Most people feel that mind mapping is a familiar way of working, even when they first encounter it. I would like to tell you more about this today. We take a close look at mind mapping and you will learn that mind mapping is a lot less ’special’ than the ‘normal’ methods of writing we use today.
I love to spend time with my nephew who is 8 years young now. It is amazing to see kids develop and go through the different stages of understanding life and their environment. Let’s have a look at the way he handles his thoughts, ideas and stories.
When he was really young he started creating pictures and telling stories which supported his drawings. He didn’t have a need to use words. All the drawings he made meant something to him.
Then that dreadful day… (dramatic pause)
…
He had to learn how to write
And from that day on, he began to draw less and write more. From being a ‘right brain thinker’ he slowly turned into a ‘left brain thinker’. From using images he was forced to use words from then on.
Is that bad?
Maybe…
Perhaps…
I truly believe that he should have learned how to use both the words as well as the images. Did his school allow him to do so? They didn’t. After all… ‘we need to standardize the way we communicate to improve clarity and understanding‘.
The sad thing is that he became less creative. Sure, he kept drawing sometimes and he was still playing out his adventures together with his friends. Yet, he was stimulated to use his left brain side more often.
Let’s move forward in time. My little nephew has grown and is in high school now. He feels he is overwhelmed by his courses. What can he do? Perhaps he finds it difficult to organize all his information. Maybe he can’t put all the information into is head and recall it.
Hopefully he remembers that his uncle knows a thing or two about visual thinking, visual maps and this powerful technique called mind mapping!
When he does, I will show my nephew exactly what he can do to get all these words into his head, without using words!
He will probably be amazed about the amount of information he is able to handle! Like most people who learn about visual mapping, he will ask the following questions:
- Why don’t they teach us all of this before we are overwhelmed by information?
- This mind mapping sounds so familiar to me, is my mind think like this?
- Will this work for me in more than just studying?
I will sit down with him and tell him that he already created visual overviews when he was very young. Even before he could write, he was drawing his stories on paper (and I will show him some of his drawings).
I explain to him that he had to learn how to write the same way we all do, simply because we need to have a ‘clear’ way of communicating. Hopefully he understands that his first teachers could not spend too much time developing his right brain side. They were too busy already… (so they told me).
Still, he is relatively early when he starts to use visual mapping methods. His uncle started to use them after he graduated and received his MBA.
It is true that the method of mind mapping is very similar to the way he thinks. Although it is not the exact way our brain organizes information (I’ll talk on that topic with him later). Still it is a very usable method and model.
Because his young brain already( or still) ‘thinks’ in mindmaps, he will be able to use it quite rapidly. In only a few minutes, he creates his first mindmap.
His last question, regarding the use of mindmaps in studying, is something he and I will have a closer look at later. Fortunately, his mind is flexible enough to think in a more brain friendly manner than normal linear thinking.
He understands that he came full circle by learning how to mindmap. At an early age he was a visual thinker, then he learned about the linear writing methods. The world had to be linear to understand it. Then… he moved into non-linear again. He became a visual thinker again.
This time, he had the knowledge of linear thinking and non-linear thinking to assist him. He has a huge advantage over the people who don’t use visual thinking!
How is your brain coping with new methods of looking at yourself, your environment and information in general?
Are you able to start moving into more productive methods of visual mapping? Will you allow yourself to profit from visual mapping?
You took the first step hopefully and you create mindmaps. I have only one question now which is:
Are you ready to Unleash your Mindmaps???
Let’s continue on this journey then.
Tomorrow we continue with part 2 of the Mindmap Circles.
Arjen
(Let your mindmaps work for you!)
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Related posts:
- Mindmap Circles – part 3: Learning, Letting Go And Creating Your Own Style
- Using Mindmaps Without Knowing How To Mindmap
- Mindmap Circles – part 2: From Personal to Academic to Professional and back
- Capturing And Overviewing Great Ideas With Mind Mapping
- 3 Questions Regarding Children, Age And Mind Mapping
