On his Mindfulness & Psychotherapy blog, Elisha Goldstein recently interviewed Arnie Kozak, author of Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness. Excerpt:
When it comes to trying to understand almost anything, I have found metaphors to be extremely useful. In mindfulness we use them all the time, we say, “Paying attention to your thoughts is like lying down on a field of grass looking at the clouds go on by or like lying down by a riverbed see the variety of debris come and go.”
I am very pleased to bring you Arnie Kozak, PhD, who is a master at using metaphors to help us understand mindfulness. ...
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Elisha: What are your Top 5 Metaphors that you have found most helpful for mindfulness?
Arnie: To pick only five out of the 108 in the book is hard! And there are many more that
I’ve developed since the publication of the book. My favorite metaphors are probably the ones I use the most, and they are the most practical.
Storytelling Mind & DVD Commentary: (OK, I’ve cheated here by combining two closely related metaphors). The first is the Storytelling Mind. Our minds generate stories; it’s the mind's chief export. We tell (and believe) stories about the future, the past, or the present, and these stories determine how we feel. And let’s face it, we are constantly telling stories.
It’s like the Director’s Commentary on your DVD. The director and some of the actors “talk over” the movie. That’s what we are doing all the time – we talk over the movie of our life by adding commentary, opinions, judgments. When we are mindful we stop the commentary and give our full attention to what is actually happening and get to experience the fullness and richness of that moment.
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