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Metaphors are incredibly important for communication and understanding. Since time immemorial, metaphors have been used as a means of teaching and changing concepts, ideas and attitudes to life.
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Metaphors are incredibly important for communication and understanding. Since time immemorial, metaphors have been used as a means of teaching and changing concepts, ideas and attitudes to life. Shamans, philosophers and prophets have intuitively recognized and used the inherent power of metaphors. From Plato to Jesus, from Buddha to Don Juan to Richard Bandler, metaphors were recognized and used as powerful influencing tools. In metaphors, people, animals or plants face certain difficulties or they find themselves in special situations. The metaphor tells us how they can solve the problem, manage the situation. So, we learn something, and maybe the metaphor impacts us and gives us an idea how we can solve our problems.
Cameron-Bandler tells the following example in which the current experience and the desired experience soon blur and thus the pacing and leading merge smoothly into each other:
"An attractive woman named Dot came for consultation. She wanted to learn to control her promiscuity, so she sought help for it. She was married to a good man (that was her description) and she had two lovely children, but she could not resist engaging in extramarital relations anytime and with whomever it was possible. She wanted to stop this behavior. "I used the following elements in her description to build a therapeutic metaphor. Like so many attractive women, Dot was worried about keeping her slender figure (though she was by no means too fat), so I used this content area to make the metaphor look like a natural extension of our therapeutic interaction."
"This promiscuity could lead her to the loss of her husband and her self-esteem. A woman on her way to obesity. Dot cannot resist the temptation that other men present her. A woman who cannot resist nutritious desserts and good food when eating out. Dot finds extramarital sex more exciting. This woman loves to eat out. Dot is dissatisfied with the sexual relationships in her marriage. This woman just pokes around in her own home-cooked food. "Any extramarital experience produces more guilt and brings her closer to the loss of her husband. Every meal consumed outside produces more fat. Dot’s guilt gets so painful that she has to do something about it. She cannot sleep at night, etc. The fat lady has to do something about her habits. She does not fit in her clothes anymore. Dot had never developed satisfying sexual behavior with her husband. The fat lady had never learned to cook something nice for herself. "So far, every element in the constructed metaphor is isomorphic (i.e., there is a one-to-one relationship in the structure) to the present problem. The elements reflect the present problem by their form analogous to the problem. The next step is to move from mirroring the problem to a behavioral level solution. "The desired response that the metaphor intends is that Dot changes her behavior in a way that solves a problem. The story must therefore provide the obese woman, who is metaphorically represented by Dot - with a change in behavior. "Dot is to use her energy to bring about stimulating and satisfying sexual experiences with her husband. She started to change the cuisine she served at home. She began to read cookbooks to find suitable dishes and began experimenting with healthy and wholesome meals. "Dot is to find her necessary satisfaction at home. In time, faster than one might expect, she realized that there was nothing in the restaurants that matched her own domestic creations, and she no longer felt the need to cram herself anywhere else, for now she had found her satisfaction at home. Dot is proud of her marriage and her sexual relationship with her husband. Slim and lean, as this woman is now, the once fat woman is just as proud of her own culinary skills as of her firm figure." People react to such metaphors without effort. Something happens, but they often do not know exactly what.
It is characteristic of double induction that a person is told one or more metaphors at the same time by two speakers, or that suggestions or instructions are given at the same time (or combined). One speaker uses the right ear of this person for his auditory input and the other uses the left ear for his auditory input. The goal is an overload of conscious perception to transport information directly into the unconscious. Each message is processed by the opposite half of the brain, which leads to different experiences in the two halves of the body.
When it comes to the metaphorical depiction of complex relationships or mediation steps, working with so-called "nested stories", which are also called "stacked realities" or "nested loops", is an option. In terms of structure, you use a story in which another story is embedded ... etc. Switching or changing from one story to another takes place at a time of relative tension in current story.
Start 1. Begin Story A 2. Begin Story B 3. Begin Story C 4. End Story C 5. End Story B 6. End Story A 7. End
The conclusion of the stories thus takes place like drying washed dishes. Just as you finish the last story first, you take the last cleaned plate from the stack to dry it first.
"A very competent woman who worked in a social-therapeutic housing community wanted a schizophrenic woman to spend more time in the dayroom so that she would get in contact with others and spend less time in isolation. So, she told her a story about a beautiful rose blooming in the back in a shady, damp corner of a backyard. One day the gardener noticed this rose, cut it off and put it in a vase in the entrance hall where anyone who passed by could see and admire it. "The next day, the young woman cut her wrists to get attention (just as the gardener cut the rose)!" You cannot always prevent someone from finding an interpretation that you did not intend; but you can at least be so careful as to make it difficult for someone to take the wrong path. Therefore, check your metaphors for unintended meanings, ambiguities, assumptions and possible interpretations. Of course, a good metaphor also lives from precisely these kinds of processes. Phrases like "kick the bucket" have two meanings: a literal one and the meaning of someone dying. Each time you use such a phrase, both meanings are registered.
