Tony Buzan says: “You learn best when you play!" Pain gives you energy (passion) to deal with the pain your going through to help everybody.

Tony Buzan is the world-renowned inventor of Mind Mapping, he has been named as one of the world’s top 5 speakers by Forbes magazine and described as “one of the most influential leaders in the field of thinking creatively” and in his 70s he swims Olympic size swimming pools regularly, does it get more passionate than that!Tony says “Life is a miracle, how could we not be passionate, when I realized the everything we are given by god I was in awe and since then when I swim I have a conversation with the water, every cell of my body feels it”.His secret to such passion is to “Make your brain, your body and spirit your hobby and the best way to do that is to play, when you play you learn fast.”He said: "pain gives you energy (passion) to deal with the pain your going through to help everybody” and “Passion keeps us alive” so go ahead and watch this interview that is bursting with passion like a volcano, then spread it and share the love.Live PassionatelyMoustafa HamwiMoustafa: Hello everyone, and welcome back to Passion Sundays. The best way to end a week and start another. Our guest today is a genius, an inventor, a philanthropist, you name it. The accolades go on and on and on. He has impacted the lives of over 250 million people. He sold multi-million copies of over 100 books in 100 countries in over 40 languages. I mean, does it get more passionate than this. Our guest today is the inventor of mind-mapping, Professor Tony Buzan. Tony, thank you very much for having us here.Tony: Lovely to be with you.Moustafa: I really appreciate it.Tony: And with you.Moustafa: Thank youMoustafa: I mean; I cannot imagine a more passionate life than the life you are living. I mean at your age, you are always on planes, you are traveling, you learn, you read, you write poetry and yesterday I heard you were doing Olympic size swimming pools?Tony: This morning!Moustafa: This morning! Amazing. So, I mean, the obvious question is, how did you find all this passion?Tony: I found it in my life, as a child, and I fell in love with nature and gradually I realized that animals were beautiful, nature was beautiful. I even as a little boy said, the world would be better, if we were only animals. (Laugh)Moustafa: (Laugh)Tony: And they said- “What a strange little boy!” and then I began to realize that human beings were amazing. The potential of the brain, the beauty of the intelligences, and I fell in love, fell in love with life, with life. So, when I wake up in the morning, Wahhahaha!!! And when I see the dawn, it’s magical. When I realise that, that Sun, it’s not a little sphere. It’s 93 million miles away from us. It’s dynamic. It’s unbelievably powerful and everyday it keeps me alive and everybody else. And so, I fell in love with life. And then I began to realise that these God given things that we all have, this body, this brain, I was in awe. That is who we are. So, how could I possibly say- “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s interesting sure, yeah okay so, we are miracles, well that’s all we are. Yes, we are naturally brilliant, yeah that’s okay, animals are beautiful, yeah, yeah.” What. It’s What. And when I swim, it’s an amazing conversation with water. And all the different waters. And the different currents and the different aromas, the different smells, the different feel of it. Every cell of my body feels it. So I’m not swimming, I am exploring this amazing new piece of water. Passion is a key word in my life. And passion, for me links with love. Watch people, any people, including animals in love. You can, you can feel the volcano of energy. Passion!Moustafa: MmmmmmmTony: And passion, keeps us alive. If we didn’t have any passion, you and I would not be here. Haha.Moustafa: I love that! You are not getting any scratching from his thing on the mike. I just being conscious. Okay.Tony: I can take it off, if you like.Moustafa: No No, No, don’t, leave it. It looks nice, just I’m a bit too… My peripheral vision catches too many things.Tony: Should Do.MOUSTAFA: Wow! This is probably one of the most passionate answers I’ve ever had where Passion was not just about us. It’s literally out there. You’re saying, you’re literally grabbing passion from the whole universe around you, as you are moving.TONY: Yes! And, I mean, another, another infusion, another injection, that gives me more passion, is pain. But not just physical pain, mental pain. So, when I see children in schools and obviously, if I see a child starving, obviously naturally, one wants to help. And physically you can see that, but when they are mentally starving, when they think they are stupid, and they are not, when they think they can’t, and they can. When they think they shouldn’t, and they should. When they are afraid, when they are in a shell, that is incredibly painful to see