top of page

A helpful metaphor

Updated: Mar 6, 2023


I hope you find this a helpful metaphor which points to how the human experience and emotions work.


A cup can hold so many things. It can be filled with tea, water, juice, wine, coffee, lemonade, a cocktail….etc. etc. We can view ourselves as like a cup. We are the container for an infinite number of thoughts and feelings which pass through our cup everyday – happy thoughts, sad thoughts, resentful ones, angry ones…the content doesn’t overly matter.


What is helpful to see is that we are the container within which we ‘hold’ all of the different feelings that pass our way…our thoughts bring feelings with them…which in turn creates our moment to moment experience of life.


But unlike the cup we are not a limited container; we are the energy who can ‘hold’ any thought, any feeling, any experience. It’s the capacity of the ‘cup’ that is important, not the contents it happens to temporarily hold. Knowing you are the cup, and not the liquid (your thinking) can help immeasurably during difficult times.


And the more we can get comfortable with the different liquids that pass through our cup, the more peace of mind we are able to experience, no matter what our cup is currently holding.


Lindsey Elliott is a Wellbeing & Resilience Coach, energy healer and meditation teacher working in Brighton and online. She offers one to one coaching in a life-changing paradigm of understanding about how the human experience is created. With this understanding you can move from feeling insecure, stressed, anxious or unfulfilled to happy, secure, inspired, peaceful and filled with love.



bottom of page