creative breakthrough
Metaphor is an act of genius.
Metaphor is at the core of nearly all scientific breakthroughs and acts of genius.
Celebrated scientists like Niels Bohr, Richard Feynman, and Albert Einstein relied on metaphor to help them make new discoveries.
Clearly, fundamental change depends upon our ability to engage with metaphor.
In other words, metaphor is an act of genius.
Don’t search for a solution. Open space for it.
The educator Maxine Green once said: “I find that, when a space is provided, something rather wonderful can happen.”
Empty space allows things to evolve in an organic way. It creates room for what we DON’T know and can’t expect. Empty space allows Something greater to come through us.
So next time you’re stuck, don’t search for a solution.
Instead, open space for it.
Creating space is the first step toward transforming anything.
Check out my new article in The Psychologist: What’s Your Metaphor?
An excerpt from my book, Deep Knowing, published in The Psychologist:
“The ability to comprehend our experience through metaphor can be thought of as a sense like seeing, touching, or hearing. Metaphor is connected with intuition. For example, someone might walk away from a conversation and say, “I can’t put my finger on it, but something feels off.” Or visit a friend’s new home and describe it as ‘heavy’ or ‘light’ or ‘cheerful’.”
“At any given time, we might say we’re feeling ‘light’ or ‘heavy’, ‘scattered’, ‘crystal clear’, or ‘in over our head’. We might say we feel overwhelmed, like we’re drowning, or ‘on top of the world’. We might say, ‘I’ve closed that door but don’t see the next one yet’, ‘I feel like I’m swimming upstream’, ‘I need a time out’, or ‘She’s looking through rose-tinted glasses’.”
Clients often come to therapy because of negative associations and patterns (negative metaphors). Once you have uncovered the negative metaphoric image, you could simply ask the client: ‘If you could change this image, how would you change it?’ But in my own work, I find it helpful to go deeper… into a client’s innate positive (rather than negative) metaphoric associations.
Our personal mythic reality–our own metaphoric structure of individual reality–is revealed in our early memory metaphors. We each hold early metaphoric images that go on to shape the way we see the world. These images come from happy memories–things, situations, places, or people–that we cherished and became imprinted on our hearts when we were children. These images are often associated with the natural world.
Starts September 22! Entering Visionary Space Shamanic Pilgrimage
Online shamanic pilgrimage for artists, visionaries, healers, social change agents, mystics & scholars of the non-ordinary.
Thursdays September 22nd, 29th, and October 6th
11 am – 1 pm PDT / 2 – 4 pm EDT / 7 – 9 pm UK / 4 am – 6 am (Friday) AEST
$217 includes recordings, ebook, handouts, and the opportunity to work individually with Kim
NOTE: We’ll be meeting on Zoom, so you can live anywhere in the world and still participate. Recordings and handouts will be sent to all registrants.
This 3-week seminar is a deep dive into the mysteries and divine intelligence of visionary space. Behind our thinking mind lies a field of intelligent energy—a non-cognitive realm where we can tap Divine wisdom, receive guidance and answers, meet our spirit animals and teachers, shift into our highest selves, and co-create with Something Greater than us.
Visionary space is a potent realm of non-ordinary intelligence that is not OF us…its wisdom lies beyond our ordinary, everyday rational intellectual capacities. In this field of Divine wisdom, each of you will receive the gifts, clarity, and direction that you most need. You’ll be able to viscerally feel its vibrational intelligence moving through you.
Each week, we’ll explore visionary space from a different lens:
Personal: during week one, you’ll experience a significant shift of being as you energetically align with your true Divine path.
Relational: during week two, you’ll explore personal relationships, as well as your relationship with the Divine. You’ll understand ‘right alignment’ and what throws you off-kilter.
Planetary: the final session will be devoted to looking at our gifts and talents on an even broader scale. Even if you’re not a social activist, issues such as climate change, the rise of extremism, the threat of nuclear war, and other international crises are energetically distracting and disorienting. What is happening below the surface? And what is your role to play?
In addition to mystics, artists, and pilgrims of the non-ordinary, anyone who is interested in taking a deep dive into their own experiential process and inner world is warmly welcome.
You will:
- Own your deep knowing.
- Open new channels of non-cognitive wisdom.
- Expand your range of creative possibilities and potentials.
- Experience a breakthrough and shift in your sense of ‘being’
This is deep work—it’s not about floating on the surface of spirituality and creativity. We humans need a strong connection with Spirit to open visionary spaces and pioneer new work. Please join us.
“Kim’s work is pioneering.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, New York Times bestselling author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
“I got more out of one group session with you than YEARS of therapy.” ~ Maria M., writer
“I’ve attended many prestigious programs over the last 20 years, but you are the real deal. With you, I receive images that are profound and life-changing. My life and sense of ‘being’ are shifted. My world is awake in a completely different way.” ~ Sheila R., coach and therapist