Learning from Leonardo: da Vinci's Arte/Scienza

Mind Mapping: Making the most of your right- and left-brain

By Linda Dessau

Be honest, now. Have you ever used your creativity as an excuse for being disorganized? Or claimed any other cliched artist trait like being flaky, bad with money, late or scatter-brained?

"Arte/Scienza: The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. "Whole-brain" thinking," is the name of a chapter in Michael J. Gelb's, "How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci". Arte/Scienza is one of seven principles that the book explores.

In this chapter, Gelb writes, "Left-brainers think, "I'm sorry, I'm left-brained. I can't possibly be creative or imaginative." And right-brainers make the mistake of programming themselves: "Well, I'm right-brained — I can't possibly come to meetings on time." ("How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci ", page 170).

So it's not just artists. Right- or left-brained, we've all become victims of our stereotypes. Though most of us draw on both sides of the brain much more than we think, we usually get boxed into thinking we're predominantly wired to either imagination OR logic.

Mind Mapping

One method that Da Vinci used and that Gelb explains exquisitely is "mind-mapping". "Mind mapping is a whole-brain method for generating and organizing ideas, originated by Tony Buzan, and largely inspired by Da Vinci's approach to note taking." (page 169)

Mind mapping encourages you to spread your ideas out, one-by-one, in a graphic way versus a linear way. I'll share some examples with you at the end of this article.

Mind-mapping helps you to be a more balanced thinker because it draws on your imaginative and creative abilities AS WELL AS your organizational and analytical abilities.

"Be sure you know the structure of all you wish to depict" (from Da Vinci's, "Treatise on Painting", as quoted in "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci" by Michael J. Gelb, page 167).

I love structure. One of my strengths as a writer (and my ghost writing clients rely on me for this!) is to pull together and organize thoughts into a coherent whole with a clear topic and sub-topics that are easy to identify and follow.

And, what I've noticed is that I can't start with the structure, I have to start with the ideas.

"It is just plain illogical to try to organize your ideas before you've generated them." ("How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci", page 171)

When I remember to use a tool like mind mapping or free writing to brainstorm and generate ideas, I'm blessed with a much bigger pool of thoughts and possibilities to fit within a structure for my end product.

Continue to Arte/Scienza page 2 »

About the Author | More by Linda Dessau
Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. Feel like your creativity is blocked? Sign-up for the FREE e-course, "Roadblocks to Creativity" by visiting www.genuinecoaching.com.

04/10/06