Healing Ministry 1
Volume 16, Number 2
Mind mapping in
spiritual direction +
formation
Father Dn Thomas Johnson-Medland, CSJ, OSL
Mind maps are diagrams of
the selected components sur-
rounding an idea, thought, feel-
ing, notion, dream, hope, emo-
tion, project, action, or belief.
You sketch the ideas in a radial
fashion around a central theme
or notion. You can create the
sequencing and importance of
relationships within the scheme
by the way you place and con-
nect individual items. They are a
way of organizing a subject.
Mind maps have been used to
take notes in classes, lectures, or
meetings. They have also been
used to outline the steps or process-
es needed to complete a project or
portfolio of projects. Although
these functions are valuable
Father Dn. Thomas Johnson-Medland, CSJ,
OSL is one of the managers of the Pocono
Plateau Camp + Retreat Center, Cresco,
Pennsylvania. He also provides Spiritual
Direction + Formation as a private consul-
tant. He lives in the Poconos with his wife
Glinda, and his two sons: Zachary Aidan
and Josiah Gabriel
when it comes to mind maps, we
can also use them for identifying
interior landscapes in spiritual
formation and direction.
To use a mind map to portrait
an interior item, it is necessary to
talk about what they are, and
how to build them. For that, we
will use an exterior example.
First, a mind map starts at the
center of a piece of paper. They
are most often drawn freehand,
although there are great re-
sources (free) available on-line
for building them digitally. They
are a bit complicated, so for the
sake of this article it will be best
to draw them by hand.
Second, you start with a topic
or theme at that center. You write
them down, and then put a shape
around it.
Say, that we want to diagram
our options for summer vaca-
tions. We write down “Vaca-
tions” on the center of our paper,
and enclose it in an oval.
Next, we write down several
options that we have for our
vacation. It turns out we are
thinking of five specific places to
go: Florida, Jamaica, Greece, the
Pocono’s, and Colorado.
We write them down sur-
rounding our central word.
Then, we put boxes around them.
This can be represented as in
Figure 1.
The shapes we choose, and the
places we choose to place them
around the central theme can be
purely random. We could sur-
round each vacation place with
an outline of the place itself (the
shape of the Island of Jamaica
around the word “Jamaica” and so
on) or we could just use a box, cir-
cle, or triangle. It does not matter.
We may be able to identify—at
a later point in time—that there is
some underlying meaning to our
random selection of places and
objects in these charts. We may
realize that we placed “Greece”
closer to the center of the dia-
gram. After contemplating it for
2 Healing Ministry
Volume 16, Number 2
Figure 1.
a while, we realize that we really
wanted to go to Greece.
These types of observations
are valuable. We will want to
make them after the diagrams
have been made. For this part of
the process, let us just assume
that we should try to randomly
place items around the center.
Next, we start adding items
that come to mind when we
think about that place to go
Greece, Colorado, Florida,
Jamaica, and the Pocono’s. If we
are trying to make up our mind
about which place to go and cost
is a factor, we will want to list out
the costs.
We may want to list out activi-
ties we could do at that vacation
spot. We may just want to
describe the place itself and make
a decision based on which place
has more beauty. It is our choice
how we describe the places.
We can draw shapes around
our descriptors, or we could
write them out in different col-
ors: green for costs, blue for
water activities, brown for hous-
ing/hotels, etc. Conversely, we
could just connect them to our
“vacation place” with a central
branch; like making a family tree.
Mind maps are great tools for
diagramming all of the things
that come to mind. It can also help
you remember things that you
want to come to your mind when
you think of a certain thing.
They work well as a tool when
speaking in front of groups of
people because they can help dis-
play how you are thinking about
something or can help you dis-
play to a group how you want
the group to picture something
you are describing.
The focus will be just a bit dif-
ferent for our purposes in spiritu-
al formation + direction. Instead
of looking at them as a tool to
diagram some exterior process,
action, or event, we can also use
them to diagram interior values,
images, or feelings. We want to
use them to help us “get a visual”
on what is going on inside: a map
of the mind or the heart or the
soul, if you wish.
If we analyze them, just like as
we do our journal entries, we
can get a pulse on how we are,
what is important, and perhaps
even which direction we are
heading. It really is a fun tool to
help us get some solidity to the
fluidity of our spirituality and
interior terrain.

