In 2012 I had one of the most eye opening  and hardest weekends of my life, but one of the most enlightening. 

Following an amazing healing retreat with ClearMinds International, I woke up to the fact that for a large part of my life I had been living life on a rollercoaster. 

What do I mean? 

Well, I strongly believe that we live life in metaphors and some of them give us power, make us stronger, happier and more fulfilled. However, some of them make us feel weak, unable to be positive and are downright destructive.  It’s pretty simple when you think about it.

A metaphor is when we communicate a concept and liken it to something else. So if I were to describe how I am feeling by saying , “My head is exploding.” What does that tell you about how I feel? Would you think I felt happy, peaceful and content with the world or would it tell you I felt chaotic, overwhelmed and distressed. 

Now we surround ourselves with metaphors all day from the journey to work, or school run in the morning, to the minute we sit down for tea at night. (Well in none pandemic  times)

What we aren’t aware of is how much impact these metaphors have on us. 

If we go around thinking I’ve got the ‘weight of the world on my shoulders’ or I’m ‘at the end of my tether’ or I ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’, do you think it is likely we are going to have a day filled with happiness and be productive?

In relationships we can have metaphors for our loved ones that can be positive or negative.  When my kids were little, and didn’t show they were grateful after a fun filled day out, and simply asked for more, I would think ‘the little brats.’ 

Do you think this made me behave lovingly towards them? Do you think I stayed patient and kept my temper knowing that they were over excited and it’s normal for kids to ask for more? 

Did I heck!I ended up shouting saying, ‘They should be grateful and they don’t know they are born etc etc.’

Did  that help them be appreciative? Nope. 

However, when  I kept the feeling that they are my ‘little treasures’ in mind we made it to bedtime without the shouting. When I managed to do this, they have been known to kiss me and genuinely thank me for a lovely day.  (And now they are older it comes much more naturally to them)

Leading Life coach Tony Robbins calls these our “global metaphors”. I believe that by making a conscious decision what your metaphors are going to be you can change the way you live. So, for me living on a roller coaster meant I had been known to sabotage myself by listening to my  Mean Little Cow voice (negative self talk) at home and at work because to me ‘Life was a Rollercoaster’ and not in a good way. If things were going too well I’d sabotage the situation and make it hard for myself instead of enjoying the downhill descent.

I didn’t allow myself the easy ride or see the ups and downs as fun. 

I just made myself work harder, or not accept what I was doing was good enough and then felt overwhelmed.  For years, I  listened to the negative voice in me unconsciously (..and you are lying if you say you haven’t got one. We all do. Some are just louder than others.) telling me lies and believing them.

 It isn’t just positive thinking for positive thinking sake. 



The great thing is having spent that  weekend in 2012 finding out why I did this,  it gave me a chance to write a whole new set of metaphors to live by with my new found knowledge.

 It’s about being conscious about  the way we think and thus feel. It’s about embodying the energy you want to see. To have only one metaphor to live by is as limiting as being unconscious of them. Think of loads.

From that day,  I lived life with the ‘love of my life’ and our ‘two  treasures’ embodying the following metaphors:

Life is a Gift. Life is a Soundtrack. Life is love. Life is an adventure. Life is a mystery to be solved. I feel light as a feather and giddy as a kipper. (I must look up the origin of this daft simile.) 

When you look at life like this, the possibilities are endless. Your Vision will be realised in real time.

 Let me know over on my Facebook page how you get on and what visionary metaphors you come up with.. ☺

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