Our Five Major Themes...
Although our goal is to acknowledge and bring “wholeness” to all of the aspects of our Being, for educational purposes, we divide our programs into FIVE MAJOR THEMES. All of our retreats and workshop topics fall within the spectrum of these 5 themes and most often overlap and include elements of all of them.
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Practices of Health and Healing ›››
Spiritual and Religious Explorations ›››
Personal & Professional Development ›››
Creative Expression and the Arts ›››
Connections with Nature ›››
Practices of Health and Healing
This theme explores traditional, holistic, complimentary, alternative, and integrative healthcare practices – including the use of art, music, nature, movement, and writing as healing pathways. It also celebrates the body as a sacred vessel through which we experience our lives.
Stress is created by the conflict that arises when our thoughts and actions are not in harmony. Through relaxation, reflection, self-awareness, and study we can counter stress and improve our well-being.
In an airplane we are reminded to put on our own oxygen mask before helping others. Likewise, it is beneficial to gift ourselves with time for rest and recovery. Taking time to renew is not only a gift to yourself but to everyone in your life. It is not a luxury - it is a necessity in order to live a healthy and fulfilling life, to serve as a role model, and to be of service to others.
Spiritual and Religious Explorations
This theme explores methods for understanding our spiritual experiences and deepening our faith. It encourages learning how to become quiet and benefit from times of prayer, meditation, contemplation, and guidance for navigating life’s passages. It promotes deeper understanding and appreciation of the diversity found in a wide range of religious and spiritual practices while acknowledging the shared desires for peace, love and compassion.
The Mandala Center encourages an attitude of acceptance and openness to inner growth and reinforces the value of spiritual discovery. There is an inclusive view on how each person may experience God. As an interfaith sanctuary, The Mandala Center does not attempt to limit human experience to one interpretation of the Divine. All experiences of creation may serve to bring us closer to God and all traditions can offer something valid and relevant that may touch each person’s life.
Personal & Professional Development
This theme explores the vast range of human experience, purpose and expression. It focuses on developing communication skills, healthy relationships, creative talents, personal interests and psychological understanding of the human journey. It offers professionals in service and healthcare fields, such as therapists, ministers, social workers, nurses, teachers, and hospice caregivers a chance to learn new information and skills. It also offers a time for rest and recovery from the demands of these professions with the support to renew their call and remember their passion for healing and serving others.
Personal and Professional growth and development can encompass certificate trainings, study programs, and continuing education classes. It may include workshops on dream work, psychological theories, finding your purpose in life, developing better communication skills, dealing with grief in healthcare settings, interfaith dialogue training, and so on. This theme is also designed to offer “care for the care givers” and “healing for the healers” so they may find rest and recovery and take that renewed energy back into the world to serve even larger numbers of people in need.
Creative Expression and the Arts
This theme utilizes the healing power of the creative process in all its forms. Artistic expression can result in relaxation, healing, growth, and self-awareness. It can also be a way of engaging a community, praying, relating to others, or communicating personal or cultural beliefs and experiences.
Sometimes we offer “technique” classes such as pottery, photography, and painting. However, our emphasis is not on “product”-oriented art but rather on “process”-focused creativity. We may end with a product, but the mindful attention to our process, the symbols evoked, and relationship of the deeper meaning of our creative expression to our lives is the goal.
The arts, as we broadly define them, can include all forms of art – visual art, performance art, music, movement, and literary arts - and the art of living. We also seek to understand and explore the artists and art forms of various cultures, religions, and spiritual practices and how they have healed and inspired the human soul throughout history.
Through this theme we also seek to understand and explore the artists and art forms of various cultures, religions, and spiritual practices and how they have healed and inspired the human soul throughout history.
Connection with Nature
"In the woods we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life--no disgrace, no calamity, which nature cannot repair." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1802-1882)
Nature has always been a place of renewal, rest, reconnection, and inspiration. Spiritual leaders, scientists, artists, writers, and philosophers throughout history lay claims to the healing and inspirational powers of nature – from Einstein and Darwin, to Van Gogh and Monet, to Muir and Thoreau.
Nature is a very intimate part of the experience of The Mandala Center. Our visitors often mention their time outdoors has been rewarding. In our environmentally sensitive world today, The Mandala Center is also mindful of these issues realizing our relationship to our planet is critical and in need of mending on various levels.
Although nature has been an integral part of The Mandala Center from the beginning, this is a newly stated theme. We hope to include more programming in this area and offer workshops on various topics such as environmental concerns, eco-psychology, nature-based spirituality, earth art, herbal medicines and more.