Arrow Plane - A Mindful and Reflective Travel Activity

1. Arrow Plane Introduction: Yes, Captain. Okay. Great. I'll let them know. I just got word from the captain and it is time to start our aeroplane activity. Is your seat belt fastened? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you're either coming or going, am I right? And you're sitting there scrolling through the inflight entertainment and wondering what did you just land on or you planned ahead and downloaded this? I like your thinking, I'm Zoe. And in this skillshare class, things are going to be a little different. Not only because we have limited resources, but we have limited space to work in. Also, our work areas are kind of small, whether you're in business class or economy class. This is a lesson for every class we are going to travel. Within your mind. Yes, this is a thinking class. The only supplies you need are a napkin and a pen, preferably a clean napkin. If you don't have those supplies, we have some workarounds which I'll get to a little later. Notice how the napkin has four quadrants. What else has four quadrants? Yes, the heart. You see where we're headed. Actually, they're technically called chambers. We're going to take time to check in with yourself what's going on in your personal overhead bin. When you arrive at your destination, my aim is to have you feel like a kinder, more self aware person. But don't worry, we won't be doing any background checks or anything like that. Let's head over to the hub. 2. Quadrant 1: Quadrant one. Let's use this air time to make you a better person. Let's begin compliment someone on the airplane. The obvious choice is the flight attendant tell them they're doing a good job. Be friendly, be thankful, smile. You'd be surprised how just smiling at someone can make a world of difference. You want to be kind to a stranger, I say go for it. Creepy. Yeah. Kind once again, smile, thumbs up after you gesture. All that is just being nice to someone. And if you see someone traveling with a small child, be extra kind to them. They were exhausted even before the day began. Push, pause and go take care of this kindness task. We have time. Don't worry, I'll be waiting here patiently. Hey, welcome back. Let's get our work area set up. But if you don't have access to a pen or a napkin, you can still participate. Here's that workaround I mentioned, if you actually don't have access to a napkin or a pen, take out your smartphone or tablet. Perhaps there's a notepad or drawing program right there on your device. Use your finger to draw or insert text. You can also participate just by thinking. You don't have to write anything down on a napkin or a smart tablet or a scrap of paper. You can do all of this just inside your head. If you do have a napkin in pen, let's get going. You may find the tray table to have a texture that makes writing on a bit difficult. Grab a magazine or a book to put under that delicate napkin. Our first quadrant is going to include a smile made with arrows. Arrows are very easy to draw. Take a look at some for inspiration. I bet you can find one you'd like to draw, no matter your artistic level in the first quadrant, draw a smiley face using as many arrows as the facial features as you can Then write how it made you feel to be kind to someone else. Here are some buzzwords to help you get going. Content, Happy, joyous, warm. Now it's your turn. You just gained a bunch of points in your kindness account. Feel free to spend them. They replenish napkin. Let's make our way over to quadrant two of your napkin. 3. Quadrant 2: Quadrant two, what direction are you going? And yes, I'm talking about north, South, east and west, but I'm also talking about up and down, what feels positive and what feels negative. In life, we have these emotions and they do co, exist. And we're going to find a word that encapsulates each of these for us and put them together in quadrant two. We're going to honor the ups and downs. And by the way, the ups don't have to be amazing, amazing things. It could literally be, it's your favorite snack on the plane that's a positive for me. Let's start by drawing an up arrow and a down arrow, the positive and negative corresponding signs. Write out the life moments that match. Now pause and think about the words that really define these feelings and events. Come up with synonyms. If you can, you can decide if you want to write the words down or just keep them in your head. Pause and reflect you've got time right now, let's divert our attention from quadrant two to quadrant three. 4. Quadrant 3: Quadrant three, the map and specifically the compass rose. This is the instrument that shows the north, south, east, and west. Now let's be a little more concrete about your direction as it relates to the map. I know there's a map somewhere on your screen, so feel free to take a look at it if you need some reference or maybe even in your inflight magazine. But mostly we know which direction we're going. We're going to take a moment and draw the compass rows, the north, south, east, and west directions. Put the letter A where you started. Draw an arrow in the direction you're going and where you're ending. Put the letter B. Also, make note of how many hours it's going to take for you to get from point A to point B. And think about the things you had planned to do on this journey. Now we've taken some time to think quite literally about our place and time. Think about day and night and the sun and the moon. Think about time zones and hemispheres. It's sort of interesting to pause and acknowledge where we are right now. Let's move on to the final leg of our journey and check in at quadrant four. 5. Quadrant 4: Reflect on your journey was or will this trip be around business, pleasure, family, work, friends, social stressful? All of the above. None of the above. Think about it and write down the type of trip you had or are anticipating to have. Then take a moment and write a word to describe how you feel. You can be honest, no one's going to see this. Well, maybe the person next to you if they're filling out their napkin too, But you can always say. 6. Arrow Plane BaggageClaim: Well, now that we've spent time being resourceful with the limited supplies that we have, hopefully you're recognizing that you have a wealth of resources just inside your head. You were able to be reflective, kind, artsy, honest. You did all that just while sitting in your seat. I hope you have a pleasant journey and perhaps our time together helped lessen the duration of your flight. While you prepare for arrival, think about what your favorite quadrant was. My favorite was quadrant one. And that's the message I'm going to carry with me when I get off this plane. Wait a minute, I'm not on this plane but you are. So before you crumple up that napkin, take a picture of it, then some day in the future when you're scrolling through your photos, you'll see this picture of this napkin. And remember all the self reflection, and kindness and art and joy you did in that plane ride that you didn't even think you would accomplish anything. And if you have the option or the will to upload your photo to the project section of the skillshare class, I'd love to see what you did. I'll be standing by.