Cough
A cough is a forceful expiratory effort, which indicates that we are trying to move forward while still holding on. The cough represents new energy that wants to be expressed, yet we are still feeling loss about the past. We don’t want to say good-bye to, or let go of, something, but we are pushing ourselves to go forward. We feel a need for nurturing and we are caught in an emotional conflict. Our coughing (‘coffin’) represents a place of being emotionally stuck.
Chuck Spezzano and Janie Ticehurst, Healing the Body Through Mind and Metaphor