Class 5 ~ Mapping Your Mind & Other Things ...

In this class, we talked about mapping and recording information visually. I mentioned a bunch of books (which I'll give you links to later) that explored the idea of making maps of various things in your personal life ~ your brain, your heart, your hand and your day, for instance, and why putting things down on paper in a visual form can help you understand how things fit together in a way you might not see through writing only.

We started off with "mind maps". Many people might be familiar with mind maps through a workplace setting. It's often used as a brainstorming tool for a group of people contributing ideas to solve a specific problem. It's a great way to gather a bunch of diverse suggestions in a logical way so everyone can see how they might all fit together. But you don't need a group for this method to work ~ you can brainstorm all by yourself. For best results, set aside a dedicated uninterrupted time to consider your topic. I've also found it works best if you don't edit out "bad" ideas in the initial stages ~ just let the ideas come, see where they fit on the map. You can tackle how logical or useful they are at a later stage.

Here's a good idea of what elements can go into creating a mind map:

This diagram and much more about mindmaps can be found at:
http://blog.iqmatrix.com/how-to-mind-map

Here's your handout for pages 1 and 2 ~ all about mind maps:

I'm a very analytical person, so I tend to be more comfortable with creating maps about thinking instead of feeling. In my experience, I get a clearer picture of something if I step outside my emotional response to it and break it into parts. That way I don't get too overwhelmed by the whole thing because I'm examining each bit separately. I've found the brain diagram on the next page of the handouts is a good way to do this:

If you're ready to tackle some feeling issues, you can use the heart diagram on the next page of the handouts. Another good thing to use this map for is a gratitude map. The goal is not to prioritize what's in your heart ~ but just to be grateful for all the things that bring joy into your life. And, as we were discussing in a previous week, looking at, and thinking about, positive images not only allows you to see MORE solutions to the things you're trying to improve in your life, but the QUALITY of those solutions are better, too. So a gratitude map is a great way to increase your overall positivity.

 I wanted to share with you some of the heart maps I found online while I was researching this map form ...

And now for all those map books I promised you ...

If you can only get one book to help you on your self-discovery map-making journey, I highly recommend Personal Geographies by Jill K. Berry. her passion for maps (and self-discovery) and her straightforward help with art materials and methods will have you creating beautiful, meaningful maps in no time.

Jill also co-authored Map Art Lab with her sister, Linden McNeilly. Part of the successful "lab" series of art books, it's set up with 52 exercises on maps and map making. That's one for each week of the year. It's filled with wonderful examples of maps of all kinds by people just like you (and me - literally - one of my maps makes a postage stamp sized appearance on page 119).

You Are Here by Katherine Harmon is a fascinating collection of maps that have been created to visualize almost every possible thing that can be mapped, from a wide range of disciplines - art, science, history and wayfinding. The perfect book for map-obsessed people, but not much in the way of self-discovery, except by opening your eyes to the possible.

From Here to There is another great collection of maps, all hand-drawn, from the collection of the Hand Drawn Map Association. Feeling intimidated by all those technically prefect maps? This is a book to show you the quirkiness of the everyday, hand drawn by real people for real situations.

Two other books for the map obsessed: The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey. The fascinating true story of a man who stole maps for money from libraries around the world, interwoven with the history of why maps have been considered so valuable through human history, and Maphead by Ken Jennings ~ yes, the guy of Jeopardy fame ~ who goes into great quirky detail about his lifelong passion for maps.

Lastly, but not leastly, Sara Fanelli's My Map Book is a children's book full of bright colours and a few very eccentric examples of things you can map if you're stuck for ideas, including a treasure map, a map of a bedroom, a family map, a map of a day and a  map of a tummy. Not as information filled as the others, but a fun treat and it will definitely loosen up your idea of what's possible with maps.

Here are all the books and the usual trimmings on the last page of the handout:

One more class, next Wednesday June 28th, will tie up the current session of the Vision Journal part of the All Body Community Fitness Program. Hope to see you there ...