Purpose

In this exercise, delegates get to examine their past and represent it in a visually exciting way. It encourages individuals to open up and share what they think of their most important experiences in life. Ideally, it is better to carry out this exercise after other exercises or ice breakers so that delegates would have become more familiar with each other before participating in this exercise.

Objective

Draw a curve based on past positive and negative events in your life.

What You Need

• A large sheet, preferably a flipchart for each delegate.

Setup

• Divide the delegates into groups of 3 or 4.
• Distribute the flipcharts to delegates.
• Ask the delegates to draw a horizontal line on their papers. The left side represents the past and the right represents now. This forms the axis of time.
• Ask them to move forward in time from the beginning and represent their experiences as a curve. Use the following rules:
  • Make a positive curve or a mountain peak for positive experiences
  • Make a negative curve or a valley for a negative experience.
  • The stronger the impact of the experience on your life, the larger the peak or valley.
• Tag and date the peaks or valleys to make the curves more representative.
• Ask delegates to share your their curves with others in their groups as they develop them.
• Allocate 10 minutes for this exercise.
• Once everyone has completed their curves, bring them back together and ask them to explain their curves to everyone else.
• Follow with a discussion

Timing

Explaining the Exercise: 5 minutes.

Activity: 10 min exercise + 15 min sharing = 25 minutes

Group Feedback: 5 minutes.

Discussion

What did you think of this exercise? What did you learn from your life curves? Which areas do you want to repeat again? Which areas do you want to avoid? What does this mean to your life?