Virtues meditation mandala Coloring Book for adults

Virtues meditation mandala coloring book is a Spiritual Stress-Reducing Coloring Book for Adults and Older Children.

Coloring is not just for little kids. Detailed coloring work activates both sides of the brain, requiring focus and creativity, detail and imagination. It helps create a meditative state that can reduce stress and break cycles of worry and negative self-talk.

This book of 120 images combines the stress-relieving benefit of coloring mandalas with the emotional/spiritual benefit of meditating on the names of virtues. Meditating on the virtue while getting lost in the art of coloring doubles its healing potential.

In his book, The Secret of Emotions, Justice Saint Rain explains that virtues are not just abstract ideas – nor are they only actions. They are also intimately connected to our emotions. We feel kindness. We feel generous. We feel courageous.  As you color these mandalas and think about the virtues on the facing pages, also take a few moments to get in touch with what it feels like to experience these virtues. The virtues in this book are all associated with positive sensations. Thinking, feeling and coloring while focusing on a virtue connects your mind, heart and body in a process whose goal is a deeper connection to your true self.  Meditating on the sensation associated with a virtue helps us learn how to identify it when we feel it. Associating positive sensations with these virtues makes us want to practice them more often. Practicing virtues helps us to better identify them when we see them expressed by others. And recognizing virtues in others helps us love them as children of God.

And here you thought you were just coloring pretty designs!

Of course, if the virtues don’t speak to you, it is also perfectly fine to think about a friend in need, a problem you are facing, a goal you want to achieve or simply the day’s grocery list while coloring. All sorts of new insights can come to you as one part of your mind focuses on filling in spaces while the other part explores the corners of your mind looking for hidden patterns and unexpected answers.

If you really want to get lost in the process, you can try repeating a mantra or affirmation over and over while you color. Using the name of the virtue, you could repeat “I am wise,” or “I am surrounded by love,” for example. Looking up a short quotation about the virtue before starting can also give your mind a place to rest and rejuvenate while you color. Look online for some great ones.

There is no wrong way to color a pretty design that strikes your fancy – though we do recommend that you not use permanent markers because they bleed and soak through to other pages. Fine-tipped water-based markers, colored pencils and well-sharpened crayons* – or any combination of the three – will produce pleasing and very different effects.  While it is usually considered blasphemy to cut pages out of a book, in this case, feel free to remove pages, either before or after coloring them, and post them where you can enjoy them. The spiral binding makes it easy to remove one page at a time.

The spiral binding also allows you to open the pages wide enough to be able to color as a team. Though the mandalas require a steady hand, many of the virtue images can be colored by elementary school children. What a fun rainy day activity for the two of you – you working on the mandala while your child colors the virtue and you talk about the day, the colors and the virtues!

The designs are by three artists: Joe Paczkowski, Howard Jacobs, and Justice Saint Rain, who turned the names of virtues into colorable art.

Please respect the artists’ copyrights and do not make photocopies of these pages. It will only save you a few cents, and is not very virtuous.

All of the mandalas are based on nine-pointed stars. Their odd-numbered symmetry have a unique charm.

This Deluxe edition is 8.5×10.75″ with spiral binding so that it opens flat. It has 128 pages, is oriented horizontally and is printed on 70# paper, which is heavier than average.

* Consider using our Color with Character crayons that name their colors after virtues – like Patient Purple and Honest Orange.