Parallels
One of the gifts of the universe is that there are many parallels. Maybe parallel universes but I’m more thinking about analogous things. By the way, looking up “metaphor” in the thesaurus is a very meta activity.
Blood vessels look like river vessels, wrinkles on skin look like waves cresting from afar. Beehives and sunflower seeds. The list can go on.
There are also parallels in pain. Where both physical and emotion emit the same energy patterns when confronted by our attention, coming in waves.
Analogous systems are what helped me graduate university, especially Control Systems. They help us all the time. Namely, a parallel problem might have been solved and can help us in solving our current problems.