The Story of the Mandala

A work from November 2025. The negative feelings within me — lack of confidence, anxiety, fear, loneliness, inferiority — grow larger when I try to shut them away. So I scoop up each feeling as it surfaces, acknowledge it, feel it, and release it… In Japanese, “hanasu” (to release) echoes “hanasu” (to speak). So it is good, too, to speak the feelings that surface to someone you trust. Released, a negative feeling turns positive and is integrated with positive energy. The finished mandala — its lines not straight, its edges uneven, its dots not in line — was living as itself, with dignity.