Gassho,
Way back in 2006 I was asked about “Process Mapping” and agreed to write up
some directions for the process. That being a long time ago and the requests
for a “how to” continuing, it seems a good time to go over the directions
again.
Here goes:
1. Get the largest piece of
paper you can manage and/or commit one wall in your domicile to the project.
2. Get supplies based on your
desire to be creative. At a minimum you will need some post-its, a pen, and
probably some tape for when the post-it glue gives out. Beyond these basics you
may choose to have colored pens, different color or size post-its,
highlighters—all is possible.
3. You can begin anywhere,
with a big issue like changing jobs or leaving a relationship, or something as
seemingly minor as resistance to dishwashing.
4. Tune in to where you are
with the issue. (Let’s go with dishwashing.) Perhaps you walk into the kitchen,
see the pile of dishes, and feel your stomach clench, your heart fall, and your
energy collapse. Map that. Take each of those reactions (walk into kitchen, see
the dishes, stomach clenches, heart falls, energy collapses) and put each on a
post-it. Just a brief jotting to remind you of the reaction. You might decide
to do behaviors in one color, thoughts in another, and feelings in yet another,
or you might just go with basic yellow post-its and a blue ink pen!
5. Since the reactions
described above are a sequence, you will want to place them sequentially on
your piece of paper or wall. The next time you have the encounter with the sink
full of dirty dishes, you might watch the previously described sequence, and
then notice the voices that come in to tell you what all this means and
who/what you are for having this issue. You jot those down, each on its own
post-it, and put them on your map.
6. As you’re getting clearer
with your dish issue, you will begin to notice things like a fleeting
inspiration to go clean up the kitchen. Very likely you will soon notice the
voice that talks you out of acting on that inspiration. Put those on post-its and
get them on the map.
7. The next thing you might
see is the part of you who really wants a clean kitchen. Put that person on the
map and begin to look for the sensations, emotions, and thoughts associated
with that part of you.
8. Keep going in this way
until every nuance of your relationship with kitchens, dishes, and cleaning is
somewhere on your map. There will be lots of voices, all kinds of emotions,
beliefs, memories, resolutions, and beatings.
In the beginning, each life issue seems to
require its own map. Soon, because this is process mapping,
you will begin to see patterns. As the book title suggests, How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything.
Yes, in fact, the same voices, beliefs, assumptions, and projections show up in
my housekeeping, relationships with people, money, work, and in how I drive!
Yep, I’m “me” all over the place.
The benefits of process mapping are many and
big. Writing down what is going on gets it out of the head and gives a
much-needed distance from what lives in the darkness of a conditioned mind,
never seeing the light of day. To know what’s going on, we have to pay
attention. We have to watch the thoughts and emotions and behaviors to see what
they are. This can greatly increase our present moment awareness and help us to
step back and disidentify from our conditioned orientation to life. Instead of
going through life in intimate relationship with the voices of conditioning,
looking to them for guidance, believing their assessment of us, others, and
life in general, we now are able to watch them from a place of conscious,
compassionate awareness as they do what they do. As we watch, as we see through
the process, the power conditioning has over us begins to fall away.
In gassho,
Cheri
