Coaching practices for Mandala Drawing Therapy
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Mandala Drawing Therapy, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I just came out of something huge and it’s all colors and images and feeling with no words yet
- My whole instinct is to push pain away and grab at anything that feels good, and I’m tired of how walled-off that makes me
- Since I started sitting in silence, old buried feelings and memories keep welling up during and after, and it unnerves me
- When I’m flat and depleted, trying to summon joy for anyone else feels like lifting a weight I just don’t have
- I’ve been fighting and trying to push away my own pain and it only tightens its grip
Practices that may help
- Draw a mandala immediately after the session
Express the imagery and emotional residue of the session through a spontaneous circular drawing before re-entering ordinary reality.
Holotropic Breathwork, Made Practical - Tonglen: sending and taking
Breathe in suffering (yours and others’); breathe out relief and well-being.
Lojong: Tibetan Mind Training - Allowing the "divine therapy" — psychological healing through practice
Expect that regular centering prayer surfaces buried emotional material, and allow it.
Centering Prayer: The Method of Thomas Keating - Using gratitude as a bridge to mudita
Before a mudita session, write one thing you are genuinely grateful for — it primes the positive-affect circuits mudita needs.
Mudita: How to Cultivate Sympathetic Joy - Practice tonglen for your own suffering first
Use your own current pain as the object before extending the practice to others.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Use flash tonglen in the moment of encountering suffering
A single in-breath of someone’s pain and an out-breath of goodwill is a complete act of tonglen.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending
Tonglen ("taking and sending") is a Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice in which the practitioner breathes in suffering — their own or another’s — and breathes out relief, ease, and goodwill. It works by deliberately moving toward pain rather than away from it, which gradually reduces the fear of suffering and expands the capacity for compassion. Evidence is largely clinical and mechanistic; direct RCTs on tonglen specifically are sparse, though compassion training more broadly shows meaningful effects. - Metta at the close — sharing merit and goodwill
End each sitting by radiating goodwill outward, softening any self-critical edge the practice surfaces.
Vipassana Meditation, Made Practical - Bindu trataka — gazing at a dot
Use a black dot on a white card instead of a candle for a portable, daylight-safe practice.
Trataka: The Yoga Practice of Fixed-Gaze Meditation - Expand tonglen to include all beings who share this suffering
Whatever you are suffering, countless others feel it too — breathe in the shared pain, breathe out shared relief.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending
Related concerns
- Brief Tonglen Daily Life
A single in-breath of someone’s pain and an out-breath of goodwill is a complete act of tonglen.
Use flash tonglen in the moment of encountering suffering
- Directed Tonglen Practice
Tonglen ("taking and sending") is a Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice in which the practitioner breathes in suffering — their own or another’s — and breathes out relief, ease, and goodwill. It works by deliberately moving toward pain rather than away from it, which gradually reduces the fear of suffering and expands the capacity for compassion. Evidence is largely clinical and mechanistic; direct RCTs on tonglen specifically are sparse, though compassion training more broadly shows meaningful effects.
- Flash Tonglen
A single in-breath of someone’s pain and an out-breath of goodwill is a complete act of tonglen.
- Hot Dark Heavy Tonglen
Breathe in something hot, dark, and heavy; breathe out something cool, bright, and spacious.
Work with the classical two-breath texture
- How To Practice Tonglen Meditation
Tonglen ("taking and sending") is a Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice in which the practitioner breathes in suffering — their own or another’s — and breathes out relief, ease, and goodwill. It works by deliberately moving toward pain rather than away from it, which gradually reduces the fear of suffering and expands the capacity for compassion. Evidence is largely clinical and mechanistic; direct RCTs on tonglen specifically are sparse, though compassion training more broadly shows meaningful effects.
- Informal Tonglen Practice
A single in-breath of someone’s pain and an out-breath of goodwill is a complete act of tonglen.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.