A Metaphor for Energy

When I started teaching yoga and giving smoking cessation workshops (approximately twenty years ago), I lived by a simple creed: Give everything I’ve got.

Every time I walked into a teaching situation where I thought that my message or methods could help, I gave everything.

People were very happy with the way I taught, so I kept up this approach for years until I finally realized something.

When I gave everything, I had nothing left.

I was a glass that had to be refilled after every use.

After I made this (rather obvious) realization, I changed my metaphor for teaching and it changed my life. I no longer felt empty and depleted after giving of myself.

Caretaker Sectors Affected More Than Others

A few years after I made my metaphor change, I started giving stress management seminars and realized that my (now cured) affliction had also affected others, especially people who belonged to the caretaking industry.

Teachers, nurses, daycare workers, counselors, therapists, social workers, and everyone else whose job it was to take care of others, were ensnared by the same faulty metaphor of giving everything they had.

And they were feeling depleted.

So, I started sharing the story of my metaphor change and, for many, it changed their energy levels in the same that it had changed mine.

Can a Metaphor Change the Way You Feel?

According NLP specialists, the answer is yes.

If you repeatedly use the same metaphor to explain the way something affects you, then that metaphor becomes your reality.

If you always give everything and empty yourself, then you will think of yourself like I did, as a container that needs to be refilled or a battery that needs to be recharged after every use.

Ergo, if you change the way you think about the process, you will change the way you feel.

My New Metaphor

I thought of myself as a container.

When I gave everything, I was empty.

My metaphor change was simple, yet profound.

I went from being a container to being a tap.

Yes, a tap.

When you need water, you turn on the tap.

When you no longer need water, you turn off the tap.

But the water is always there, waiting to flow whether the tap is turned on or off.

I am a tap.

Tapped into a never-ending source.

Tap on. Energy flows.

Tap off. Energy is reserved.

The Caveat

The caveat is simple. You have to stay connected to your source for this metaphor to work. My connection is maintained through contemplation, periods of solitude, and meditation.

I hope this simple metaphor change will help you in the way that it helped me and countless others.

Gudjon Bergmann
Author & Interfaith Minister

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