“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times . . . The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile” This is an introduction by Mihály Csikszentmihalyi, in his ground-breaking book on Flow, from 1990.
Proud presenter posing with her graphic recording on “Flow”
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to flow more into this topic by Experience Designer Ri Chang at Creative Morning Singapore. She proposes that life is an ongoing narrative, which we can all continuously write and re-write. Creating a narrative is, therefore, a conscious balancing act between surrender and control, and that the act of writing it down helps me to more easily flow through situations and explore the edges of possibilities.
In this dance between what we know and what we don’t yet know, lies meaning. Flow helps us to discover it. So do pictures.
A few tips on the graphic recording: listen to cues on the theme as well as the stories, slides and imagery used by the presenter.
In this case, she used a big wave to share her point on “accepting change”, so, I worked it into the visual. The theme itself of flow gave me an indication of how I might approach the graphic recording; visual elements of lines as water, connecting points, animating messages, moving from one source to another.
Then, I listen to her stories and work these lines to connect and shape the narrative in line with her presenting. Moving your arm and body also helps to bring in a stronger intuitive connection to the message as well as the speaker by moving past the boundaries of your cognitive mind into the wisdom in your hands and body.
Learn more about Flow
Tim Hamons is passionate about reframing our relationship with our own innate individual and group creativity by embracing creative tools and shifting our thinking. In our workshops, Visual Facilitation Lab, leaders, facilitators, and Learning & Development professionals learn how to communicate, collaborate and accelerate group processes and results with a marker in their hands. #visualiseyourvalue #visualsforspeaker #Visualkeynote #artofawakening #graphicrecording #visualfacilitation #visualfacilitationlab #visualmodels #neuland #everydrawingisagift #visualmetaphors #visualstorytelling #visualproblemsolving #visualspeakerstools #graphicrecording #artofawakening #flow #CMSG #creativemorning #neulandmarkers