When things get tough, how do you keep going?
When you’re feeling down, who or what lifts your spirits? How?
Think about a time when you faced a challenge and overcame it. Let’s reflect on it. What strategies did you use? Who supported you? How did you cope, adapt, reframe, or overcome? Having a resilient mindset supports a positive attitude and openness to new experiences, which can foster personal growth. We invite you to reflect on and commemorate resilience—a key aspect of your well-being. The study of well-being is positive psychology, a subject explored in the work of Between You and Me artist Christine Wong Yap.
Wong Yap’s How I Keep Looking Up: Flags of Resilience project invites us to commemorate the sources of our resilience in a flag. Flags use simplified visual language with the potential for deeper symbolic and personal meanings. Reflecting on your strengths and designing a flag can boost your mood and offer opportunities for flow and connection.
First, create your flag design by choosing an option.
Option 1: Download and print the Flag Activity Sheet.
Option 2: Plan a visit to pick up the activity sheet in person in the Social STUDIO.
Option 3: Follow the instruction steps below.
Steps For Designing Your Flag
1. Think about your resilience: How do you get back up when life knocks you down? Where did your resilience come from: people, places, experiences, or activities? (Tip: If this seems abstract, think of a specific adversity you encountered and coped with in healthy ways. How did you learn to cope that way? If you need more ideas, visit these pages for sample flags and additional questions.)
2. Think of images or symbols to represent your sources of resilience.
3. Draw a design for a flag on a piece of 8.5×11-inch paper (it doesn’t have to fill the page—you can make the flag any size or shape on the page).
Tips:
- Try to use simple shapes and symbols.
- Think about the symbolic use of color.
- Try to avoid or limit text. (You or a fellow participant may sew your flag from actual fabric! The simpler the design, the easier it will be to sew.)
Then, submit your flag design using this google form.
What will happen with the submitted flag designs?
Flag designs will be respectfully shared with experienced sewers to be transformed into 3×5-foot flags. The selected flags will be exhibited in the Social STUDIO. A zine or other documentation may include photographed or scanned designs, reproduced in full or part and edited for clarity and concision at the discretion of the lead artist. Participants will receive a copy of the finished documentation piece.