As important as its construction is the way the metaphor is ultimately presented. An optimal rapport is extremely important. For groups, if possible, pace all three main representational systems.
The transition from one state to the other can be done in many different ways:
If this state were a ......?
Landscape
Color
Fairy Tale
Idol/Hero
Automobile
Beverage
Temperature
Sound
Music
Flavor
Bird
Plant
Weather
Animal
"The truth knocked on people's doors, but nobody opened the door because she was naked. The parable found the truth alone and freezing. She took them home with her. There, she told a story to the truth. When the truth knocked on people's doors again, they opened the doors and sat around the fire for a long time in the evening." (author unknown)
This chapter is like visiting a nursery where you can buy different seeds. You can choose which type of seed you want to buy and which fruit or flowers should grow from it. It is up to you whether your seed will grow and bear fruit or whether it will be forgotten.
metaphor means translated "transferred pictorial expression". The term comes from the Greek, metaphorá, and means "to carry elsewhere" and "transference".
Trust is like a beautiful porcelain cup. If it falls down and breaks, it might be possible to glue it and drink from it again. But it will never again be as beautiful as it once was. With this metaphor I illustrated to my then 7 year old son how important it is to tell the truth, because otherwise the trust between me and him "changes". I told him this story when I suspected that he had not quite kept to the truth at the time.
Every metaphor offers meaning; it creates or deepens our understanding. It tells us a story consisting of a single word or phrase. It is able to show us the ideas of other people. But if we don't understand the nature of metaphors, they even think for us. Many people at some point in their lives come across a metaphor that deeply moves them or that will accompany them for a long time. This metaphor still moves me today: "Millions of years ago, when the earth was created, creation created the duck and put it in a pond. The duck was fed and had nothing to worry about. It therefore had no responsibility. After a while, creation created the eagle. The eagle had a much more exciting life. He could reach the highest peaks of the world, he floated high in the sky and enjoyed his boundless freedom. But for this he had to find his own food and take responsibility for his own life. Now creation created man and gave him the opportunity to choose between the boring life of a duck and the exciting life of an eagle. But then something happened. When people looked at the duck, many only wanted the benefits, but they did not want to pay the price. Now people were looking at the eagle, and again, they only wanted to enjoy the benefits that the life of an eagle brings. But they did not want to pay the price here either. So it came as it had to come. Most people simply could not decide: Duck or eagle? Creation made this a life-task for humans. Since then, two souls have been living in his chest: that of a duck, which is always chattering and never looks out over the edge of his own pond, and that of an eagle, which circles freely and majestically and enjoys freedom. Every person has both in him and knows both conditions: that of a problem seeking duck and that of the solution oriented eagle."
In order to have ideas for the construction of metaphors at hand, you will find here a small collection of topics which are often considered as the subject of a problem in practice. In a brainstorming session, suitable "transmissions" were sought. If there are difficulties with the topic learning, a metaphor with the content "school, survival, little chicks, ..." could show a possible solution.
Use body language so that the listeners can see what you are saying. The difference between INSIDE and OUTSIDE moments. When you have an important action or reaction, always step INTO the story and SHOW that moment instead of describing it. Metaphors breathe life into life.
OUTSIDE: Address the audience directly. Make eye contact with the audience. Speak in a narrative voice in the past tense.
INNER: Do not address the audience directly. Do not make eye contact with the audience. You are here and now in an imagined, imagined reality. You are speaking in the present tense. Show very personal, private behaviour.
The distribution of INSIDE and OUTSIDE moments should be 20 to 80. The INSIDE moments are like spice. One should not take too much of it. Imagine the INSIDE moments as cayenne pepper. Too much is too much.
When you say: "I bend down to take my bag" - bend down and take the imaginary bag. "I stubbed my toe on the edge of my desk" - stub your toe and feel the pain. "I went there and opened the door" - take a few steps and open the door in mime.
In any context, use your voice so that your listeners hear listening and feel what you say. Use fast and slow speech phases.
You will see that when you start working with metaphors, you will become an integral part of your life. People will tell you how long your story has accompanied them. It is up to you whether this seed will grow and bear fruit, or whether it will be forgotten. You decide whether it gets water and nutrients or not. Take breaks from speaking. If you want to emphasise a word, pause for a moment immediately afterwards. Then the word has time to take effect. Play with your words until you feel comfortable with them.
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