If you put a finger in each end of a Chinese Finger Trap, then try to pull your fingers out, they get caught tighter.
When you think of the puzzle as a "trap" your worldview is already geared toward escape. Logic tells you that to escape you must move away from the stuck place. But if logic prevailed, none of us would have any problems. "Hey, I'm not gonna do THAT anymore." Not!
If you approach the puzzle as a woven tube that has certain characteristics, you're more likely to notice how it works, to see how the weaving pulls tighter in one direction and looser in the other. Then all you're likely to say is, "Isn't that interesting? The way out of the finger trap is to push in." You have reframed what you previously supposed.
You can also reframe your thinking about the puzzles in your own life. Maybe you're "too serious," for example, and want to be more playful. You decide when you dress for work tomorrow you'll choose a brighter color than you usually wear. If you then say to yourself, "I'm going to notice ways in which I'm more playful while wearing this color," you set up a positive expectation, you suppose you will see yourself being looser, more spontaneous.
The technical term for this is presupposition. Presuppositions embed a positive expectation and assume a desired change.
What we focus on gives meaning to our experience. Instead of looking for reminders of how serious you are (akin to seeing the Finger Puzzle as a trap), you will look for exceptions to the problem -- small ways in which you're even a little bit less serious.
Presuppositions (positive expectations for evidence of change) are not the same as affirmations (telling yourself you're something you want to be). Repeating "I'm intelligent" ten times a day to overcome believing you aren't so smart would be an affirmation. Saying, "For the next week I'm going to notice how my intelligence operates" is a presupposition.
The more you use presuppositions, the more you'll see unexpected and even surprising changes in yourself. (That's a presupposition.)
