Pictures of Happiness
Are You Between a Rock and a Hard Place?

• knowing what you want
• being able to 'picture it' in every sense of the word

This Happiness page:

• introduces you to using everyday simple metaphor as a weapon against emotional blocks such as anger, resentment, frustration, jealousy for example. Use it whenever you feel stuck, trapped, bored, blocked, lifeless etc.
• demonstrates how to elicit subconscious information by drawing or creating a visual image of that feeling.

Pictures of Happiness offers the drawing suggestions particularly for those of you who prefer to self-heal. Not everyone wants to share their emotional baggage with someone else.

Another great thing about 'WRAPPING IT UP' in this way is that you need not disclose to others the specifics of your issues, difficulty or problems. In Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) this would be referred to as 'content free.' Troubles, problems, difficulties, we all have them, they are our

mountains to climb,
rivers to cross,
hurdles to jump
...that's the nature of the beast, or the beauty that is life.

The difference is:
we do not all have effective strategies for dealing with them.

Think about your Pictures of Happiness.
What obstacles are in your way?

Being able to examine the characteristics of a known object sets up a rationale to not only explore the problem, but to find a solution,
change a perspective, adopt a new coping strategy.

The trick here is to intentionally create and manipulate our metaphors to change how we see, feel and react to situations in our lives.
What's that old cliche about a picture paints a thousand words?

Pictures of Happiness - My Friend's Obstacle

Let me tell you a true story:

My friend was having some difficulties in her life and one day as we talked about them she said:

It's like I have a huge monolith in front of me.
It's just standing there.

Boy was it big! She demonstrated how high and how wide with her arms. We tried a few options. She was adamant that she couldn't go round it, over it or under it and she certainly could not move it.

So how can this help us, what is the answer to this problem? We could have analysed this massive structure, and elicited all the things in her life that were creating it....but something else happened.

I said to her.

"Ok let's use the monolith as a resource.
Take a break, turn and lean against it while you consider the problem"

In her mind she did this ....and she physically nearly fell over. The huge barrier had gone!

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE MIND!

We laughed about it and don't know exactly what happened, but she no longer felt obstructed or stuck and we continued with our conversation.

Another time this same elderly friend created a 'clock of doors' on top of her head and each night she would 'put away' her issues of the day.

It's not always that easy but her reaction has astounded me to this day.

Pictures of Happiness. How Does it Work?

Return now to our original metaphor saying - between rock and a hard place. Take a moment NOW to think about the following 'rocks and minerals' related metaphors, common expressions:-

just one more pebble on the beach
It's another mountain to climb
he/she's my rock
it's rock solid

But how would it change things if:-

1. the pebble conceals a precious gemstone
2. the mountain has a road or a track leading to the top
3. that rock was only made of CHALK
4. you could shrink the boulder to the size of a pebble

How would that make a difference?
What new options would it create?
How would it help you to deal with it?

By the power of the mind, you can manipulate your metaphorical representation of the problem, obstacle or difficulty. You can change how you think, feel and ract to any given situation, by how you represent it. Let's face it,we could shrink our problems down to size if we were able to think like this all the time.

However in our stressed thinking for example we ...

• back ourselves into corners
• dig ourselves a big hole

• give someone a big stick to beat us with.

I hope you're remembering to mentally 'PICTURE' all these metaphors as you read them, and remember too that everyone's picture will be different.

By changing the qualities and characteristics of that corner, that hole or that stick it changes our mental, emotional and physical reaction.

Pictures of Happiness - Draw Your Metaphor Image

The next (original) image is one of my doodles, a 'mountain' circa 2004, which warranted my attention as a metaphor - as you can see I am no artist. I remember being in a contemplative mood and as the drawing continued, I was curious and surprised as I added the hairpin road to the top...or bottom of the mountain.

My thoughts were: access, distance, retreat, vantage point, time out and a quiet meditative place on the mountain top which I actually imagined to be a lovely grassy bank.

My 'mountain metaphor' afforded me a vantage point from which to gain a greater overview/perspective of my situation at that time.

It was only later as I looked through my photo album in 2008 that I came across the photo below. This was a 2001 holiday in China and is in fact a queue of people making their way to the top of the head of the amazing giant Buddah at Leshan in China.

I forgot I had even taken the picture. Wow! How amazing is that old subconscious mind.

Additionally it reminded me of a local spot that I visit locally, for 'me' time and for inspiration Hockley Mount - an ancient fortress site.

The message I took from this then was to:
"retreat from the situation, think things through for myself and watch
things from a 'good' place. You will know when the time is right to act."

NOTE; I am reminded of the real need to DATE any drawings or writing you create if it is part of your Happiness or Life Changing journey.

Now you have a tool to de-construct your obstacles and paint your pictures of happiness using metaphor.

Enjoy!!

Return from Pictures of Happiness to Metaphor Stories