One metaphor OCD sufferers can use is that of a brick versus water.  When we engage in our rituals and  obsessions, it is all driven by the impulse to control.  When we do this, we are represented by the brick, that doesn´t bend, melt, bond or adapt.  If we keep hitting something with a brick, either we will eventually break the thing, or we will break the brick.  However, in contrast, a helpful metaphor for OCD sufferers to visualize is to be like water.  Water doesn’t stay or stick, resist, insist, or stop at impediments or obstacles.  It simply flows towards the gradient.  When we engage in our rituals, we are attempting to control reality with behavioral or mental bricks.

However, we cannot hit reality, and we cannot control it, and the brick simply breaks us down emotionally.  When we try to resist the OCD compulsions and obsessions head on, we are also using the brick mentality.  What we need is to be like water, and use a water mentality.  Let it flow.  The obsessions can come and the obsessions can go, the compulsions can come and the compulsions can go.  We need to release attachment and control and let our lives flow.