Mapping out exchanges with the mindmapping

Although sometimes oustanding at chit-chatting, gifted adults may have huge difficulties when it comes to talking and communicating about themselves, their interests, their lives, their feelings…. They have long experiences how difficult it is to share ideas and feelings, because they are generally considered with much incomprehension and even doubt. They also often find that they have nothing really interesting to say and that they even are of not much interest for others.

By inviting me to visit his blog, Pierre Mongin made me discover a very nice experiment  : the use of mindmapping in order to help people talk about themselves and communicate with others.

I really think that this experiment deserves to be widely promoted and disseminated : to my eyes, it looks like an excellent tool for therapeutic caring in order to help gifted adult get a better self esteem and consider themselves with a more objective judgement.

Here is what happened : a dynamic association called “Conevrgences” in Wattrelos (42,000 inh. North of France) wanted to help people get to better know each other.

Many workshops were organized : photo, theater, writing a book in common…

The association asked the franco-chilian educationalist Luis Garcia to lead a workshop and teach its participants the “art” of mindmapping.

Luis Garcia gently agreed to answer my questions.

Beyond the instruction  « Draw me your story »,  the real target was : “Daring to talk about self”

Luis Garcia first reminded me how difficult it can be to talk about oneself. When questionned, participants were more inclined to say that they were not interesting or to tell about their difficulties, than to tell what made them rich of humanity. As a matter of fact, they considered as nothing important to talk about all these aptitudes or experiments which were now so deeply internalized

As Luis Garcia reports, mindmapping is not a finality, but only a mean : is “mindmapped” only what one wants to communicate on.

Moreover,  since it allows to really distance oneself from one’s emotions when it comes to talk about self, mindmapping helps to express oneself .

The workshop lasted 18 months during which mindmapping was first demystified, then instructions explained (drawing could be pictures cut out of magazines) , then put into practice with some exercises (what is needed in order to spend dreaming holidays ?). It was also important to explain that some knowledges had a real value : how can it be valuable to be have foreign roots or to just be a house wife with only associatiove activities ?!

After 18 months, a dozen of participants presented a “pictorial expression of their lifetime”. This were also people who had learnt to listen to- and discover each other. “Once you’ve told your life, you feel free and you understand that each life can be an example for others, that everybody has a place in the society” reports one of the participants.

Luis Garcia very gently allowed me to show an example of a mindmap : For those who are interested in Luis Garcia’s work

–  http://www.mindmapart.com/galleries/luis-garcia/with many other mindmaps (in English)

–  … you can even contact him in French or Spanish at the following address : luis.garcia@instep.fr

Besides that, for every one who would like to work on clear flow charts, Simple Diagrams, can be helpful.