming. I decided to leave a day early. I went to the bookstore to check out. Instead of the .5 inch rain forecast, it had rained 5 inches in the last 24 hours. I left and drove north, passing several cleared small mudslides, never so happy to be on flatter ground a few hours later. Happy too that mandalas helped me through a very frightening time.
Let these mandalas in this blog and the ones you color bring relaxation, enjoyment, calm and healing.
Stay well. Stay safe.
Linda
*These PDFs are sized for 8.5×11 sheets of paper. Regular printer paper works with crayons, colored pencils, markers and oil pastels. All these art materials also work with cardstock paper. Watercolors work best with heavier paper, like cardstock. Most printers will print 65 lb. cardstock paper.
Take a photo of what you create and send via the internet. If printed on card stock, the paper is heavy enough to be cut into postcards and send via snail mail. This info from the USPS: As long as your postcard is not larger that 4¼″ x 6″ (but at least 3½″ x 5″) you can mail them at the 34¢ rate.
Send what you create (via snail mail or internet) to family, friends and others who could use a bit of beauty in these trying times. Send especially to the heroes who are working to keep others alive and healthy and those working in their jobs to keep our world going.
** These mandala images are for personal use only. They are copyrighted by me. Please honor this request.
