Lifeline Mapping

When Dr. Janet Levalley asked us to draw a horizontal line on a piece of paper and have on one side the year of our birth and on the other the estimated year of our death with a little mark on that line to mark out the point at which we were right now, I wasn’t quite sure what this exercise would hold for me. As she asked us to make points on that line of the significant events in our live – both sad and joyful, it was then that I realized that this exercise would be deeply personal and reflective for as she asked us to mark on that line, those life-changing events that we had come through along with demarcations on the future end of that line of what we have as life-goals, in a matter of a few minutes I realized that I became more self-aware than I could have through any other exercise I’ve done in a relatively short period of time.

Realizing the power of a simple plan – that involved generating an action statement in a positive way (not a negative way) and being specific about it with a time frame within which to accomplish this whilst giving myself a realistic reward and having relatively unknown acquaintances as accountability partners who would keep me on track and help me to have an unbiased feedback on how focused I was on these chosen goals as I progressed along is one of the most useful tips I could have ever picked up in life and for this I was thankful to this particular Psychological exercise which left me knowing that I’ve certainly acquired one of the most useful personal life-applicable tools I could have.

Apart from realizing that I have come a long way in life along the way in terms of depth, it helped me to separate myself for a moment from all the rush and buzz of life and mundaneness of the day and actually recall, reflect, remember life accomplishments that had faded from my memory which when re-visited made me celebrate my distinct uniqueness as a human being with my share of struggles, joys, sorrows and uplifting life experience. The ways in which to get to my personal goals that Dr. Levalley explained to us help me feel confident that there would be a strong likelihood that I WOULD reach the goals I had listed, for the first time in my life.

If I were to mention how I felt about my life accomplishment events so far, I’d say that through the failures, disappointments, heartbreaks, heartaches, there was actually a purposeful strength giving life-changing course-line that ran through it and this realization hit me when I did the exercise as I felt proud of myself in lots of ways if anything else, for coming through those events that were harder than the ones that gave me much to celebrate too.

“What can I do to get closer to that goal?” – this question has been running constantly within me as I’ve re-evaluated my life and re-defined it ever since I did this exercise. The “Lifeline mapping exercise was personally useful, stimulating and held immense value for me personally, which is why in many ways, it felt like a “landmark” exercise in my personal life. It left me feeling rejuvenated, hopeful and deeply self-aware as I felt that I had looked my own life in the eye and felt comfortable with what I saw and what I could see in the future. It was an immensely useful, enriching exercise.

© Slow Chills