The Map’n’Tap – clearing complex issues
A lot of times trying to heal something can be a bit crazy. Often there are so many things that seem relevant that it’s almost impossible to know where to start, let alone where to go from there.
So, what to do, what to do?
What I’ve found works well is to mind-map the issue out, and then tap your way through the map.
What’s a mind map? Well, there’s a ton of ways of doing them, but the simplest is just to write whatever-issue-it-is in the middle of the page, then just draw lines out from there to anything else that pops into mind while thinking about the issue.
From there you then think about each of those things, and draw lines outward, just connecting each thought to any others that pop up.
(I have a couple of examples below)
This has a lot of benefits:
- Rather than having to come up with everything in one go, you can just spit bits out as they come to you
- Once something is written down, you can drop it from your mind rather than having to hold everything in short-term memory
- By focussing on each sub-issue in turn, it’s much easier to find subtle, smaller related facts that may otherwise have been lost – often I’ve found a core issue right at the root of things only after tracing through 4 or 5 links
- Roughly speaking, the closer in to the centre of the page, the more significant something is.
Number 4 is important, because in terms of tapping (or whatever healing method works for you), you can then start from the outside in. In the examples below, just follow the red arrows. You tap/heal the ‘leaves’ right on the outside of the map, then slowly work your way into the middle. At each point, you don’t have any related issues getting in the way or slowing things up – either because what you’re healing is right on the edge, or because all the smaller, related issues have already been healed.
This also really helps with the need to be specific, in order for tapping to work well.
Now with some issues the maps will come out stupidly simple:
And sometimes they’re an absolute mess:
(Yeah, these have both been blurred to heck & back. The details aren’t really important, just the relative messiness)
It really doesn’t matter too much how you do them, if you want to draw instead of write, or anything. It’s your head, so your stuff. You’re not doing it for anyone else.
The really interesting thing is – once you’ve cleared one map, you can redo it, and often completely different stuff will come up. By clearing off that outer layer of gunk, you can see/feel your way to deeper things, things that you previously wouldn’t have been able to see for all the mess at the higher level.
It’s a nifty tool. I’ve done TONS of these things in the last few weeks – and combined with finger tapping, even the most complex one I’m usually completely cleared in maybe 20 minutes. When I can look at a phrase or bubble & feel like it just doesn’t matter any more, then I just move inwards, nice & simple. Eventually I’ll be healing the centre item directly, and it generally just collapses & clears with ease.
As an approach it works a treat. It’s swiftly become my favourite tool for understanding & clearing complex issues.
