Copyright © 2026 Mitra Farahani

Contents

Crown Yourself with a New Psycho-Linguistic Method!

Don't Break Your Shoulders with Stress!

Paint A Deserved Picture of STRESS On the Canvas of Your Mind!

The Traffic Light Is Red! Stop The Time of Your Mind!

Focus On Your Breath!

The Traffic Light Is Yellow! Proceed With Caution and Map Out Your Stress Treatment!

Write ABC!

The Traffic Light Is Green! Please Move!

Rewrite Your Stress Roots!

Accept and act!

Mock Everything!

Create an external character!

Use the Ridiculous Voice technique!

Exaggerate your stress intentionally!

Be more friendly to reduce stress!

Don't Give in to Your Mind's Resistance!

References

Crown Yourself with a New Psycho-Linguistic Method!

Note that each metaphor therapy books written by Mitra Farahani analyzes and treats one feeling-based concept; hence, this chapter, which explains Mitra Farahani's new evidence-informed and science-backed method, is repeated in her psycho-linguistic books. So, reading this chapter once is mandatory for all readers.

Welcome to this royal book, the book that is written for the nobles who want to revolutionize their own lives. You are here to grow your NOBLE EYES through NOBELIZE books.

I’m Mitra Farahani, the founder of NOBELIZE publishing house and a cognitive-linguist who knows her educational major, especially her lessons around conceptual metaphors, as the turning point of her own life.

My friend, to fully benefit from our metaphor therapy books, there are 3 rules that you must follow: Make a promise that you will respect these rules:

1. Identity: I would like to invite you to make a quiet but profound decision: From now on, call yourself a Noble. Not in the sense of superiority, but in the sense of dignity. The way we see ourselves shapes the way we handle our emotions, our decisions and even our struggles. Psychology shows that people who relate to themselves with greater self-respect often develop a healthier sense of responsibility and emotional resilience (Neff, 2023). This is not mean denying the influence of family, childhood, or painful experiences. Our past affects all of us. But a noble person does not build their entire identity around blame. So, treat yourself like someone worthy of respect. Speak to yourself with dignity. And even in your weakest moments, do not abandon yourself.

2. Pragmatism: Dear Noble, based on all self-help and psychological books, the key to happiness and peace of mind is summed up in just one principle: pragmatism. You must be pragmatic about every lesson you learn from books or movies; without pragmatism, even the most valuable and useful masterpiece in the world will not be effective. So, as the second rule, pledge to be pragmatic when engaging with NOBELIZE books.

3. Routine: Since pragmatism makes sense within the framework of routine practices, promise me to establish a personal growth routine for yourself. Dedicate just 9 minutes a day to self-awareness. In this brief daily period, you can read concise, practical, and beneficial books of NOBELIZE or any other valuable sources. If you have read James Clear’s ATOMIC HABITS, you understand that I am not talking about a mere 9 minute, but about the extraordinary revolution that this small routine will bring.

Now, place your hands in mine and repeat after me:

I, Noble ... (your name), pledge to immerse myself in self-respect, to be pragmatic, and to commit to my 9-minute personal growth routine.

Well, welcome to the life-changer Nobles group. 😉

Let me start from here: When I was familiar with cognitive linguistics during my educational courses, I felt with all my heart that I had discovered something miraculous. This approach seemed to provide an answer to the question that has long intrigued humanity: how to penetrate the dark aspects of the human mind.

How can cognitive analysis of language reveal our hidden thoughts, you ask? Well, the answer lies in the deep connection between language and thought (Sapir and Whorf, 1956). For example, the Hopi language lacks grammatical terms, like "will", to distinguish between past, present, and future tenses; therefore, Hopi speakers do not perceive the concepts of PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE in the same way that English speakers do. They can only understand temporal distinctions in terms of events that are “completed” or “incomplete” (Whorf, 1956). Isn’t it fascinating that a fundamental concept like TIME is interpreted differently depending on one's language? It is interesting to know that our understanding can also be influenced by our language in different ways and not solely based on universal or biological factors; For example, speakers of Guugu Yimithirr use the words of "north," "south," "east," and "west" to describe the location of objects or their directions, instead of the words of "right" and "left." Of course, speakers who consistently use earth-centered terms instead of self-centered ones to describe directions have a much different understanding of the concepts of DIRECTION and LOCATION. There are countless examples proving that language and thought influence each other; So, analyzing language cognitively could reveal many secrets about our thinking styles.

It is interesting to note that cognitive analysis of language can even reveal the mechanisms behind our understanding of concepts.

Before I explain the mechanism of the mind's understanding, I want to whisper in your ear and spoil something right here at the beginning; So, bring your ears forward: 👂 If you understand how your mind understands concepts, you won't trust your mind anymore.

Our minds find it easier to understand concepts that can be perceived through our senses, those that can be seen or touched, compared to those that cannot be bodily experienced. For example, it is not difficult for our mind to understand tangible and visible objects like a bag, a book, a chair, etc. However, understanding more abstract and complex concepts such as LOVE, LIFE, HATE, STRESS, INNOCENCE, FREEDOM, etc. can be challenging since these concepts aren't physically felt.

What do you think our mind does to understand abstract concepts? The key answer lies in imagination. Our minds take help from imagining simple concepts to understand complex ones; For example, LIFE is an abstract concept. Therefore, our mind imagines LIFE as a PATH to make understanding it easier, because PATH is something that can be experienced by our body: we can easily imagine our body walking on a path and feel the movement of life. Now, how can language analysis reveal the mechanism of our understanding? It's straightforward: Language reveals what images, or academically conceptual metaphors, our minds use to understand abstract concepts. For example, the following linguistic examples uncover that you, dear English speaker, imagine the PAST concept BEHIND your body and the FUTURE one IN FRONT OF your body:

Future lies ahead of us.