Figure 2.
Using the same basic map that
I drew earlier for vacation
options, I want to diagram out a
dream I had. The dream began
with me standing on the edge of
a field. I was myself, a person, as
the dream began. However,
instantaneously and with no
warning, I turned into a hawk.
I watched as my arms and
hands, legs and feet turned to
wings and talons. I grew feathers
and sprung into flight. There was
a strong feeling of power in my
wings as I flew high into the air.
At some point in the dream, I
landed on the grass and was
given a choice by some invisible
voice. I was told that I could eat
red meat—which I had to kill
myself—if I wanted to stay
strong and fly. Or, I could eat
vegetables and tofu, but I would
not be able to fly.
I remember flying away and
then having to land because I felt
weak as I thought about eating
vegetables. Then, I flew away
again and I could feel a growing
strength as I thought about eat-
ing red meat. I landed again on
the field.
All around me there were ani-
mals running in the field, and
vegetables growing on vines.
There was a cadre of visual menu
options prancing or growing all
about me. There was an inner
feeling of having to choose, and
the feeling grew and grew as
time went by. All of the choices
that I could eat were there in
front of me.
I remember waking the next
Healing Ministry 3
Volume 16, Number 2
morning still feeling that I had to
choose. The feathers were gone,
but I still felt a need to choose.
This was a great dream. It was
very powerful and it was in vivid
color. It is no wonder that I had
this dream when we were in the
middle of a fasting period in the
Orthodox Church.
Several times a year the
Orthodox Church prescribes
fasting as a means of spiritual
preparation for a major feast day
of the LORD or the Virgin Mary.
As with all fasting, it is meant to
be a conscious shift in how we
live so that we can refocus our
efforts and beliefs. In this prac-
tice, we are asked to abstain from
meat, poultry, fish, oil, dairy,
wine, and marital relations.
I love how the dream became a
4 Healing Ministry
Volume 16, Number 2
small animation of the battle
going on inside me during the
fast. Should I eat meat or should I
fast? At any rate, I diagramed
this dream as given in Figure 2.
Diagramming the dream actu-
ally helped me understand how
it could fit into cycle of my fast-
ing. As I wrote it out, it became
apparent how easily divided into
a core struggle the dream was.
I was dreaming about my fast.
Diagramming the dream helped
me to make the connection. It
was a great exercise in self-dis-
covery.
Taking other areas of our spiri-
tual life and diagramming them
can offer us ample grist for the
mill; ample opportunities to
grow. The growth comes from
understanding how things inside
us are being lived out or are
affecting us as we live our lives.
We could make a mind map of
prayer. What is prayer? How do
we do it? What do we get out of
it? When do we pray? How often
do we pray?
We could make a mind map of
Holy Communion. What is com-
munion? How often do we
receive it? What does it mean to
us? How do we feel inside as we
receive it? How does it change us?
You can see how valuable this
tool can be. It gives us a chance to
sit down, sketch out some of the
major factors in our spiritual life,
and get a composite of where we
are. A great place to start would
be to mind map “The Spiritual
Life.” Once you break it down
into key components or impres-
sions, you could do a separate
map on each of them.
Keep in mind that with all of
spiritual formation and direc-
tion, the aim is to look back at the
work you are doing and interpret
it. Pretend that it is the work of
someone you love and admire
and see how it affects you. Ask
yourself some basic questions
about the work:
• What does this reveal about
this person’s heart?
• What does it reveal about
how they think?
• What does it expose of their
hopes and desires?
• How is God/the spiritual
life revealed in these pages?
• Is there a common thread?
• Do you sense a direction
this person is headed?
• What has been revealed
about this person?
• Where is Love in this whole
thing?
• Where is nurturance in this
whole thing?
• What is this person yearn-
ing/crying out for or to?
• What has helped you grow
from this work?
• Who would benefit from
this kind of work?
You can add your own sets of
questions to these. But, these are
the beginnings of some good
notions to look into, or the good
paths to go down when you are
considering the work of spiritual
formation and direction.
Unlike journaling, you not
need do the task of mind map-
ping daily. It is something that
you can do at larger intervals of
time—perhaps yearly or quarter-
ly. Or, you can just do them at
major transitions, decisions, or
milestones. However, if you use
them, I am sure you will see them
as a valuable tool for individual
and group growth.