life map collage

A few months ago, Lloydene Cook, the fabulous host of the Belle Papier YahooGroup, posted an exercise to do a sort of stream of consciousness collage she called a "Life Map". I did it and found it to be a very powerful exercise. Since that time, I have been adapting the collage exercise for use in Creativity Workshops. I want to share it with you now.

The Life Map collage is put together using any variety of materials. What is important is that the items in it represent something you connect with the things you want in your future.

I have found that it is easiest to do this with a stack of magazines (preferably several different type of magazines rather than a large stack of different issues of the same magazine.) You might wish to include bits of paper that appeal to you, or even 3 dimensional pieces.

Start by quickly going through the stack of material you have collected. It is important to do this with some speed and without any real deliberation about why you are cutting out the pieces you pull together. Do not look for things that look pretty together. Pull images that represent your life as you'd like it to be.

Things you might pull will represent home, relationships, work, pleasure, etc.

After I had cut my stack of images I found that I had unconsciously pulled images for all of these areas. All you need to do is concentrate on your image of a "perfect future" and cut out images that appeal to you.

Next, pull out a piece of poster board, or you may choose to do this on a page, or several pages, in your journal. Arrange the pieces so that they are aesthetically pleasing, but also so that they make sense to you. You don't need to show this to anyone, so don't worry about creating the world's best collage. Concentrate on making a collage that is a visual representation of your dreams.

While putting your collage together, you may wish to put colored paper or other unifying pieces together by category. For example, like a mosaic you may border each segment of your life represented by a specific color.

I like doing this in a journal because you can let it flow over several pages or you can do it on a single page. After the collage is finished, write a key to the map images and indicate what each image represents for you. What you write is up to you, but I suggest that you let the words flow. If you want to write a lot, do it. If one word suffices, go with that.

This is a very powerful exercise. I find that looking at the collages I have created brings me great peace. Once you do a general "Life Map", you may choose to do additional pieces that represent specific segments of you dreams; e.g. a collage on relationships, a collage on work, etc.

*** If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe to Tera's online newsletter!
Click HERE to subscribe. It's free!***