cartooning for sanity
Are you...
...Building a business or managing a career?
...Trying to make a difference?
...Overwhelmed by the state of the world?
Me and my husband, Gautam Shah, sure are! We have both been building impact-focused businesses for 8+ years. Bouts of self-doubt and anxiety plague us. We talk about our experiences over the dinner table, and sometimes, with friends or family. But a lot of it stays pent up inside.
For both of us, cartooning has become an amazing outlet.
Gautam first drew out his worst fears for his career in 2022. He spoke about it at Sankalp, an impact investment conference. The positive response showed he was not alone in his experience.
I create comic strips based on my overwhelm about the state of the world. I’ve been sharing the drafts with friends, colleagues and strangers, and it’s led to some surprisingly profound conversations.
Gautam is not trained in illustration, I am. But that's beside the point. It's not about the quality or style of the drawing. It is about the expression.
Coming to America is my graphic novel/memoir of our annual visits to family in the USA. With every year that passes, it feels like walking into a house on fire. Culture wars, politics, poverty, climate and geopolitics all collide in these trips. To deal with my complex emotions, I draw it out. The comic is in production and should be released June 2024.
We both find it helps you
Release your anxieties
Face your fears in a fun and unforced way.
Escape toxic positivity (it’s ok to whine and be pessimistic sometimes!)
And…doing it with others lightens the load.
our cartooning for sanity workshop
We wanted to share our experience with others, so we hosted an open 60-minute guided workshop in March. It was really interesting to see who showed up, and what people’s fears and annoyances were.
I immediately felt kinship with everyone who showed up and doodled with us.
If you’re keen to try it, here are the exercises.
No drawing skills are required. No pressure to perform. All you need is some white paper and a thin black pen.
Exercise 1
Think of one thing that keeps you up at night (work-related).
"I'm working so hard but I fear that I might just be on the wrong track"
Think about different situations that are a good metaphor for your situation
"walking up the wrong hill"
"digging in the wrong place"
"driving down the wrong road"
Show it, don't tell it
Draw it out in a stick figure style or whatever style works for you (just do it yourself)
ExERCise 2
Think of one mad truth about the world we live in right now.
What is the most ridiculous manifestation of this truth? Draw it out in one scene.
If there’s more to it than one single picture, feel free to draw a scene out in several images.
Would you like to get an update if we host another session?
Just send me an email and I will put your name in an old fashioned excel sheet and ping you when we run another one.
I’m at anne@brandthechange.org