14 inspiring metaphors for life

Some people see life as a struggle. Every encounter is a struggle, and if you do not win, they have to have lost the feeling. Others see life as an adventure. A new day brings new opportunities to explore. If something goes wrong today, there is always tomorrow.

How do these metaphors work to develop? As children begin to understand and organize the world. When we think of the brain as a filing cabinet, then childhood, when we open the files and label. We often spend the rest of our lives putting new material in these old files. If the child was in good health, we can have a good filing system. If it's a struggle, we often see struggles for the rest of our lives.

What are your metaphors? Normally, it is not clear. We need to step back a long way, as can be seen this pattern in our lives. Some examples:

• A Battle - Everything is a competition or battle. We are always either win or lose.
• A Garden - Relationships are cultivated like flowers or vegetables. We see things as growth, flowering and production.
• A Mission - We believe that we have the truth, and we have others that is convincing to correct our view.
• A trip or an adventure - We travel from place to meet new people and explore.
• A building - From a solid base and then adding floors and rooms.
• A roller coaster ride - Life is full of ups and downs, and we are on the trip.
• A stained glass window - full of light and color.
• A mountain tour - Life is made of hierarchies. We keep climbing the corporate ladder.
• A career - always to find a faster way, "follow the Jonses."
• A courtroom - Everything in life should be fair.
• Stepping Stones - Just feel good where we are before we are looking for a better job or a bigger house.
• A prison - feeling that we have no choice but others have all the power.
• A classroom - there are always new lessons to learn.
• Battery - Every encounter appears to discharge energy. We need the weekend to recharge.

These are just some of the metaphors of life, will go through life. What is the metaphor (s) that fits your life? Do they work or are having problems and your ability to limit? You can change the metaphor, but not easy. Good mental health includes having life metaphors that work.