Your 5 Floors
ATTIC
You are completely overwhelmed.
Panic or Emotional outburst. Beyond thinking.
The staircase is spinning higher and faster.
Everything has become too much. You are completely overwhelmed. You cannot think at all. You are vibrating fast — heart racing, chest tight, mind blank. You may panic, thinking “I must get out of here right now.” You may explode emotionally, or have an outburst, lashing out at other people. Or you may be so overwhelmed you just want someone to tell you what to do.
Sometimes we take the lift to the Attic. We bypass the spiral staircase and go from zero to a hundred — and find ourselves way up high in our House Within.
No thinking happens here.
upstairs
You are over-thinking, over-analysing, over- worrying.
Thoughts are going round and round in your head and you can't stop them.
The staircase is spinning and pulling you higher with every thought.
Your head is busy. Spinning. You are working hard, striving to achieve something. You are over- planning, and catastrophising, doing What-if thinking,— playing out every worst-case scenario before anything has actually happened. Your thinking goes round in circles with no productive result. Always comparing yourself to others. “I should be doing better.” Judging yourself and others harshly.
After a while you become exhausted and start to attack yourself. “I’m so stupid. It is all my fault.” Or you turn and attack others. “You’re so stupid. It is all your fault.”
And then one of two things happens. You spiral down into your Basement state of mind. Or you head straight for the Attic.
Me thinking happens here.
GROUND FLOOR
You reject the deliciousness that comes with spiralling up or down.
You can hold your emotions and make room for your productive thinking to help you. The staircase is still. You get on your bike and work the pedals to get to your Ground Floor want, an outcome that is good for you and good for others, in equal measure, and at the same time.
Here you have all the emotions that you have on any of the other 4 floors — but here you can hold your emotions and bring in your productive thinking to help you decide how best to respond in any moment, and in any interaction with another person. You reject the deliciousness that spiralling up and down offers. You want to make progress, not just spiral up and down. You want to fulfil your potential as a human being and live by what you value. By what is important to you. By what adds meaning to your life. Here you are naturally grateful and compassionate. And you have a determination to move forward — in your own reactions and in your relationships.
You do we-thinking here.
This is the floor where you have the best chance of building good relationships and finding meaning and purpose in your life.
BASEMENT
You reject the deliciousness that comes with spiralling up or down. Here you do negative thinking. You have walked down the spiral staircase and it is spinning slower. You vibrate lower.
You may think things like: nothing ever works for me. No one values what I do. What’s the point? I give up. Nothing is worth trying. And in the Basement, everyone else seems to have what you don’t have. There is real bitterness here, and resentment that can harden if you stay too long. You feel the world is telling you what to do — and you don’t like that.
But the Basement is a place of economy of thinking, economy of effort, economy of responsibility. It is safe and predictable. Tomorrow will be the same as today. You are not taking any risks.
Me thinking happens here.
In the low Basement there is a trap door. Hover too low for too long and you can fall through the trap door to self-harm. Seeking help is important.
CELLLAR
Here anything goes. It's just all about me.
You don’t care whether it is good for you or good for others — if you want to do it, you will do it. And nobody can stop you. There is real attitude here. All the addictions live here. All the careless or selfish behaviour on our roads, and on social media, as well as conspiracy theories, comes from the Cellar. It is survival of the fittest. It is deeply competitive. People in the Cellar play emotional games. Everyone has a Cellar. Everyone can visit the Cellar. The question is how long you stay.
Me thinking happens here.