It’s a left brain/right brain thing, according to those who teach how to make a mind map. Most education follows a left-brain way of working: logical and linear, with everything traveling in straight lines. But what if the education system isn’t taking advantage of the way the right brain works? That side of the brain is more visual, creating associations and relationships rather than marching in straight lines. Mind map methods try to work in concert with right-brain styles of thinking, and expand people’s ways of learning and understanding.

This doesn’t mean that proponents of mind mapping training want to abandon the linear ways of thinking. It’s more that they see right-brain thinking as having been left out of the scene for too long. Left-brain methods have been well developed for the past few centuries, and now it’s time to develop those that use the rest of people’s brains. Using both halves of the brain together can only enhance and improve knowledge. Thus, learning to make a mind map along with other more linear methods of understanding information will lead people closer to a more complete picture.

So how does one begin making a mind map? One starts with a central concept or idea, written on a piece of paper, a white or blackboard, or perhaps on a computer screen. Then the brainstorming begins. One can do this alone, but it’s even more effective with several people. Everyone tosses out any idea they think of that relates to that central concept, and all ideas are written down. Once everyone is done, all the concepts are analyzed and gathered into broad themes that suggest themselves, essentially doing visual mapping to link common ideas together.

The brainstorming is a large part of making the visual map, but once all the ideas have been written down, there are further steps needed to make a mind map. Seeing the concepts all at once, with everything contained in a complete picture, relationships between those ideas begin to appear. Certain things that might never have been taken into account before may suddenly be recognized as vitally important. As related ideas are now grouped together, the original idea may be seen in a more complete context. The techniques used to create a mind map advance a fuller way of understanding information.

Beth Kaminski is the co-author of Curing Your Anxiety And Panic Attacks which detailed anxiety or panic attacks as well as tips on the various anxiety disorder medications available at anxietydisordercure.com.