Meta-hopping
The first one means a higher level of abstraction. We can talk about a specific house or houses in general, on a meta level. You want to be able to take generic concepts and take them down to concrete level. You also want to be able to take concrete observations and make abstractions, to see how they relate together at a more generic level.
Think about a house, then about a little green wooden cabin, then about a generic building. Learn to move between these different levels of generalization consciously and to notice on what level you are thinking. You can more easily spot yourself making hasty conclusions, too. You went to Zimbalandia for a vacation and thought that all the buildings were so beautiful there. Or wait a minute. Maybe it was just that one little green wooden cabin in that one village that made an impression on you.
The other meaning of meta is as in the word ‘about’. Meta information is information about information. The publication year of this book is information about this book, but not really content to this book. The content is still information in itself. Now, think about yourself thinking about thinking. Sounds complicated? By thinking about that sentence, you are taking it even one step further. You are thinking about thinking about yourself thinking about thinking. Keep it all in your head and it makes you feel dizzy. Write it down and it starts to make sense. This, sometimes called metacognition, is a very straightforward thing to do using mind maps. You can add as many levels of meta as you want and still be able to keep track of the thought.