I can’t exactly remember how I stumbled upon the idea of a vision mandala. It was definitely an inspiration from the Universe.
Back in 2018, I wanted to create some sort of visual for myself that would represent what I’d like to manifest for the new year. To me, drawing a mandala doesn’t have to be an intricate geometric pattern. Instead of drawing myself, I was inspired to cut out images from old magazines, brochures, catalogs and flyers like one would if one were creating a vision board. In a way it was like putting together a collage, except the collage was mainly inside a circle.
That’s how the term “vision mandala” came to me. A vision mandala is a combination of a vision board in a form of a mandala, or in a circle. It is a great way to tap into our soul’s guidance in a creative way through the world of imageries.
In today’s blog, I want to show you three vision mandalas that I have made in the past, and how the elements of these vision mandalas have manifested in my life.
My First Vision Mandala for the Year 2019
I made my first vision mandala during the Soulful Reflections Workshop I was facilitating at the end of 2018. I followed my intuition for the steps and guided the participants to create their vision mandalas for the upcoming year of 2019.
I was a new mom at that time, and my son was only 6 months old then. My intention for 2019 was to simplify my life and to prioritize what was important to me.
I cut out the image of a woman cooking as I wanted to do more cooking myself. The image of the tea was because I really enjoyed green tea, but I couldn’t drink any since I was breastfeeding. And the hand holding the flower in the middle to me represented Museflower. There were also a few words and phrases that inspired me that time.
At the end I drew three heart balloons to represent my family, and also an affirmation came to me so I wrote that down as part of my vision mandala.
How This Vision Mandala Unfolded
Cooking:
I definitely had to cook a lot more since my son was starting to eat solid food. At that time my son was allergic to dairy, seafood, beef and all sorts of things, and as he was breastfeeding, I had to make sure we both stayed clear of the foods that he was allergic to. That’s when I discovered the joy of making vegan treats and how easy it was. That became my “in-depth culinary experience”, I suppose.
Tea pot:
I enjoyed drinking green tea a lot and I used to drink one cup a day before I was pregnant. In September 2019 after I had stopped breastfeeding, I attended my first tea ceremony and I was blown away by how powerful and meditative it was. Because of my extraordinary experience with that tea ceremony workshop, I decided to commit myself to a daily meditation practice. Obviously when I picked this image to place inside my vision mandala, I had no idea that this would happen.
“The magic is real, naturally”:
In December 2019 I created my first Winter Magic Week at Museflower. The word “magic” played a key role into how the whole concept and programme came together.
Japan:
I knew I wanted to travel to Japan in 2019, so this was more of a conscious decision to put the word “JAPAN” in my vision mandala. It was a reminder for myself to make it happen, which I did in June 2019 when my family traveled to Tokyo, Japan. Who knew that became my last trip to Japan before COVID-19 hit in 2020?
My Vision Mandala for May 2020
Museflower Retreat & Spa was closed from March to June 2020, and I was organizing trainings for my team from time to time. At the beginning of May 2020, I invited all my staff to make a vision mandala together for the new month. At that time, I was hoping that we would reopen Museflower by June 2020. There were many uncertainties and anxiety around reopening, and how business would look like even after we reopened.
The image of Oprah in a warrior dress gave me tremendous courage during that period. The affirmation that arose for me was “Be Bold, Be Gold”, and it kept me going, gently pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Indeed that was the month I decided to contact Eos Koch, a soulful website designer, to start designing my own branded website (www.taniaho.me) and I eventually decided to redesign the entire Museflower’s website as well.
How This Vision Mandala Unfolded
Ganesha statue:
The morning before I led the workshop for my team, I saw the image of Lord Ganesha during my meditation. Lord Ganesha is an elephant-headed Hindu God who helps people to overcome obstacles and challenges. That was the first image I picked to put it in my vision mandala when I saw it in the magazine. By the end of May, I was googling if there were any online courses related to chanting or kirtan because I felt called to learn more. I found one online course called “Magic + Myth + Mantra” hosted by Yoke Yoga studio in Australia that was beginning in June. I was so excited to join, and so glad I did. It was life-changing to learn and tune into the healing power of chanting.
And guess what? The first deity we chanted in the first week of the course was Ganesha’s mantra.
Tea pot:
I was so inspired by the tea ceremony I attended in Hong Kong back in September 2019 that I was doing my tea practice every day as part of my meditation practice. I did the best I could since the tea workshop I attended was not the formal training on how to practice it properly.
Global Tea Hut, the tea center that I was following, only offered in-person tea courses and retreats in their center in Taiwan. The center was already closed down for a while as they were looking to build a new one prior to COVID-19. By the beginning of June I learned that Global Tea Hut was offering their first online tea course in July. Needlessly to say I signed up immediately.
It was the vision mandala in May 2020 that showed me all the elements in a vision mandala could potentially hold a symbolic meaning beyond what my mind could understand.
There were a few images that I picked because they resonated with me but I didn’t know why. Now I understand that this is one way my soul, or my inner teacher, is speaking to me. Through the images I picked, my vision mandala was guiding me silently to show me what was unfolding in my life.
My Vision Mandala for the Year 2020
Not all elements of the vision mandala would manifest as the way we wanted it to be, especially for elements that we chose consciously to represent something.
At the beginning of the year 2020, I wanted to plan a trip to Japan again to visit the cherry blossoms. I thought that it would be easier to travel with my son by then, and it would be a great idea to do a family photoshoot there to pre-celebrate my son’s two-year-old birthday. So I cut out the cherry blossom photo from a magazine and placed it in my vision mandala.
The trip was planned for March, and it was postponed to May and then it was cancelled due to the pandemic.
The trip didn’t happen but eventually the family photoshoot did in September 2020 when we went to Krabi for my birthday.
And no, my vision mandala for 2020 did not show me that the pandemic was going to happen. My intention for the year 2020 was to do less and to attract more. And I did get to do less work since Museflower was closed. For once, I took a break just staying in Museflower and enjoyed the surroundings as a guest.
When I first saw the image in the middle of the mandala in a magazine, I knew I wanted to make it as a centerpiece. To me, it symbolized the growing bond between my son and me.
I want to show you a couple photos of my son and me taken by K. A in our past Winter Magic Week in December 2020. I was so surprised when K. A sent me the photos.
I never could have possibly imagined that my vision mandala would come alive in a photo. And no, I did not stage this photo. I wasn’t even thinking of my vision mandala when this photo was taken, and I didn’t even know K. A took photos of us.
How uncanny! The Universe sure works in a mysterious way.
Obviously not all elements in a vision mandala would be manifested in real life, or at least not the way we would have imagined it to be. But that’s the beauty of a vision mandala.
The beauty lies in the process of creating one. By staying in the present, we can tap into our soul’s guidance and select images that resonate with our heart, even our mind may not understand why.
Isn’t this also a metaphor for our life? First, we must listen to our inner guidance and take a leap of faith, even though our mind may disagree. Only when we look back, then we understand that everything happens for a reason.
May you also experience the magic of manifestation in your life.
Do you want to create your own vision mandala?
If you want to learn how to create your vision mandala with step-by-step instructions and guided meditations, I invite you to check out my first self-paced online course on “Creating a Vision Mandala for Clarity” here: https://museflower.thinkific.com/courses/vision-mandala
Students of Museflower’s online courses can also participate in a private online learning community via Facebook group to share your progress and questions, and to take this opportunity to connect with other like-minded individuals. This private Facebook group will be personally moderated by me.
It would be great to hear how your vision mandala serves you as a tool for tapping into your soul’s guidance.
Hope to connect with you on our private online learning community soon.
