Jill Brown Cognitive Hypnotherapist
Hypnotherapy with a holistic approach
If you don’t know where you’re going any road will take you there… Lewis Carroll
Traditionally, metaphor has been thought of as a poetic way of speaking, a way to make language more colourful and interesting. Well of course it is that, but it’s also much more. Far from being just a fancy way of speaking, some researchers of the human mind go so far as to say that metaphor plays a major part in defining our very sense of reality.
Continue reading “What’s your Metaphor?”
I’ve been thinking about options this week and trying to reach a decision. Then I heard this little story …
The little bird had been in the cage for a very long time. It would sit on it’s perch and look through the window to the great outside world beyond.
It would gaze in awe at the birds flying free outside and wonder how it felt to spread your wings and soar. Sometimes another bird would rest on the sill outside and their eyes would meet. Then the outside bird would fly away and the little caged bird would feel more trapped than ever. But early one morning an opportunity came – the cage door was left ajar and the little bird could see that the window was open too.
His little heart pounded – this was his chance. He thought about how wonderful it would be to fly freely and as high as he wanted to go. He thought about resting on a branch and singing to his hearts content. He wondered what the earth would look like from high above and what it would feel like to soar. He thought about all these things for a very long time and his excitement grew. He thought about these things until the sun set and the moon came up. He could see her outside the window. Oh how she beckoned him. And just as he thought about answering her call the cage door was closed again. The owner had returned.
Working with Dragons
Close your eyes for a second and think of the word dragon.
What kind of image do you conjure up in your minds eye? What kind of feeling do you get? Do you think of a huge and terrifying creature? Is it evil and destructive?
Or maybe your dragon is magical, magnificent and benign.
But whatever kind of dragon springs to mind, the chances are on some level you’re being influenced by every image you’ve ever seen and every experience you’ve had relating to that one word dragon.
Because for most of us, dragons are a part of our psyche …
It’s quite a natu
ral thing to be fearful of death. It’s nature’s way of keeping us alive of course and having a strong survival instinct means our genes get passed down and evolution can carry on doing what it does best.
After all, the survival of the fittest process would soon go to pot if we didn’t have a basic primal urge to stay alive.
But what about when the fear of death becomes pervasive and stops us enjoying our life?
I’ve heard it said (and I can’t remember where or by whom) that we can never be truly alive until we come to terms with the inevitable reality of our own death.
So is it ever a good thing to put the thought of death to the back of your mind and concentrate on the day to day matter of life instead?
I find symbolism fascinating. Perhaps that’s the reason I became interested in the subject of metaphor and maybe that’s why I like the tarot too.
Not that I believe
I can tell the future or anything, but I love the way the symbols can mean so many different things to different people.
There’s really no end to the many ways the pictures can be interpreted and I’m intrigued by the mystery that surrounds the cards.
No one knows for sure where or when or why they originated but they can be traced back at least as far as the mid 15th century and seem to have found their way to Europe via Egypt and Italy. It’s believed they started as a set of playing cards but over the centuries they’ve become many different things to different people.