this flower of intelligence, a child, when you see this butterfly of genius when it’s being crushed, and pissed off, I get absolutely furious.MOUSTAFA: Wow!TONY: Because, my dream is to go to any school, in any home and to see children who know, how beautiful and magnificent they are. I feel very passionate about people who try to squash the eggs of the butterflies. Or crush the caterpillars. Or shooting the birds. I feel very passionate about that, because it hurts. So pain, also gives you passion, energy, to deal with the pain, and to help everybody suffer less. Live more happily.MOUSTAFA: Amazing.TONY: Live more ecstatically.MOUSTAFA: Wow. You know actually the word Passion, comes from, root Latin word ‘Passio’, which means, ‘Suffering’, which is phenomenal, that you’ve brought up the point, that is suffering.TONY: I did not know that, haha. But now I do.TONY: I’m actually passionate about that word.MOUSTAFA: I love it. So, in the suffering, in the birth of the joy, and the fulfillment, it’s coming out from there, and the question then is, if somebody has not been nourishing, and honouring their passion, because obviously, you been living a passionate life, most of your life, but, a lot of people today are numbed, because of many situations, economical, financial, family, commitments and education, actually if anything, this is where it all starts, you know, you get told you’re stupid at school, then you believe it, and then you live by it. How can we give rebirth to people’s passion? How can somebody after watching this episode. So you know what, I love this energy, but I don’t know how to start and where do I dig and how do I get that passion.TONY: I ask everybody, I’m asking all of you, make your brain and your body and your spirit your hobby. Because when people have a hobby, everything is easy, isn’t it? If your hobby becomes mathematics, which was difficult, and it becomes your hobby, your brain says, wow my universe, so everything opens, so if everybody makes their own hobby, their own brain, and their body, then the more they learn about it, the more, amazed they will be. So they won’t be thinking, I am stupid, yes, I am stupid, I am believing that I am stupid, everybody says I am stupid, I am reading this book, I am speaking to this expert, or I am going to a seminar, or I’m going to an event, and I discover, my brain has got a million, million, brain cells, and each brain cell is more powerful than a standard PC, a computer PC. What! and then the brain says, wooh, actually, I have got a brain. Haha, I have got a million, million brain cells. And immediately, it’s ignited, it’s, it’s, setting fire, igniting the flame, of passion, and energy and that of course, immediately builds hope, because passion, inflames hope. If you think you are stupid, if you think you can’t, if you think the situation is terrible, there’s no solution, it’s a only problem, problem, problem, hope will disintegrate, will dwindle, will shrivel and hope, should always “boom” and hope needs good information to make it energetic. And that’s passion as well.MOUSTAFA: AAh! That’s a lot of passion, I’m actually starting to twitch like I wanna get up and I wanna do something. So, we ignite people with passion, how do we keep it going, because also people think, I find my passion, and I get the energy, and then suddenly we all start dipping down, and we go back to sleep again.TONY: Hmm mmmMOUSTAFA: Does it take hard work, commitment, or what does it take to stay passionate, once you have found that source?TONY: Well, If it is, real love, there are branches to the mind map You know, passion in the centre and then you mind map. You all have commitment, so when you have a wonderful idea, and you want to have that, come true, when you want to deal with suffering, your good brain will say, I need to do that, I feel the need to do that, so I will commit. And that means people will write it, or they will say, you know, my dream is to have every child, knowing the miracle of it’s mind. That’s my dream. And I’m committing to it. When I commit, when everybody commits, action happens. Work, maybe work, mmm but maybe not, maybe play, because you watch children and you watch all animals, what do they do when they are very young, play. Why play? Because they are experimenting, exploring, using their whole lot of their bodies, their brains, playing, playing, tumbling, fighting, wrestling and play is one of the best ways ever, to learn. So why have one’s life, only work? There can be play. And the geniuses, all the geniuses did not work, they didn’t say I am gonna work, I am gonna write a symphony,MOUSTAFA: HmmmTONY: I am gonna paint this beautiful portrait. I am gonna go paint that beautiful scene, aaah, I’ve gotta get some more colours, yeah, that’s gonna be wonderful. Ooh, I’ve gotta invent the light. I wanna light a planet, at night. Mmmm , my name is Thomas, Thomas Edison, I wanna invent light I wanna light the