This activity is part of an ongoing research project I started in 2021 to explore the connection between imagination and happiness. We spend most of the day thinking about the future, but as feelings of anxiety and loneliness have increased, our imagination has become constrained and underdeveloped, with most ideas being negative or permutations of what we have already seen.  

By learning about the mental barriers that block our imagination, we can start reverting this imagination crisis – and bring hope. This challenge will help you uncover yours!

Instructions

1. Watch “The Dot & The Line” short film by Norton Juster (10 minutes).
Do you identify yourself as being closer to the straight line or the squiggle?

2. Draw one stick-figure of yourself, indicating your degree of “straight-line-ishness” and “squiggle-ishness” by the relative lengths of the legs of the figure, one being the straight line, the other the squiggle. Create the drawing in any way you want – digitally or using pencils, markers, etc.

3. Upload a picture or a file of the final drawing!

*This exercise was designed by Parnes, Noller & Biondi (1977). 
Any personal data will be confidential. Submitted images may be used anonymously in research publications. 

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