MINDFUL MANDART MOMENTS... "Acceptance"
WISDOM AT THE CROSSROADS PODCAST.
What’s a Mandart?
Welcome and thanks for joining me
I’m Amanda Onchulenko. I am a painter, a textile artist, an author and your host for wisdom at the crossroads podcast. The Mand of Mandart is a contraction of my very long name, and Art is what I do and have done since 2001. I am a soul practitioner operating a visual arts practice in Winnipeg, in the middle of Canada.
Mindful Moments are designed to bring us back to the present. Creativity has always been my avenue to presence.
What is a Mindful Mandart Moment?
I am excited to be sharing what I am calling MINDFUL MANDART MOMENTS for episodes 34-44 on the podcast. The meditations that usually pair with the back stories of studio practice are coming to the foreground in this series to be the stars of the show.
The meditations I share are really moments of self-care designed to help us to pause and to be present, to make ourselves available to the creative magic all around us through the action of slowing down.
Detail from “Wonderland”
Why be mindful?
Mindfulness has become a mainstream term in recent years. The practice of paying attention is what I like to call it. By being mindful we can help ourselves to feel centred and it can also help us to self-regulate our emotional responses, to balance stress and anxiety.
I’ll be taking a break in real time from the studio as I travel back to my original landscape. While I am away filling my cup with inspiration I wanted to keep our mindful rhythm flowing. I thought we could pack our sense of humor a little patience and a weekly does of mindfulness to help us all to pause when too much of anything, can really be a little too, much.
Detail from “Breeze at Bay”
Meditation offers an opportunity to rest. The process in this episode inspires us with a visual description of the unseen support that surrounds us all, all of the time.
This episode is all about acceptance. It was inspired by “Enlightened at Beaver Bay” which I discussed in episode 3 of the podcast. Feel free to scroll back to take in the full episode and share in the backstory of a large work evolving in response to a quintessentially Canadian summer landscape.
In this first episode of mindful moments we are encouraged to be mindfully present.
It was actually the very first meditation I channeled as I began to gather my thoughts for this podcast.
I love this Channelled Meditation. It came about when I was first contemplating ideas for this podcast and the message then as now, does not get old.
This one is an opportunity to rest for just a little while as we focus on rhythm and the support and inspiration around us in the seasonal rhythms of our lives.
I am accepting of all the incidental moments I am discovering on my travels. Like these monumental Frank Stella’s When we explore unfamiliar surroundings we are really and truly present.
I discovered these in the foyer of Grosvenor Court in circular Quay, Sydney on the day I loaded this post. A discovery like this one gets me excited.
“Cones and Pillars” 1984-1987 oil on magnesium
“We each balance our own needs in individual routines, functions and activities, even if that activity is the seeking of stillness.” AO
I love the details I discover in the painting process. A single mark can carry such weight. Some are inspiring others are a challenge but I accept all of them in the process.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode on the player inset above or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. Time is valuable and I really appreciate you spending some of your time with me. I hope you are generating your own meditative practice by joining in with my examples..
Please feel free to Invite a friend to join in for this weekly self care project if something within it resonates for you. It’s free and every comment or recommendation is helpful. to the growth of this project.
“At rest we each need to gather our human resources, to halt the pursuit of ego driven action, to accept where we are right now in the present moment.” AO
I hope you’ll return to WISDOM AT THE CROSSROADS PODCAST often where together we’ll take a short pause seeking stillness, as we seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet.
All best, Amanda