It’s a narrow path, but what’s coming up is your focus. Before entering the darkness of the cave, transform your discomfort and fears, and grab the right tools.
Overview of The Metaphor "Between A Rock and A Hard Place"
NOTE: The introduction is the same for each of the four intensities of the Between A Rock and A Hard Place metaphor. If you have already read it, you may want to click to skip.
So you finding yourself between a rock and a hard place. But what does that imagery actually look like for you, and how might you transform it to get yourself out of that situation?
Hello and welcome! My name is Karen, and this series is sponsored by Emotion Commotion and The EAT Program™. In these videos, I help you Locate, Describe & Transform™ the emotions that interfere with you making your best decisions.
Your emotions present as images and metaphors, so each week, I explore a new metaphor. always looking at it from four levels of emotional intensity: extreme, high, medium, and low. This week you’re between a rock and a hard place.
Between A Rock and A Hard Place: Four Emotion Intensities with Four Metaphor Images
- For the extreme intensity video, I’ve chosen a sketch of somebody being squished between a rock and a hard place.
- For high intensity emotions, I’ve chosen a video of somebody climbing a ladder that is secured to rocks within a narrow space, but going up through a waterfall that’s crushing down on them.
- For medium intensity emotions, you’re walking at the base of a canyon that’s quite narrow, and the canyon walls are quite tall.
- And for low intensity emotions, you’re on a path with the walls closing in, heading into a narrow crevice.
If we make the assumption that the high, medium, and low intensity images are not fun activities for you – they’re actually metaphors describing negative emotions – let’s see how we can transform them into something positive.
The Narrow Path: Low Intensity Emotions
For low intensity emotions and the metaphor between a rock and a hard place, I’ve come up with this image where it’s a rocky path, where the moss covered walls are getting narrower and narrower, as you approach into a cave. If we started with an image, not words, you could easily call this the walls are closing in on you, but we’ve started with between a rock and a hard place as the metaphor, and describing it is this image.
How can we transform these low intensity emotions, so that you feel healthy going forward? If this image speaks to my emotions, I actually feel positive about the moss and the jagged rocks, so I don’t want to transform that at all. That might be something that’s negative for you, and you do want to transform.
The Narrow Path: Transformation Example
The cave becomes the issue: between a rock and a hard place is something that’s going to happen, not that’s currently happening. It’s something I’m about to put myself into, so before I enter, or before I choose to turn around, I want to take a minute and transform my emotions.
It’s low intensity – it’s not going to take long – it might even just take a deep breath or two. But what I’m feeling is the need to stay still.
Before I put myself into a situation that I can’t get out of, as I take that moment to breathe, I’m recognizing a building pressure in my chest, and in my throat. I’m afraid of going forward, even though I know it’s my healthiest choice. So how can I transform that fear energy?
I like the idea of a silent scream. Sure, if, in the real world, I was in that hiking situation, I might let go with a real scream. But a silent scream: you can do that anywhere. You’re doing it in your head, so you could even do it if you’re surrounded by people.
Just take a deep breath, and inside your head, scream, scream, scream, until your breath is gone. Release all of that negative emotion so that you can go forward with a clear head.
Narrow Path to Cave Entrance: Don't Forget Your Tools
With that clear head, I look forward. Yes, I still want to enter the cave, but I’m very aware that I have to go carefully, not just barge in.
I’m also aware that I’m missing some tools:
- The first thing that comes to mind is a flashlight
- The second is a hiking pole
Translation: Intuition and Practicality
Translating that imagery into the real world, the flashlight is telling me to trust my intuition, and the hiking pole is telling me to stay grounded and be aware of real world obstacles.
With the transformation complete, I start walking into the cave. I’m aware of the potential to put myself between a rock and a hard place, but I have the tools, and the state of mind, to be able to deal with it before it becomes a problem.
Between A Rock and A Hard Place: Closing
I’ve just presented four different scenes that represent four different intensities of emotion, but there’s another aspect you can look at as well. Once you describe your scene, it can also tell you how complex your emotions or the situation is.
Our extreme intensity image: If that represents our emotions, there’s no complexity at all to it. It’s one person squished in the rocks. Potential complexity comes with the hand that was drawing it if it wasn’t yours.
For the high intensity image, the complexity comes from the waterfall. And that complexity increases whether that waterfall represents one person or a group of people. Complexity [also] comes from the ladder, and complexity comes from the various rocks in the narrow path you have to climb out of. So this could be a high to extreme complexity situation that you have to manoeuvre.
In the medium intensity image, the complexity is probably in that medium zone: There doesn’t seem to be anything else but the rocks, and there is a way out. When I’m in there, I’m feeling like I’m alone, so complexity would be low [unless I needed assistance to get out].
And in the low intensity image, that’s probably a higher complexity. You can divide your complexity into low, medium, high, and extreme: Because the rocks are jagged; because it’s one path with rocks on it; because you’re going into a cave that you can’t see anything – that would increase the complexity.
The reason complexity can matter for you is it helps you to see how many different issues, how many different people, are involved in the situation that you need to transform.
So as you transform your image – you transform one aspect – it might actually represent a way for you to transform one particular aspect of your situation. For between a rock and a hard place, I’ve given you four examples of imagery.
Take a breath yourself when you’re feeling emotions. Locate the stress or tension in your body. Describe your metaphor as detailed as you can, and Transform that imagery to get yourself out from being between a rock and a hard place.
I respectfully acknowledge that this video was recorded on the traditional territory of Mi’kmaq people.
For more information on transforming negative emotions with Locate, Describe & Transform™ – LDT™ – go to theEATprogram.com.