Hook & Ring
In Buddhism, they use the analogy of the hook and the ring. The inner or outer situation provides the hook, and our awareness/mind/consciousness the ring.
For instance, (a) something comes up in the outer situation, (b) triggering habitual emotional/cognitive patterns, which (c) awareness then identifies and engages with, either by fuelling or pushing away.
Without awareness identifying with its content - the emotional/cognitive pattern - there is no ring.
The Work seems to dissolve the rings, one by one. We examine a thought or underlying belief that we - or a part of us - believe in, see through it, and its charge is gone. The ring has dissolved. The hook has nothing to hook into. There is only clarity, spaciousness, responsiveness - and engagement from spacious clarity.