Mandala Lab: Where Emotions Can Turn to Wisdom

Abstract

With a Tibetan mandala painting as its inspiration, and informed by neuroscientific studies, the Mandala Lab workshop is designed to foster a stronger, more empathetic, and resilient social culture by helping participants identify and transform five key emotional barriers to collaboration: pride, attachment, jealousy, anger, and ignorance. The workshop is about growing in our social development through embodied experience by engaging all the senses. Participants are invited to smell memories to elicit empathy in ourselves and others, bang gongs and dip them into water to redirect anger into patience, and synchronize their breathing, in order to help move us from a place of envy to collaborative understanding. Attendees will acquire techniques to promote greater pro-social behavior within teams, fostering collaborative atmosphere and be introduced to essential leadership skills such as emotional intelligence, empathetic engagement, and how to create safe work environments. Institutions are increasingly encouraged to employ technology and AI as a means of expression and exploration. The development is fast-paced. However technological advances in human ingenuity are nothing if we are not emotionally equipped for the changes that already confront us. And that is where the Mandala Lab can serve as a helpful guide, particularly for the younger generation inheriting our planet.

Presenters

Tim Mc Henry
Curator, Mandala Lab, Global Projects, Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, New York, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Workshop Presentation

Theme

The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life

KEYWORDS

EMOTIONS, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, RESILIENCE, COLLABORATION, EMPATHY, WISDOM, PRO-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, ART