Create a Mind Map!

Today we learned a fun and creative way to organize thoughts. We've heard the term "mind-map" before, but never really looked into understanding what it is about. Well, our friend @Jaymes Peluso-Hoffman posted a link on his Facebook page about mind-maps making people smarter. Who doesn't want to be smarter, right?! So, we checked it out and ended up spending some time creating some personal mind-maps, ourselves!

Here's the video Jaymes shared:



In the video, Tony Buzan talks about mind-mapping a bit (he created the concept), and explains that no one's brain works in the list-making way like we are taught to organize our thoughts in a school setting. He brings color and curves to thinking, which is then organized in a fluid, colorful, beautiful way on blank paper. We liked the idea, but wanted to find out more. So, we did some searching on YouTube and found a lot of helpful videos to understand the process for creating a mind-map for ourselves.

Here's one of the videos we watched to get a bit more understanding about the process of mind-mapping:



So, armed with colored pencils and pens, we went to work on mind-mapping some projects we've been working on. For Jim and Wendi, this involved mind-mapping some projects we are currently tackling for our Pure Jeevan site. For our child, Bailey, this involved mind-mapping for an essay assignment for a writing class. You'd be surprised, as Bailey was, how incredibly fun and useful this can be for creating an outline for an essay!

Here's an image we found on GoogleImages of a mind-map about mind-mapping!.



This was a fun, educational, and very productive way to tackle some larger tasks. It's a creative tool we'll continue using, also! Try it and let us know what you think (and if you've already been mind-mapping, share some of your experiences and maps with us)!

What else fun can we do for an hour? Leave a suggestion as a comment! We would like to pick things on a regular basis. If a suggestion if inspiring to you and you complete one of the activities, be sure to send us a pic!