Mark Twain’s metaphor for forgiveness shows the power of the metaphor.

Metaphors can help get us unstuck from deeply ingrained patterns and habits of thinking. We use metaphors all the time and often do not even realize them as they have become so much of a part of our language. Case in point, they can “open doors” and provide “the keys” to insight!

So next time you think you are “at the end of your rope” – think metaphors!

Since creative people think in abstract terms, unleashing the power of the metaphor can truly be powerful and attitude altering. Metaphors can open up “mountains” of possibilities! Besides, thinking in metaphors can be fun also! Commonly understood terms from everyday life take on new meanings that can “stretch” your mind, like a rubber band!  

For example, when I go by the dairy case at my local grocery store, I don’t look at Swiss Cheese like all the other cheeses. Why? My self-help book is based on the metaphor of Swiss Cheese representing life with all its “holes.” After all, life is not smooth and predictable like Cream Cheese or American! Life has holes, and its how we get through them that counts!  Would you really want your life to be bland and predictable?  What fun would it be to go to a baseball game and already know how it will end up?

One of the chapters in the book, “Fondue Can Never Turn Back Into A Block of Cheese” uses the metaphor of fondue to help others get past their past. What’s done is done, and people who get  stuck in their past never can get past it and move in in their lives.  We learned this lesson early on in life with the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme. No matter how hard they tried, all the kings horses and all the kings men could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again.  The analogy helps plant the seed even in children that we need to “use the past as a guidepost rather than a hitching post.”

One part of Dale Carnegie’s enormous influence was his use of metaphors, such as his simply put  “you can’t saw sawdust.”

The image of the butterfly is a common metaphor which represents transformation and change. It also is the subject of my very favorite proverb, “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly…”  I would imagine that countless people going through difficult transitions have found much solace in this proverb.

The image of the sunflower is another commonly used metaphor, as it represents how you can stand upright and beautiful with strength and confidence if you positively orient yourself towards the light represented by the sun.

Even more mundane analogies can be quite meaningful as we learn life lessons, such as the image of a flat tire.  It has been suggested in various quote postings that a bad attitude is like a flat tire. To move forward you need to change it! 

Speaking of changing your attitude, if you don’t like the way your life is going, why don’t you “change the channel?”  

By the way – are you the type of person that focuses on the “hole” - what’s missing – or the “whole?”  That will determine if you are an optimist or a pessimist!

Have you ever considered how life is like a book? The story unfolds as you turn the page, and we can write our own “happy ending.” As we read on, things start to come together at the end, just like in our lives we can connect the dots of our life with the benefit of hindsight.

So the next time you feel like your life is falling apart, why not make it into a beautiful mosaic using the power of metaphors?

What is your favorite metaphor?  I would love to see yours in the comments below.

(Photo credit: Safelock via Shutterstock)

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