Thank you for being here.
And for choosing to make yourself a priority today.
This is your Mandala Card of the Day.
A gentle pause to breathe.
Reflect.
And reconnect with something that may be waiting for you.
Before we begin,
I invite you to have a journal or blank page nearby,
Along with a pen.
There's time in this session for journaling.
For now,
Allow yourself to settle in.
There's nothing to fix,
Nothing to figure out.
Just be here in this moment.
With this breath.
When you are ready.
Gently close your eyes and let's begin.
Take a slow breath in through your nose.
And a long breath out through your mouth.
Again,
Breathing in calm and steady.
And breathing out,
Releasing whatever you've been carrying today One more time,
Inhale,
Letting yourself arrive fully here.
And exhale,
Soft and complete.
Now allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm.
Notice the quiet space you've created.
Notice that you are here,
Present.
The theme for today is creating.
And I want to begin with a question that I think deserves more honest attention than most of us give it.
When did you last make something?
Not complete a task,
Not produce a deliverable,
Not finish something on your to-do list.
But genuinely make something.
Something that came through your hands and did not exist in the world before you made it.
For most of us,
The honest answer is,
Longer ago than I'd like to admit.
And something quietly dims when we go too long without making.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi spent decades studying what he called flow.
That state of consciousness that arises when we are so fully absorbed in what we're doing that self-consciousness disappears,
Time stops mattering,
And we become,
For a while,
Simply the act itself.
What he found was that flow is one of the most reliable sources of genuine happiness available to human beings.
Not the happiness of achievement,
Not the satisfaction of finishing,
But the aliveness of being fully,
Completely,
Presently inside something while it's happening.
And the activities most likely produce flow,
He discovered,
Are the ones where we're making something.
Where our skill is being genuinely stretched.
Where the challenge is just beyond our comfort,
But not so far beyond it that we lose our way.
That particular aliveness,
The feeling of being inside the making.
Is one of the most distinctly human experiences available to us.
And it's one most of us are not giving ourselves nearly enough of.
I know this from my own creative life.
Mandalas have been an anchor for me.
For as long as I can remember,
There's been something about the circular form,
The repetition,
The way a pattern builds on itself,
That quiets the thinking mind and lets something else come through.
But what has surprised me most over the years is how much joy I found in letting the practice evolve.
I've made mandalas in glass,
In watercolor,
In alcohol inks,
India inks,
Line drawing,
Painted stones.
Each medium brought something different.
A different quality of attention,
A different kind of surprise.
And what I've learned is that keeping it fresh,
Letting it change,
Letting it surprise me is what keeps the joy alive.
Because here's what I've discovered about the creative process that nobody warned me about.
The mistake is often the best part.
I almost always begin with an idea,
A sense of where I'm going,
And then something happens.
A line goes somewhere unexpected.
A color bleeds in a direction I did not plan.
A shape emerges that I did not intend.
And if I'm open to it.
That mistake becomes the new direction.
What flows out surprises even me.
And that surprise,
That moment of the work becoming something other than what I intended.
Is where the deepest joy in creativity lives.
Not in the finished piece,
But in the moment of discovery.
And the aliveness of following something that is emerging.
Rather than executing something already decided.
Sheikh Sentmihai would recognize this immediately.
Because flow is not control.
It is the opposite of control.
It is the willingness to be fully present to what is actually happening.
Rather than what you intended to happen.
That is what making something offers you.
A return to presence,
A return to aliveness.
A return to the joy of being genuinely surprised by what comes through your own hands and being immersed in the challenge of something new.
Take a moment now.
And let your awareness soften inward Notice your hands,
The hands that have made things,
That know how to hold a pen,
A brush,
A tool.
Whatever it is you make with.
Let them rest for a moment.
And simply notice what it feels like.
To be someone who makes things.
When you focus in on that.
What does that bring to mind?
Perhaps a warmth,
A longing,
A spark of something that has been waiting to be picked up again.
Whatever arises,
It is time for us to gently carry that onto the page.
Now I invite you to pick up your pen and paper,
Take a moment to settle,
Softening your breath,
Relaxing your body.
This is your Journal Prompt today.
Begin with what you love.
What do you most love to make or create?
And what does that experience feel like when you're fully inside it?
Think about that quality of aliveness.
That arrives when you're creating and everything else falls away.
What are the things that you do that take you into those moments?
Then,
Think about what gets in the way of that.
What kinds of obstacles stand in your way of doing more making with more joy?
Is it your inner critic?
The fear that it won't be good enough?
Not making the time?
The habit of putting everyone else's needs before your own creative life?
What is it that stands in your way?
And finally,
Write down some ideas of what you can do to resolve that.
What is one small act of making that you could give yourself this week?
I invite you to write freely without editing or judgment.
Simply let whatever wants to be expressed come onto the page.
I invite you to bring your writing gently to a close.
Take a slow breath in.
And a soft breath out.
As we come to the end of this practice,
I invite you to place one hand gently on your heart.
I'll share an affirmation now.
You're welcome to repeat it silently or out loud,
Allowing the words to land in your body.
I give myself permission to make things.
I give myself permission to make things.
Creating is not a luxury.
Creating is not a luxury.
It is how I've returned to myself.
It is how I return to myself.
I am someone who makes things with joy.
I am someone who makes things with joy.
And what flows through me is genuinely,
Beautifully mine.
And what flows through me is genuinely,
Beautifully mine.
Take one more breath,
Feeling grounded,
Present,
And a little more alive.
Thank you for giving yourself this time today.
Each time you return to this practice,
You are strengthening something important.
Your relationship with your own creative life.
Your willingness to make time for the thing that makes you feel alive.
And your growing trust.
The mistake,
The unexpected turn,
The thing that surprises even you is not a failure.
It is the practice of working exactly as it should.
It is living in the moment and embracing creativity.
If today's practice resonated with you,
I'd love to invite you to go deeper.
I have a 10-day audio journaling course called Return to Joy.
A guided experience that combines science-backed reflection,
EFT tapping,
And journaling.
To help you reconnect with what matters most and move forward with lightness,
Clarity and joy.
And if you'd like to continue this daily practice with me,
Please follow me here on Insight Timer so you never miss a new session.
New guided practices are added regularly and I'd love to have you with me.
Until then,
Make something this week,
Anything.
And if you make a mistake,
Stay open to where it wants to take you.
That is where the joy lives.
