Whether you are alone by choice or circumstance, navigating isolation means nurturing yourself. Calm breathing with a step-by-step approach is a game changer.
Overview of The Emotions Metaphor "Navigating Trails and Landmarks"
NOTE: The introduction is the same for each of the four intensities of the Navigating Trails and Landmarks metaphor. If you have already read it, you may want to click to skip.
Hi, my name is Karen, and in this series I help you to Locate, Describe & Transform™ (LDT™) the emotions that you have that interfere with your best decisions.
Your emotions present as images and metaphors, so each week I explore new imagery, always looking at it from four levels of emotional intensity: extreme, high, medium, and low.
This week’s metaphor is NAVIGATING TRAILS AND LANDMARKS, and while I was looking for imagery for this video, I found myself drawn to winter scenes, which is unlike me, because I’m not really a winter person. I’d much prefer it was warm and sunny all year round.
Four Emotion Intensities with Four Navigating Landmarks Images
- For extreme intensity, I’ve chosen an image of people impossibly trying to cross a frozen lake with the wind so strong that it’s pushing them back; they can barely even hold on to where they’re at.
- For high intensity, I’ve chosen a group of hikers in the winter on very frozen land with no particular path, but just following one in front of the other.
- For medium intensity, the navigation is happening by following footsteps.
- And for low intensity, I’ve chosen a clear blue sky, sunny day, following a trail that is well marked.
As we explore the four scenes, focus on transforming emotions that make your path more treacherous or challenging. Look for the positive landmarks, the simplest trails, and consider how, metaphorically or in reality, you might improve the trail to help guide other hikers.
In past videos, the focus has been transforming the image in order to transform your emotions [and leave or change the situation]. But it’s going to be about recognizing, with this video series, how you can transform your emotions while staying in the situation.
Navigating Isolation: Medium Intensity Emotions
The medium intensity image I chose is different from the others, in that we don’t see any other people. So I’m feeling rather alone. It can speak to being a solo entrepreneur where you have to take charge of absolutely everything; it could speak to being a single parent, where you’re the only one that’s got to take care of absolutely everything in the house, and the kids, and go to work, and so forth.
But it’s that sense of aloneness combined with not seeing where you’re going. You can see some rocks ahead of you – there are some formations that you might be able to feel protected by – but you don’t actually see what your final destination is. So that’s what’s creating the medium intensity emotions.
There are tracks there, so you know somebody has gone this route before, but it’s not something that you’re familiar with.
Medium intensity means you’re beginning to feel the pressure, so it’s time to transform those negative emotions before they get out of hand.
Navigating Isolation: Transformation Example
I’m drawn now to the nurturing instincts and the idea of nurturing yourself.
This seems like a good time for me, when I’m doing my transformation, to stop the hike; to just make myself comfortable wherever I am. To remove myself, in my imagination, from that cold, snowy landscape with footprints that I’m not sure where they go, and to sit in a place, metaphorically or in reality, where I feel comfortable.
Let’s say that I’m at the office and I can’t really take much time away from work, but I’m just feeling this overwhelmed-ness. I’m going to close my door if I can, or go to the bathroom and close the door. I’m going to:
- sit somewhere quiet
- put my feet flat on the floor
- the palms of my hands on my thighs
- close my eyes
- take a deep breath in, and let it out slowly.
And do that for a few times.
Once I’ve calmed down enough – I’ve made sure that I’m not going into a high or extreme intensity emotion – I want to locate in my body where I’m feeling the stress. And for me, it’s right around the core of my body. My chest is tight, my stomach is tight. So I need to imagine something that’s going to relax that.
For me, the wintry scene is not helping; it needs to be a scene that transforms and makes me feel warm and opened up more. So I’m going to imagine instead a more Caribbean style of scene. And within that scene, because I’m feeling lonely and doing everything myself, I’m going to imagine friendly, caring people surrounding me, and we’re all having a good time.
I’m going to remind myself stay positive -don’t get pessimistic – and trick my brain to believing I’m happy and relaxed. That’ll make it true. So I’m going to imagine a funny story, something that my dog did or my kid said, and bring that happiness and warmth into my transformation.
I’ll be able to tell that it worked because my body will be more relaxed.
I could do this kind of a scene change transformation within a few seconds or a couple of minutes, and then I can go back to doing whatever it is I need to be doing for the day.
Navigating Trails and Landmarks: Closing
In this instance, Navigating Trails and Landmarks has been focused on trails that you’ve chosen to be on. Your imagery, your emotions, can be quite different if you’re someplace that you haven’t chosen to be. But the point here is that even if you’ve chosen it, you can still have intense emotions that need transformation, for you to continue on your healthiest path and make your healthiest decisions.
Stay positive as you keep going forward, and trust that your decisions will be healthy, will be positive, will be productive, will get you to where you’re going.
I respectfully acknowledge that this video was recorded on the traditional territory of Mi’kmaq people.
If you want more information on transforming negative emotions and the LDT™ – Locate, Describe & Transform™ – process, check out the books at theEATprogram.com.