Perceptions of Reality
I don’t expect my writings to be popular with most readers at first. Hell, I get it. When I first heard of metaphor I thought of poetry or some lyrical or fancy form of language. You know, something like…
Gloom the black sun of melancholy. -Gerard De Nerval
It was a way of describing something mundane, using words of beauty. It never occurred to me that our daily language is ripe with metaphor. Now here is where things become outrageous and completely amazing. Our model or particular map of the territory is made up of concepts. We never touch or experience anything directly. Think about this. Our perception of the world is predominantly metaphorical. So, what does that mean?
I’m sure some of you have heard of the whole The Secret and the law of attraction shenanigans. Well, not completely bogus, but not as easy as we want to believe since 90% or more of what we do is all unconscious programming. Anyways, we are told we create our own reality. Well, actually there is a lot of truth in this. Our concepts structure our reality. Therefore, the metaphors we choose have a serious influence on how we will experience the territory. The metaphorical concepts you learned as a child are now defining your life experience.
For example, let’s take money. Either you were told money doesn’t grow on trees and you have to fight for what you want, or if you were lucky you may have heard early on that money is your friend. These metaphors create very powerful images and symbols deep within the unconscious mind.
Unfortunately, we tend to conceptualize the negative more than the positive. Time is money, they say, but what if we were to begin to use positive metaphors to describe our experience? Time is plentiful. Money is an unstoppable flood. Feel the shift in your perception of reality. There is real magic in metaphor.
Enjoy this post? Click here to treat Allen to a coffee and say Thanks!
