The Circle has healing power. In the Circle, we are all equal. When in the Circle, no one is in front of you. No one is behind you. No one is above you. No one is below you. The Sacred Circle is designed to create unity. The Hoop of Life is also a circle. On this hoop there is a place for every species, every race, every tree and every plant. It is this completeness of Life that must be respected in order to bring about health on this planet.”

~Dave Chief, Oglala Lakota, Sun Dancer and Elder

Each mandala or circle has a centerpoint, from which all else flows outward. As individuals we all have inner cores or centers. As a community we do also. This book explores centering and the flow of energy within us and between each other.

The Tree of Life on the cover of my book, at the top of this blog, is bearing circular or mandala fruits, each representing a chapter in this book. Mandala is a Sanskrit word for circle or wheel, or beginnings with no ends. The variations of patterns are endless, but each has a specific center, and concentric rings that emanate from that center. Some people believe that creating mandalas is “making order out of disorder.”

Focusing on the mandala’s midpoint can bring us to a place of physical and emotional equilibrium, as does using the self-care techniques described in this book, such as conscious breathing, movement, and giving and receiving healing touch. Psychotherapist Carl Jung thought of making mandalas as an opportunity for processing feelings and events, for self-exploration and for healing. He said that a mandala symbolizes “a safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness,” and believed the mandala is the ultimate symbol of well-being and wholeness.

The circle with a center pattern is the basic structure of nature, from the smallest molecule to the seeming endless Milky Way galaxy. Flowers, rings found in tree trunks, snowflakes, sand dollars, tree fungi, stars and planets surround us, as do the conceptual circles of family, friends and community.

This book encompasses the circle of time as well, beginning with the unborn child in the circle of the womb, and ending with the spirit leaving the body and becoming part of an ever-changing energy.