The apartment building

Let’s picture ourselves like an apartment building. The design is there, the foundation exists, the floors are up and the apartments have been rented or bought. Let’s suppose now that in each apartment lives a belief about ourselves. On the first floor, our fears, on the second our anxieties, on the third our core beliefs, on the fourth the opinions of others and on the fifth, the actions we never dared to take. On the sixth floor, there is a little one-bedroom apartment, where a little hope comes to live. At first, we never go there. Soon we become friends, though, and together we build a small garden up there. But after a while, while we frequented the other floors, we move in there. There is not enough space, though, and we need a bigger apartment. They are occupied, as we said before. We are looking for solutions and we ask an engineer. He tells us that we have to find a way to drive the others out or tear down the building. Otherwise, our life will never change. How are we going to tear down what we have been building for so many years, though? The sixth floor will fall as well. But we have made our decision. We will change our life! Therefore, we start from the first floor and slowly move our way up to the fifth. We learn not to fear, not to be overwhelmed by anxiety, to think positively about ourselves, not to be influenced by others, and finally to act and take care of ourselves. And in a little while, we and our friends, positive thinking and hope, become owners of the building. And now, in each veranda there is a small garden.

 

by Vasilis Manousakis