Would you like your emotional awareness better? Do you need to boost your motivation? Then, mental maps focused on emotional intelligence (EI) may be your best strategy for day to day. We explain how to carry them out.
Tony Buzan was the psychologist who developed and popularized the mind mapping strategy back in the 1960s. However, the fact that he registered and brought this tool closer to the general public does not mean that it did not exist before. Because, somehow, that resource in which to write short notes and join them with arrows or diagrams is something that has always accompanied the human being.
Buzan himself explained that this technique, with which to create a kind of colorful tree of ideas and concepts, was something that Leonardo Da Vinci already used. Also Albert Einstein was known for carrying brief notes in his pockets about ideas that he connected with others. These resources can become excellent mechanisms to enhance memory, creativity or productivity.
After all, it is still an effort on the part of our brain to move away from linear and automatic thinking and, thus, be able to awaken self-awareness. Cognitive maps can also be applied to the universe of emotional intelligence (EI) to allow us to develop its associated basic competencies. Why not enable us in this interesting tool?
A mind map has an organizational structure that starts from a center or central idea. This approach can be very beneficial in connecting with and understanding our emotions.
What are mind maps for emotional intelligence?
Mind maps for emotional intelligence aim to record, connect and decode all the information related to our always complex fabric of emotions. Often this strategy is defined as “thinking outside the box”. That is, it makes it easier for us to put out what happens in our minds to better understand ourselves and improve our human potential.
This is a resource for learning our psycho-emotional states that, through paper and pencil, draws a direct bridge to our interior. And we all know how labyrinthine that world is. On average, most people choose to bottle up their difficult emotions rather than work on them. We swallow stress and gobble up anxiety until, sooner or later, illness arrives and we can’t take it anymore.
A study from the University of Texas highlights how emotional intelligence improves health and well-being. In this way, if we enabled ourselves in the use of these mental maps, we would achieve multiple benefits. We analyze them.
How this resource can help you
People often think and react automatically. Far from applying a more analytical and reflective approach, we let ourselves be carried away by action-reaction. It is then that we make wrong decisions or say and do things that we soon regret.
Mental maps for emotional intelligence would allow us to break down what we feel to give ourselves what we need and act in accordance with our goals and values.
It will allow us to clarify the origin of our discomfort.
In addition, it makes it easier for us to detect those thoughts that reinforce difficult emotions.
We become aware of our relationships with others and the dynamics that hinder them.
We develop a better self-awareness of our emotions and needs.
We realize why our motivation fails at any given time.
We clarify our goals, values and needs.
We can also discover what social skills would enhance our potential.
“If your emotional skills aren’t good, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you can’t manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then it doesn’t matter how smart you are; You won’t get very far.” Daniel Goleman-
How can we apply them?
Emotional intelligence mind maps do not just seek to make us aware of our emotions. The goal is for us to draw up an action plan for what happens to us. For this reason, having a graphic representation of the skein of sensations, needs and emotions that are in our minds will allow us to make more innovative and healthy decisions.
Let’s see the steps to carry them out.
1. Central concept: what am I feeling right now?
Mental maps for emotional intelligence always start from a nuclear element that is located in the center of our scheme. In order to clarify this, we must ask ourselves the following questions:
What am I feeling now?
What sensations, emotions or experiences dominate me at this moment?
It will also be useful for you to paint that central circle that makes your current state of mind explicit in a specific color. From this element, the rest of the map will be developed.
2. Causal connection: what causes what I feel?
The second phase of our exercise is to clarify what causes that emotional state. Multiple secondary spheres can now come out of the central nucleus, which will be connected with a line.
If part of what you experience is caused by a relationship with another person or people, choose a specific color.
If what happens to you and you feel is due to past or present experiences that you have not handled, choose another color.
In the event that your emotional state is due to social or structural circumstances (work, economic issues, etc.), choose to also differentiate it with another tonality.
3. The lines of association: tools that connect with what I feel
The third step in carrying out our mind maps for emotional intelligence will be to clarify a mechanism of action. However, before doing so, we must pay attention to those connecting elements, to those arrows or lines that we make to join some circles with others.
In the lines that connect one mental concept with another, we will write the competence that we need to awaken in order to feel more valid and capable. An example of this would be to be more assertive, reflective, empathetic, better communicators, etc. Let’s see a sample:
(1. Central concept: I feel frustrated)——(connection line: I need to improve my emotional self-awareness)——(2. What causes it? I am very demanding of myself)———(connection line: I must improve my self-acceptance)——(3. Solution proposal: I will set myself more realistic goals).
4. Solution Spheres: What can I do?
All emotion felt requires an exercise of personal responsibility and acting in the face of what happens to us. One way to do this is through this pencil and paper exercise to create a map of interrelated concepts. Once we have clarified the central problem and its triggers, it is time to think about what we can do.
Let’s search, imagine and shape an action for each causal connection drawn. That is, if we have identified triggers in our relationships with others, let’s look for an action strategy. In the event that we have also defined a problem related to work, our economy or unaddressed past discomforts, let’s think about what strategies we should put into practice.
Let’s not just stay with an action plan, the more ideas that come to mind, the better.
“Work rules are changing. We are judged by a new yardstick: not just how smart we are, or our training and experience, but also how well we handle ourselves and others.” Daniel Goleman-
Emotional intelligence is an ally of general intelligence by allowing us to get in touch with what we feel to make better decisions. There are many ways to develop this life, well-being and coexistence tool a little better. However, something as simple as diagrams and mental maps stand out as a simple, illustrative and practical exercise.
Source: The Mind is Wonderful.-