Are you stuck? Don't know what to do? Are you struggling with overwhelm? Have you already tried more traditional problem-solving techniques? Have you even thrown logical thinking at it? and still come up blank? If you're open to trying something a little different, then do read on - you may be surprised with what ideas emerge after reading this post?

Introduction

It's the BBC's Winterwatch this week in the UK and, following my post earlier this week asking "if your overwhelm were a cup of tea what solutions would there be", I thought I'd do the same thing for winter. These are cousins to an earlier post "if your problem was a mountain" and may become a series of posts if I get feedback that they're helpful. Whilst coming from a different angle this post with insight from sunrise may also shed light (no pun intended) on the challenge.

Anyway, back to the winter, I'm inviting you to consider what would happen if you likened your overwhelm to winter – ie what solutions might emerge.

I’m Alison Smith and for 25 years I’ve used nature and metaphor as a means of helping you move from not knowing to knowing what to do. Which means when you can’t see the wood for the trees, are stuck in a rut, or are up a creek without a paddle the woods, rut, and creeks have much to share to help you get back on track, and is why I wrote Can’t see the wood for the trees – landscaping your life to get back on track.

As ever with my solutions based posts this is going to make much more sense if you think about a situation you’re grappling with before reading further – ie have something you can apply the following metaphor and its patterns to. Don’t worry I will be starting by giving you some examples to give you a sense of the possible.

If your overwhelm was like the Winter what solutions would it provide?

A general demonstration of the process applying a metaphor to a problem

Just to give you a sense of what I’m suggesting here’s two quick examples: one is a general problem and the other is an unresourceful feeling:

If my problem is getting more attention on my Landscaping Your Life YouTube channel, then insight I might get from it being like winter would be:

• You can’t always judge progress by what you can see – there’s loads going on underground in winter and for my channel – ie keep the faith
• Spring comes round sooner than you think – with snowdrops only a few weeks away – keep the faith (yes a theme I get whatever coaching tool I’ve used and applied to this particular problem (see this video where I took this particular problem on a Landscaping Your Life walk)
• You can still enjoy winter you just have to wear appropriate clothing and keep an eye on the weather forecast – I think this is about reacting to trends such as Winterwatch, my brew Monday video earlier in the week, or my Wicked poem before Christmas to keep my channel relevant

If my challenge is a feeling, such as the January blues, how do I learn from coping with winter and apply it to my feeling?

• Putting extra cosy layers on usually helps in the winter – so how can I do more of what usually works – the new economics foundation’s five ways of wellbeing that we use on Headtorch mental health at work workshops is a great place to start.
• Look forward to and start planning for spring that’s just around the corner (eg you can start visiting gardens with snowdrops here in Scotland in 2 weeks time).
• Notice the deciduous trees and remember how vibrant they were last year and know they will be again this year.

With these examples in mind here’s a few pointers about using metaphor - with my ideas about reducing overwhelm added at the end of the post after you’ve made your own connections to the patterns of winter.

If you’re still not sure about using metaphor here’s a video about why metaphor can be more helpful than logic at solving problems.

Basic principles of applying metaphor to problems

See below for my starter for ten of patterns associated with cups of tea and tea making that you can apply to your situation.

After using metaphor to solve problems for 25 years I’ve discovered that the patterns seen in a metaphor are always in the eye of the beholder, and you may already therefore be ahead of me and have thought of something about a cup of tea or tea making that helps provides insight to a problem you’re struggling with.

Please note: it’s often better to stick with the metaphor for as long as possible and only relate it to the situation at the end – so have a read of these patterns – add to them – go off at tangents - and then once you’ve done that have a think about what insight has come to your mind about your situation (laughter is often a great sign that you’re on to something).

Some suggestions of patterns of winter you could apply to the overwhelm or problem you’re grappling with

• If it’s winter here it won’t be in every part of the world
• Some animals hibernate in the winter
• Some trees release their leaves in the autumn to survive the winter
• Frost or snow allows the footprints to be more easily seen
• If there's snow on the ground it quietens the noise
• As the saying goes ‘There’s no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothing’
• In many locations you can drive much more safely if you swap to using winter tyres
• From my home here in Burntisland, Scotland we get the most fantastic sunrises in winter

• With sun rising from a very different direction in the winter than the summer
• With winter occurring when a hemisphere is oriented away from the sun

Which has me going off on a tangent pondering the reason behind seasons (ie the tilt of the Earth) and the fact that some locations have 6 seasons and others only have 2, with apparently

• No winter is typically found near the equator - no summer either!

So please don’t ignore the tangents you want to explore – I had to use the www to find this information so also don’t be afraid to let your inner geek out to dive deeply into the patterns – you never know which pattern might provide insight to your situation.

• There’s an astronomical, meteorological and a solar winter and they all have different dates!
• Winter solstice and the longest night takes place in winter – a time many cultures think has much significance and is featured in a short story I wrote about a stone being knocked off balance.

Don’t worry about revisiting patterns and just seeing different insight:

• Winter temperatures change dependant of where you are in the world

Or really going off on a tangent

• There are many gods of winter Boreas, Hodr, Skaoi or even Jack Frost and Old Man winter

And whilst this last pattern may not trigger any insight for 99% of the people reading this there may be that 1% who have a relationship with gods or mythic creatures where this pattern triggers a memory or tangent that provides insight that transforms their thinking about the situation (do let me know if that is you).

That is, these patterns are just a means of reorganising your thinking from overwhelmed to coping, from stuck to unstuck or from not knowing what to do to knowing what to do.

Other actions or creative coaching tools that come to mind include:

• If you like art, what about exploring winter artwork and seeing what insight you get from viewing the wintery images, or
• If you’re into sports why not explore winter sports as a metaphor or compare them to summer ones, or
• Read a book with winter in the title such as Wintering, the winter guests, the winter ghosts etc, or
• Make a wintery recipe and notice what you notice, or
• Take your problem on a Landscaping Your Life walk, or
• Watch winter watch this week and see what insight you get from one of the conversations, locations, animals, videos or images, or
• Listen to wintery songs such as wintertime love!

You get the gist – you want to gather lots of patterns and then look at how those patterns apply to your situation – perhaps you’d got no new insight until you read the final words wintertime love and realised you need to look for solutions that you would love to do not what you think you ought, must or should do. Or perhaps it was the first pattern that gave you all you needed when you realised that it’s your focus of attention that needs to move.

What other patterns have come to mind for you?

And, more importantly, how can your noticing be applied as insight to the original situation you wanted a different perspective about?

My personal insight from these patterns applied to my own overwhelm

And in case it helps here's three insights from winter that I took away that I can apply to a situation I'm feeling overwhelmed about:

• Reading about astronomical, meteorological and a solar winter reminded me that I could be more precise about describing how I’m feeling and in that precision provide more of a clue as to what action will remedy how I’m feeling – eg
  • Am I overwhelmed or is it really that I’m not clear about by vision / goals
• • Am I overwhelmed or is it really what I’m allowing myself to get distracted
  • Am I overwhelmed or am I really not motivated to take the necessary action

• Being told that there is no winter at the equator invites me to think about times, places or people where the overwhelm is not present – and to explore more about what action that’s pointing me towards taking – as my prescription for wellbeing template asks me – what do I need to stop or start doing?
• And swapping my tyres to winter tyres reminds me to swap saying yes and instead say no more often so that I may work more safely.

Do let me how you got on - alison@alisonsmith.co (yes just .co).