In one of the many buildings, the busy city has, lives Sarah Miller. This young woman has faced a lot of harsh things in her past so she has decided to stay as strong and as stable as she is able to. Sadly, the past few days she has woken up sweating cold and breathing rapidly. Like a scared little animal. Her nightmares are just getting worse and more persistent as time passes; nothing seems to help her relax.
-“I don’t understand! I’m eating healthy, I’m working out, and I manage my emotions…whatever am I doing wrong?!”-she asks her best friend exasperated.
-“I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong but we all have break downs from time to time! I don’t think there’s anything to worry about”-Pete replied with his characteristic warm smile.
-“Thank you…I guess you’re right”-
Talking to her friend did help her a bit but inside she still felt something was unbearably wrong. She walked home after a long day of work, threw her shoes at the entrance of her apartment and after dining she headed directly to bed. Maybe her exhaustion would aid her to sleep better.
After an indefinite time of busy thought traffic, she finally drifted off. Instead of the usual blackness, she was abruptly standing in a white room.
-“Wh…what? Where am I?”-she looked around utterly confused.
-“Welcome inside your mind, Sarah”-a soothing voice spoke from behind her.
She quickly turned around finding a good-looking man standing calmly in front of her. He smiled wide and tilted his head.
-“Who are you?”-
-“You could say I’m the man of your dreams! No? Alright, I’m your guide tonight”-
-“My guide?”-
He chuckled and smiled more as everything around them shifted into another room. They were surrounded by skyscrapers that seem to be leaning over her like a judging crowd, covering the skyline and giving the environment a dark aura.
-“You’re so small, just one person of the thousands within this city. Aren’t you?”-the guide asked softly without looking at her.
-“I…suppose?”-for some reason his words made her feel the pit in her stomach becoming deeper and wider.
-“But this is only how you picture yourself and the world around you, it isn’t real”-
As easy as that they were back into the white room.
-“I don’t understand, are you telling me the world isn’t real? That we are in some sort of virtual reality?”-
-“Not quite, what I’m saying is that what you just saw is just how you perceive the world to be. You shape your reality with your beliefs, like choosing a pair of glasses. Each pair will show you a different version of the world and some people change their glasses until they find something they truly like. Some seem to have their glasses glued to their heads and avoid changing them at all costs…”-the guardian’s voice trailed off into the nothingness of the room.
-“Alright…I think that makes sense. But how is that supposed to help me now?”-
-“Help you with what, dear?”-
-“My nightmares, of course!”-
The handsome guardian nodded seemingly deep in meditation before replying with his silky voice.
-“You created them yourself; they are an alarm that something is off inside here. Do you wish to find out what?”-
Unsure if she actually wanted to know she nodded and followed him as he walked off into a trail that just appeared. Suddenly brick walls formed in both of their sides.
-“What are these?”-she inquired looking at the black brick.
-“Your mental paths have hardened over time, so they turned to brick. Some people have bamboo walls, others have no walls at all, every mind is a different world”-the guide answered without turning around.
-“So that means my mind…isn’t flexible?”-
-“You could say it like that, years ago when you were a kid you had a thousand possibilities but due to those events you had to go through you put up walls everywhere. It makes it hard to walk around here!”-the walls closed in as they went on making the path narrower.
-“We…we can’t go any further!”-
Effectively the path was now as narrow as a door for pets.
-“That’s your choice, here, have a hammer”-he takes out a glowing hammer and hands it over.
-“You don’t expect me to be able to break a wall with only a hammer, right?”-
-“Why not? After all, you created them yourself!”-
Feeling torn between trying and just running away hoping it was all a weird dream she held the tool in both of her hands. It felt heavy, heavy just like all of those decisions she had to take. With a silent cry of war, she smashed it against the wall; it sent a shock throughout her whole body. Despite the pain she kept going until the bricks fell apart. She stood there, panting, somewhat liberated and yet confused.
-“Well done! I know it hurts and it’s exhausting but I assure you, it’s worth it. Come back tomorrow”-
And so she did. Each night she met her guide and smashed walls. Sometimes they would talk and he would teach her how to create new glasses and find new perspectives. Soon enough the white room turned into a gorgeous forest under an ever starry sky. Each wall meant crying a lot, she was now vulnerable. One night she cleaned her tear-stained face and looked at her guide, the smashed bricks lying all around her.
-“So this is what I needed? Break down walls?”-
-“Everyone needs to break down from time to time; it allows you to build new paths inside your mind and also to create yourself again! Only if you let yourself break”-
-“But it hurts!”-
-“Growing does, so does change but all of them are worth the new landscape”-he took her hand and flew into the starry sky she created. The before white and empty room was now a wonderful world filled with new experiences, with new perspectives. She was no longer the tiny figure within the judging buildings, she was free. So she kept breaking down and building better things with a smile. Pete was right all along! There’s nothing to worry about, break down a little and build up a little better.
#self-growth #change #build #breakdown