the bear.
Happy Friday!
This email actually has nothing to do with the show The Bear, but it gave me a good excuse to put Jeremy Allen White in here. Yes Chef!
This is about how I am a bear. More specifically, a bear trapped in a cage trying to get out and find my bear people.
Sooooo, when we get stuck in our heads about how to move forward, it typically doesn't help to just keep talking about it or thinking about the problem. We want to tap into our creative brain and juice our subconscious for solutions.
One of the most powerful methods of doing this is using metaphor. Using visioning and metaphor with my clients is one of my favorite tools and yields both fun and powerful insights.
I was using this tool on myself recently and the metaphor went like this:
I am a bear trapped in a cage. I've grown so big that I fill the entire cage and my fur is sticking out of the bars. There are 5 padlocks in a diagonal line keeping the cage locked. There's tape over the key holes. I (the bear) cannot unlock the cage. There's a family of humans outside the cage who are afraid I will eat them, if I get out. I (the bear) just want to get to a forest and be with my bear people. At the same time, I'm afraid of leaving the cage, because I've been in it for so long and I don't know how to get to the bear forest. Eventually, a spirit of light shows up and reminds me that I'm a bear - that I'm strong and have instincts that will lead the way. When I'm ready, the spirit dissolves the locks and we begin a journey back to the forest, guided by the Universe, my bear strength, and bear instincts.
Ok! So there's a lot in there that's very personal to me and insightful, but my MAIN takeaway was this: I've outgrown my old patterns. But they still feel safer than stepping into the unknown. To move forward on my Soul's Path, I need to remember my inner strength, that my intuition will guide me, and that I have the support of the Universe.
So this is one way that healing works. We tap into our subconscious to better understand our stuckness and we gain insights into how we can support ourselves in moving forward.
If you feel stuck in some area of your life, I encourage you to turn it into a metaphor and see what answers emerge.
Love,
Jessica
