We have a big shed in our backyard. We keep our bikes in there, my old tools and hardware, the snow boots and camping gear, and about 10,000 boxes and piles of junk.Today I needed to find a few things. It was like one of those puzzles where there's one empty spot and you have to slide the tiles around to form the picture. Only the tiles were heavy and dirty and the empty spot was outside on the lawn. Ugh.
After a while I realized I'd gone far beyond trying to find those few things I was looking for. Without meaning to, I'd tackled the shed itself. I do this two or three times a year and when I'm all done there's an amazing amount of room in there. I could set up a ping pong table!
But getting to that point is awful, sorting through all the dusty chaos.
Right in the middle of this process, it occurred to me that this must be what some of my clients feel when we start in on their issues. It's a mess down there, in that old subconscious! Even with our great new cleaning aids like tapping, it's still a job of work. And we might not remember or realize just how spacious and wonderful and full of new potential that inner space can become.
Most of us start therapy for the same reason I started in on my shed today--we just can't put up with the mess any longer. We aren't even thinking about all that lovely space when we're done. It's a nice surprise.
Symbol of Chaos by Ant Allan