Leave the history behind.

Leave those sad days behind.

We are approaching the end of the year.

Christmas is approaching.

The summer went by.

(Afrashi, 2018)

The linguistic examples revealed how you visualize PAST and FUTURE events.

It is challenging to know that the obvious imagination of "the PAST is BEHIND us" and "the FUTURE is IN FRONT OF us" is not universally accepted. Analyzing different language expressions uncovers that some language speakers have the opposite conceptual metaphor; For example, some of them view the PAST as something they can see, and the FUTURE as something remains unseen, leading them to imagine the PAST IN FRONT OF their eyes and the FUTURE BEHIND them.

It is amazing to know that the mentioned mechanism is also scientifically and neurologically proven: the results of research by Johnson (1999) and Narayanan (1997) indicate that whenever two conceptual domains are activated in one's mind simultaneously, the brain regions related to these two domains will be activated. In this way, a neural circuit will connect these two brain regions.

But what is the benefit of pulling out the image, or conceptual metaphor, your mind uses to understand concepts from among your brain neurons? By discovering your mental images around a particular concept, you can become aware of your cognitive errors. For example, English speakers often imagine ARGUMENT as a WAR. Pay attention to the following linguistic cues:

Your claims are indefensible.

He attacked every weak point in my argument.

I demolished his argument.

I have never won an argument with him.

(Afrashi, 2016)

From a psychological perspective, it is wrong to imagine ARGUMENT in the form of WAR; because this belief can cause people to search for stupid justifications to convince their other party in any way possible and win their imaginary war, instead of listening to the other party's words during an argument; While from a psychological perspective, being a good listener is one of the arts of a constructive argument. According to the examples given, analyzing the external representation of the mind, that is language, uncovers both the metaphors (mental images) of our minds and the cognitive errors we may have.

Now it is time to tell you about the miracle of this book: Dear friend, according to modern psychology, there are thousands of misconceptions like the example above in our minds about millions of concepts such as ANXIETY, STRESS, SADNESS, HAPPINESS, PLEASURE, BEAUTY, UGLINESS, PROSPERITY, SUCCESS, etc., that recognizing their destructive mental images is crucial for personal growth. That's why, at the beginning of this part, I told you not to trust your mind and its perceptions too much; But don't worry! Although, as you know, not everyone has the ability to become aware of their mental errors, we, as Nobles, have a superpower that sets us apart: the ability to re-imagine. Yes, we, as Nobles, have the key to replace destructive mental images with more constructive ones whenever we detect a harmful mental image around a particular concept.

My mission in this book is to pull out the destructive mental images you have created to conceptualize STRESS and replace them with a more constructive image using the miraculous method of re-imagining. Throughout this book, you will shift your false perceptions of STRESS with the guidance of practical solutions from some of the world's most admirable psychologists. So, prepare your mind for a revolution, as this book will challenge many existing mental images about STRESS.

Don't Break Your Shoulders with Stress!

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

This quote (Hume, 1757) is the truth of our minds’ mechanism. As mentioned in the previous chapter, our minds understand concepts with the help of imagination. The images our minds use to simplify complex concepts determine our worldview about those concepts. Therefore, if we want to access our worldview about a particular concept like STRESS, we should access our mental images around it.

Since our language is somehow the external representation of our hidden minds, one of the ways to find our mental images is through language analysis. So, we can easily pull out our mental images around the STRESS concept from among our brain neurons (mentioned in the previous chapter) with the help of language analysis and put them in the hands of psychology to determine whether they are constructive or destructive. By this method, we could be familiar with the root of our mental misconceptions. Now, if we use NOBELIZE readers’ special and royal superpower (mentioned in the previous chapter) to change our destructive mental images with the help of psychology, then we have taken a big step toward personal growth.

Dear Nobles, the mentioned process will be applied around the concept of STRESS from now on. First, you will see your mental images around STRESS, while this concept is being analyzed from the perspective of English speakers (during this chapter, the diagnosis stage). Then, the destructive mental images pulled out from your brain neurons will change with the help of practical psychological solutions (during the next chapters, the therapy stage). As a whole, while reading this book, you are painting a deserved picture of STRESS. So, grab your paintbrush and be ready for a revolution on the canvas of your mind. Are you ready? Let’s go!

My friend, imagine a heavy weight on your shoulders, one you know will eventually break your back. What feelings would you experience? Wouldn't you feel tired, uncomfortable, and utterly powerless? In that moment, wouldn't the worst emotions arise within you? My friend, the mentioned scenario is precisely how you perceive STRESS. Believe it or not, your mind uses the mental images of FORCE and BURDEN to perceive STRESS. Don’t you believe it? Ok, listen to your voice while using the following daily expressions:  

The high mortgage payments put them under severe financial stress.

He’s been under a lot of stress lately.

He broke under stress.

I feel weighed down by stress.

(Longman Dictionary)

Did you feel the overwhelming weight of STRESS on your body while reading the examples above? The expressions above are substantial evidence supporting that STRESS is a pushing FORCE from top to bottom or a back-breaking BURDEN from the point of view of English speakers.

You might wonder: if it is the nature of our mind to perceive concepts by imagination, what is wrong with considering STRESS as a pressing FORCE?

First, if you see STRESS as a physical FORCE pressing on you, you subconsciously accept it as an external and uncontrollable feeling; This view disagrees with modern psychological theories, which emphasize that STRESS is an internal experience. By viewing STRESS as an external force, you're likely to focus on escaping rather than addressing its root causes. This misunderstanding can lead to a victim mentality, making you feel powerless against your stress. Also, this misconception can lead