Life Shaper: Social Map

If this feels familiar...

Your calendar is full of time dedicated to other people's priorities. Where are you in your schedule?
You miss your treasured friends, but getting back into the social groove feels overwhelming.
Emotional vampires have emptied your emotional tank and you need to refuel with the people you love.
A member of the "sandwich generation" there doesn't seem to be much meat in the middle. You are spread thin.
You've been coping and managing like a champ, but you want to truly connect to those who truly get you and support you.

...drawing out your Social Map can help.

Easy-to-follow video
Simple materials
Repeatable process
Zero drawing skills required!

What is a Social Map?

A Social Map is a drawing designed to better understand and prioritize your quality time with friends, family, and the communities that are important to you.

Brandy Agerbeck designed this "life shaper" to guide you step-by-step through mapping out your relationships. With simple words, lines, arrows and circles, you will gain a deeper understanding of yourself and those you share your life with.

You'll finish with a greater clarity of who you are, who matters most to you, and who isn't worth your time.

Shape your life one drawing at a time.

Hello! I'm Brandy and I designed the Social Map exercise to help you better see, understand and shape your relationships.

I call these guided drawing exercises "life shapers." Each one is crafted to tackle a specific life challenge.

I first drew the Social Map in 2009 when I was volunteering in several groups. One in particular was swallowing up my time, making me miserable.

And yet I thought, "But if I leave, who will do the work?!"

(Have you been there too?)

I felt trapped. Even though I knew staying stuck was harming my own life, work and health, I couldn't see past the void I would leave if I left.

(Fact: they will figure it out. Or they won't.)

I grabbed a piece of scrap paper and a couple pens, and started getting everything OUT.

Once my friends, family, and communities were on that paper, it was plain as day.

I was teeny tiny in my own map!

Yep, that group was a giant blob, slurping up all my time and energy.

After making that drawing, I transitioned out of that group, and others. I reconnected with the people important to me that I had put off because my volunteering took up so much of my life.

I put myself back in my own map.

Because making this drawing helped me so much, I recorded a video showing you how you can make your own social map.

Hundreds of people (non-artists and artists alike) have made these drawings, making more meaning for themselves.

Like them, I hope you'll join me and see how useful, easy, illuminating and fun shaping your life can be.

^{My friend Julie snapped this on a visit here in Chicago. Tulips are my favorite flowers. And matching them? Even better.}

Every Life Shaper experience:

Carves time out and creates a safe and welcoming self-care space to reflect and explore possibilities. Set a drawing date with yourself.

Makes space to be playful and messy. Put your Inner Critic in time out. Be free to be your squishy, fuzzy, imperfect self!

Engages your brain and heart and hands and your whole self. This process lets all of you show up: messy and tidy, thinky and feeling, uncertain and steadfast.

Puts the power of your thinking into your own hands. Get unstuck with a temporary sketch, or get down a long-term plan of action in ink.

Invites you to take a critical and kind look at your own Big Picture. What are the piece and how do they connect? Notice what pieces are and aren't working.