Mandala

This blog post is all about me. I think sometimes it is important for us to take a look inside ourselves to understand ourselves, why we do the things we do for instance. I don't mind sharing this personal information with anyone. But if you don't feel comfortable doing the same, make the mandala and keep it for yourself.

Mandala

In my Psychology class we learned different theories on how personalities are formed. One that stuck out to my professor was Carl Jung's Analytical Psychology. This may sound like another language, but I urge you to understand this. A Mandala is a physical representation of self. This description shows our self-archetype/image. It contains symbols that mean something to that person. Above is my mandala. It it all m design and would match no one but myself.

The Artwork

In general, I am slightly more of an introvert. I can keep thoughts and feelings inside as long as I want. Most times, I prefer to be alone rather than with groups of people. But on the other hand, I am very much an extravert. I enjoy being sociable and I have been known to be extremely outgoing. More recently, the outgoingness has become hidden within me. I want it to come back out and I am working on my confidence level. To show these on my mandala, I started in the middle. To me, the middle was more of my introverted ways. It was the easiest design to come up with. It’s the dark part because the part of me that I don’t like (it goes into my shadow). The extroverted part of me became the outside of my mandala because it is the part that I want people to see more of, that is part of the reason why it is the brighter section of my mandala (it goes into my persona).

That Dark Part of my Personality

I took the shadow part of my unconscious literally. I used dark colors to show the part of me that I keep quiet. As a personal rule, I hate people until I get to know them. That way if they do something to hurt me, it doesn’t hurt me emotionally because I have expected it. Not even the strange sexual things that the shadow represents, but even just table manners. I would love to slurp my soup but it is rude in front of people at dinner.

The Persona That Is Me

My persona I displayed in colors as well. Because even though I have dark spots in my thoughts, I am a happy person when the sun is out. Bright colors keep me happy around people so I don’t speak the things I am keeping to myself. It also represents that even though I have these dark spots in my personality that I keep hidden, I keep the bright colors out front to remind people that I am a nice person once you get to know me. 

 Who Has Shaped My Personality?

The four individuals who have most shaped my personality are my mom, my dad, my sister and my brother. I chose to show them through Chinese characters. This is because I believe the Mandarin language is beautiful. The characters they give to words (which themselves are explanations of things we are describing) are beautiful. The top character is the symbol for mother. She is such a hard worker and will do anything to help me out when I need it. The character on the right is the symbol for father. My dad is the smartest person I have ever met and I am just like him. I honestly believe that I am my dad’s favorite child (though he could never admit that). The character on the left is the symbol for brother. He is younger than me and looks up to me. He is definitely the spoiled one, but I’m the one he looks up to, not my sister. The character on the bottom is the symbol for sister. She is on the bottom because she is my backbone. She keeps me in check, morally, because she is a better person than me. She is my built-in best friend. While she looks up to me, I keep her close by my side for advice. I can talk to her about anything and she can talk to me about anything. I can count on her to defend me and she can count on me. It works out for both of us. 

If you have any questions as to what any of these mean, I urge you to check out Carl Jung's Symbolism Definitions. These may take a bit to understand but it was an interesting project for me.