planet, I don’t wanna invent a light bulb, I wanna invent light , light the planet… What a wonderful thing to do. Okay, i’m gonna set up this laboratory, I’m gonna have things here, things here, I’m gonna play with fire, they didn’t work at all. They played, and that’s where the energy came from. You watch children and animals play, they play with total passion, and when they really play, they use everything, and then, pheeeeewwwww…. With a smile, because they’ve used all their energy, and then the brain and body regenerate. And as soon as they get up, Yaaahooo now… And off they go again.MOUSTAFA: Definitely 100% I feel what you are saying because you know, you are one of the world’s top speakers named by Forbesand when I get on stage, no matter how much travel , no matter how much, the energy suddenly comes up. When the right service is there, the passion brings up and the energy comes when it’s needed, and when am doing, numb, dull stuffs, my energy suddenly goes down.TONY: YesMOUSTAFA: And talking about commitment, my commitment is to inspire 10 million people, find them pursue a passionate life. And definitely when I put that number, suddenly the energy had to start matching the goal.TONY: Of course. We’ve got 250 million mind mappers, inject them, with your thoughts,MOUSTAFA: love itTONY: And say, look, you know, your mind mapping, you’ll say, I’m passionate about mind maps, you too? Hahaha. And passion will then spread.MOUSTAFA: So how can somebody, to wrap up this interview into something now, that they can practically go and apply, how can somebody use mind maps to either find their passion or pursue their passion.TONY: Mmmmmm, Mind map is the thinking tool, so the brain thinks, not with words, we think with images, with colours, with association, so people think that, for example, you probably think that my language is, my prime language is English. It’s not. What’s your Prime language?MOUSTAFA: After listing to you, it’s probably pictures and association.TONY: Exactly!MOUSTAFA: HahaTONY: But people say, ooh Arabic, but the spoken language, is a sub-routine, it’s a beautiful routine, but the prime routine, imagination and association, That’s how the brain thinks. And when the brain is given only words, and no colour, and lines, the brain goes (yawn). I’m not gonna study. So the mind map wakes the brain up, because colour stimulates the brain cells, images, are worth a thousand words. So the mind map, is an architecture, it’s a map, of the human language. So when you do a mind map, for the first time, your brain, can talk to itself. It can talk to itself… arghh what’s a great conversation …..so they converse, and the memory goes oohh I like that, that makes me much better when I’m using images, associations, my memories much stronger, my creativity ooh yeah but that is my language. And you have a whole team of people, a mastermind group. All talking with the same language. And then they multiply, multiply, multiply, they solve global problems. They create energy from everybody else. It’s all you have to do.MOUSTAFA: Super. Super. I think we’re gonna wrap this up, I think.TONY: No. What do you mean wrap up.MOUSTAFA: I love that.TONY: I wanna go on.MOUSTAFA: I want you to go on.TONY: We need another five hours.MOUSTAFA: We need another 5 years of this, I think this is definitely revolutionary and this has been a really, amazingly passionate and enlightening experience, and what I love is now the ability to incorporate, an actual tool into people pursuing living their passion.TONY: Yes.MOUSTAFA: And I have to say, mind mapping has to changed a lot for me, and I am sure, it will for you. So, what do you think, you tell us. You like this? How do you use mind maps? If you don’t, go try it out and experience and go back and comment on our social media.TONY: Yeah… and come to me as well on Twitter. I am @tony_buzan. And I only tweet passionate stuff.MOUSTAFA: Love that, love that, love that!TONY: Beautiful mind maps from around the world. Wonderful things that people realize, it's a, it’s an internet community of people who want to improve, their brains, so join the family.MOUSTAFA: Join the family, I mean, the minute you type Tony Buzan on Google, you’re gonna get millions of results and all of them are passionate and inspiring but, what you’ve got today is really exclusive, and really special. From the man himself. I can see the energy really vibrating, literally all around us now. So, thank you very much for, for allowing us this interview, and for our passion community and passion to the camera. 3,2, 1, Passion … 3,2, 1, PassionMOUSTAFA: What do you think? I would really love to hear your opinion, if you’d like to stay engaged, subscribe to our social media channels, and if you want even more valuable interviews, and tips and tricks on how to live passionately, then go to Moustafahamwi.com and subscribe to our Passion Sundays newsletter.Until the next episode, live passionately!