(check out last week's post (part 1 of 3) if you have not read it yet)
What if?
Using metaphor means getting a clear picture of what is happening in the current situation. This clear picture can add new variables and unlock unimagined potential. By using imaginative questions and clearly painting a scene in your mind, more of your personal story can come through. Using story, opportunity unfolds in the questions around the metaphor. Right brain and left brain work together in new ways to develop fresh ideas to answer curious questions. Here’s how it works:
What’s Possible? Taking the Metaphor a Step Further
Each of the metaphors from last week are below with new questions around the scene. Last week mined out the image of what is happening. The questions this week expand the metaphor to hunt for new solutions or steps to take.
Feeling Stuck?
Are you in a bog with a heavy backpack on?
The Bog Next Steps: What is in your backpack that you can set down? Do I need an alternate route? What do I see beyond the stuck boot? Where am I trying to go? How can I make this journey easier?
Trying something new?
Are you a bird with new wings and can’t decide if they are falling or soaring?
Baby Bird Next Steps: What am I trying to soar at? In what way can I stretch my own wings a little farther? What is threatening success? Longing to be back in the nest? What’s there for me? How can flying serve me? Who can mentor me to soar?
Feel like a bowl of spaghetti, surrounded by noodles, meatballs, and sauce?
Bowl of Spaghetti Next Steps: Pull on the spaghetti, what does it say? Pick up a meatball, what can you learn? What is the sauce doing? What would make the bowl of spaghetti clearer? Who are you in the bowl? Where do you want to be? What does creating clarity out of the spaghetti look like? How does clarity feel? What does deciding confidently look like?
Emergence and growth?
Feeling like a bud that is tight and ready to open?
Tight Flower Bud Next Steps: What would softening to unfold feel like? What flower am I unfolding into? What do I need to bloom? Am I creating an environment to emerge? What support can I ask for to reveal more in my life? What does it feel like to see the tight bud in full bloom? Describe with detail. What is different in bloom? What changes do you want to make today to begin the unveiling?
Why does this work?
When you are in the metaphor, it is possible to listen and observe with new eyes. New information can be easily accessed by using the picture to paint the scene which naturally crafts new possibilities. Working with a metaphor combines right and left sides of the brain which creates easier paths to conjure up unique potential.
“When we use metaphor, we make a leap beyond rational, ho-hum comparison to an identification or fusion of two objects, resulting in a new entity that has characteristics of both.” –Merriam Webster Dictionary Metaphor
Fusing yourself to a vivid scene allows for new ways of seeing. Not only do you feel and see the heart of the matter, the vivid refining clears the path for new ideas. Old stories don’t apply. Negative thoughts are not a part of the decision, they become a backpack, a nest, a sticky sauce or a closed bud. Nothing gets in the way of solution or invention. Just like Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Metaphor invokes new thinking, new possibilities, and a wider horizon. Play with the story that is on your heart and see what you and discover! Want to learn more? Reach out, I'd love to hear from you. My contact info is at the bottom of the page.
Namaste,
Laura