NLP Email Training 24

Quote

“Every perception of truth is the discovery of an analogy.”
Henry David Thoreau

Life metaphors

Last week we dealt with metaphors. This chapter is also about metaphors, about 'life metaphors'. Apparently, metaphors are used to give important experiences a framework. They provide meaning, support, and orientation in life. They play a key role when we set out to unravel the mystery of continuously convincing as well as negative functioning. When we discover the metaphors intertwined with our most important personal experiences, we can also change them and give our lives a new direction.

Every metaphor you adopt is accompanied by certain rules, ideas, and fixed notions. Imagine you hold the view that life is a constant struggle that ends with death. Such metaphors act like a filter and influence the unconscious belief principles you develop regarding other people, your chances in life, your professional activities, your aspirations, and life itself. They also affect the decisions about how you think, feel, and should behave. Every person has their own global metaphors; for some, life is a struggle, for others, a game.

The following exercise is designed to help you recognize your most significant life metaphors and change them if necessary.

Exercise for this week

1) Think intensively about an important area of your life (work, life, love?) Do you view this area as a challenge, a gift, a game, a struggle?

2) What do you associate with these terms (gift = joy, surprise?)

3) In which situations is your chosen area advantageous, and in which does it restrict you?

4) Now try to counteract the restrictions. You can do this, for example, by seeing life as a game instead of a struggle. Imagine it and listen to yourself. Isn't life suddenly much more worth living? As with all exercises, you will need patience and a little perseverance for this one as well. But a steady repetition will soon lead to changes in your life!

Supplementary Links

Text:
Model of salutogenesis >>>
In this text file, you will learn more about this interesting model.

Metaphor of the Week

Nature has placed humanity under the dominion
of two sovereign forces, pain and joy?
they guide us in everything we do, say, and think:
Every attempt we make,
to throw off our yoke, serves only to
illustrate and confirm this truth.
Jeremy Bentham

Book Recommendation

Living in Metaphors. Construction and Use of Figurative Language
Authors: George Lakoff & Mark Johnson

Short Description:
A milestone in linguistics, this slim book by Lakoff/Johnson is certainly that, and at the same time a treasure for every layperson. The prejudice that metaphors are only used by rhetoricians and literati is debunked by the two authors, for the opposite is true: Metaphors are everywhere, and everyone uses them almost daily. And it is not just figurative language, when people 'ignite' for each other, arguments are 'torn apart in the air', etc. The authors show how these 'images' are interconnected with others and thus entire areas – especially of abstract thinking – gain shape through these images. And this has often far-reaching consequences, for those in business who primarily think in terms of war- and battle metaphors will ultimately behave that way.

Here the book can be ordered: Now on Amazon

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Live your dream!
Stephan Landsiedel