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Mind mapping is a useful tool for sorting out complex problems, and to identify and prioritise the various factors and components causing confusion. As it embodies techniques used by professional counsellors, it can be considered to be a form of self-counselling (and much cheaper!)
Instructions
- Select a suitable time and place where you won't be disturbed (best prior to retiring).
- Take a large sheet of blank paper, and plenty of different pens, markers, etc.
- Imagine a "tickertape" coming out of the forehead (ie sequential output).
- Identify the immediate thought and immediately write it on the paper.
- Continue until exhausted.
- Go to bed. If you can't sleep, identify what you are thinking about and get up, write it down (it is most likely something not already written down !) and continue the process. Repeat until you eventually fall asleep.
Rules
- Do not attempt to analyse a thought, without first writing the thought down.
- The spatial relationship of the written thoughts is important - find a space on the paper that seems relevant.
- When you run out of thoughts, stare at the paper, draw boxes, arrows, underline or circle things, trying to understand what is already there and how they relate to each other. This will almost inevitably prompt further thoughts which must immediately be written down.
- Do not suppress thoughts, no matter how insignificant / foolish / embarrassing / painful. Write it down. Things that seem more important can be highlighted, underlined etc. Do not delete anything.
- You are allowed to get emotional. Reflect your emotion in your diagram eg anger in red. Allow tear drops to fall, and to fall onto the paper…:
- Don't aim for conclusions or a plan of action. Let the subconscious work on that! What you will achieve, is a map of everything that might be worrying you, and hopefully an identification of the causes and consequences, and an understanding of priorities.
- What you have in front of you is a more ordered representation of what is in your mind at that point of time - like a snap shot. So repeating the process at another time would probably produce a very different result.
- What you are doing is intensely personal, and you do not have to share with anyone if you don't wish. It doesn't have to make sense in the morning - in fact it may be best destroyed at that time.
David Wilson
Naturopath
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