I would like to take ‘unleashing your mindmaps’ one step further today. In a new series of articles, I will explore the way we can use the knowledge we have of mind mapping to improve our understanding and to create mental mindmaps.
For some hardcore (technical/traditional) mindmappers, today may be one step too far right now 
. In the end it will all make sense. For the rest of y’all: read it and use it to your advantage. It is the concept which is important.
This weekend, I read a book by H.H. the Dalai Lama and Victor Chan, the Wisdom of Forgiveness. There are very interesting similarities which we can identify when comparing visual mapping/thinking and Tibetan Buddhism.
Perhaps visual mapping in this context is not the correct term to use. Once you start to think beyond the mind/visual mapping techniques, you will see there is a much bigger world. I believe this world shows us how all the data in the world is connected to and with each other.
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Years ago, when I was exploring the world of visual thinking and summaps, I discovered something about creativity and mindmaps. Today, I would like to share that with you. I have to tell you that I felt a little bit hesitant at first when I wrote this article. You see… it focuses onsomething most people don’t think or even write/talk about.
As you may know, I literally wrote the book on summapping. This technique shows you your information in overviews which mimic the way your brain organizes information. It does this in a more natural way than mindmaps. A summap gives you a true overview of thoughts, ideas, topics and concepts.
During my training courses people love to create mindmaps. When I introduce them to summaps, they find themselves drawing summaps and having many AHA moments. They are able to create the REAL BIG PICTURE.
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Yesterday I had a training day with a group of people who wanted to learn more on how to manage their information. It as a very interesting day.
During the mind mapping part of the day, I told the group that mind mapping is a wonderful tool to take your ‘normal’ or linear information and create a different perspective on that information. When you take your normal notes and transform these into a mindmap, you see things differently.
One reason is that your use a visual and brain friendly approach.
Another reason is that all your information is presented on only one sheet of paper.
‘Cor’, a participant, called one of the ways you can do this a Mindmap Calzone. That’s why you will learn today what the Mindmap Calzone is.
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Our mind plays very interesting tricks with us. Today I want to discuss with you things like unconscious expressions, looking but not seeing and mindmaps. Just keep on reading. It may not seem to connect at first, but all will be well in the end .
Maybe you’ve seen the TV series “lie to me”. It is based upon the works of Dr. Paul Ekman.
Dr. Ekman studied the facial expressions of people and saw that the way we express for example happiness, sadness and anger is the same all around the world. He also created the term micro expressions. These are expressions we unconsciously show for a very short period of time. You could say these express what we consciously don’t want to reveal. I think it also shows what our unconscious knows/feels.
The way we unconsciously express our (true) feelings is something which fascinates me. I believe we can and need to benefit from this.
Very interesting stuff you should have a look at.
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There are a lot of people who stop using mindmaps, conceptmaps and visual maps in general because they get stressed when creating the maps. This is of course very sad and should be prevented. After all… your brain enjoys mind mapping and you should continue using the brain friendly and practical technique.
Therefore I would like to confront you with 6 causes of stress people experience when mind mapping. Here we go:
- You are not yet confident in mind mapping and feel you are not using it correctly
- You are feeling overwhelmed by the information you receive and feel you miss something
- You can’t find the right images fast enough which makes you lose track of new information
- You are afraid you won’t be able to understand your map content next time
- You feel you lose track of all the content of the map because of the huge amount of data you added
- You (no matter what) use mind mapping or your mindmap tool, and have the feeling you are limited because of the tool
(how many of these are you familiar with?)
These are the most common causes of stress people experience when creating mindmaps. I have to tell you that I experienced all of them. Sometimes I have the same feelings again when I look at the maps people create.
As you can see, all these causes are starting with one word, which is YOU!
You are the cause of the stress. The mind mapping technique itself will do wonders for you… if you know how to use it. Since you are the cause, it is YOU who is the solution to reducing or removing stress.
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It is called mind mapping. People tried them as mind maps. But are they really that what they seem to be?
A few years ago, I wrote together with Wallace Tait the “Visual Mapping: A Systematic Framework for Business Improvement” e-book (interested in this e-book? Send me a message and I send you a copy).
One of the thoughts behind that book was that computer mindmaps are not mindmaps in the traditional sense of the word. It is better to call a computer mindmap a visual map.
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