ashok@nlplondon.com wrote...

Do you wish to be listed anonymously? No

Which area is your meta4 useful in? Anxiety, Stress, fear, lack of trust in the world, lack of love.

Which country? UK

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"Imagine life is like a slow moving river, a glowing blue river moving majestically...this river represents "life", your life...and imagine that there is a large rock in the middle of the river...and you are in the river but clinging tightly to the rock...clinging so tightly that your fingers are hurting...

Now this rock represents your fear of life, your fear of letting go and trusting in life...your anxieties...in the past you looked at the river with apprehension...worrying that you may drown...or that the river may take you places that you didn't want to go...but now you realise that once you trust in life and release your anxiety...you will feel much better...and enjoy all the riches of life...

So imagine now the tension releasing from your body...and feel your hands loosening their grip on the rock...and imagine gently releasing yourself into the water...and surprisingly you may find that you feel completely natural in the water...and the river slowly takes you forward...and you feel a wonderful sense of anticipation...beginning to see life as more of an adventure...accepting the ups and downs as they come...

And now the river takes you gently to beautiful places where the sun never stops shining...and you are letting go more and more...letting the river take you wherever...enjoying the sense of release.

When we trust in ourselves and others then we can trust in life even more...often we don't experience the full richness of what life has to offer because we don't let go...letting go of anxiety and trusting in life means you can now experience everything you want to experience in the way you want to experience it, with a calm relaxed attitude.

Ashok Gupta

Ed's note: Thanks Ashok!

Metaphorical descriptions of symptoms / problems and scenarios tend to get laid bare while you offer the meaning of the symbols to your client. Trust that the client will make the association to the indirect message!

Allow me to tell you of the ancient monkey trap! An indirect tale for 'letting go'.

"There was once a certain tribe who were renowned for catching monkeys...now monkeys as you know, are very quick and highly intelligent. But they're very greedy too, and this is what the tribe realised when formulating their ideas to trap such smart animals. Now how they did this was at once both very interesting, and very simple too!

You see, they'd set upon a tree, a small woven basket, which had been tied securely to a branch. Now this basket was woven strongly and carefully, with a big bulbous round at the closed end, and a very narrow opening at the other.

Into this basket was put large chunks of the monkeys favorite food, and by this, the trap was set. In a short time, a monkey came along, saw the basket full of food, and simply stuck his hand in that basket, grasped the biggest piece of food, and at that very moment, the tribal men would leap from the hiding place and rush for the monkey.

Now the monkey was naturally shocked and alarmed at this sudden movement, and tried to withdraw its hand from the basket, while not wanting to relinquish its grip on its prize, but the monkey, for all his wisdom, didn't realise that by.... 'holding on'.... to the food, that his hand was now bigger than the opening in the basket.....so he pulled and pulled, screamed and cried, but his opened hand gripping that food was simply too big to be withdrawn.

Amidst the panic of the moment, the monkey was caught, and this, truthfully, is the ancient art of catching monkeys....... But you know, and I know, that if only that monkey had...."learned to let go of that which he clung too....he would have been free of his now self imposed burdens".....

So, in an indirect manner, I have told a tale with the message which states...."if you don't let go....you remain trapped" ....but without ever referencing anxiety. Perhaps you're attention was fully engaged while reading, and this is perhaps what a metaphor should do....engage the attention away from the problem with a tale/pun/anecdote, but at the same time offering truisms/suggestions/solutions for change.