Metaphorically thinking

[We claim] that metaphor is not just a matter of language, that is, of mere words. …on the contrary, human thought processes are largely metaphorical. This is what we mean when we say that the human conceptual system is metaphorically structured and defined. Metaphors as linguistic expressions are possible precisely because there are metaphors in a person’s conceptual system.

Mark Johnson and George Lakoff, Metaphors We Live By