This is one of several Metaphors That Calm the Mind that I presented at the 2014 NGH Convention. I call it “The Office Building.”
What makes the Office Building so interesting is its versatility. It can be used as an induction, as a deepener, or as change work for quieting a busy mind.
I’m an open source kind of guy, so feel free to take this and use it with your own clients. All I ask is that if you publish it somewhere, give me credit as the original author.
Office Building
by Michael Raugh, BCH, CI
A metaphor for promoting sound sleep. Can be used as an induction, as a deepener, or as an exercise for clients who need to learn to quiet their minds for sleep.
If you are using this as the induction, have the client close their eyes and take a couple of relaxing deep breaths before you begin.
Just relax now, and allow your imagination to take charge of your thinking for a few minutes. You have a powerful and creative mind, and it’s often said that there is no wrong way to imagine, so whatever images, sounds, or feelings your imagine may produce or not produce are all perfectly okay for you in this time and place. You may even be a little surprised at where your mind can take you when you simply allow whatever happens to happen. And if you happen to find your mind drifting, or wandering a little, you can allow that to happen too.
I wonder how well you can imagine an office building. It may be a massive skyscraper hundreds of feet tall, or perhaps something with a wide stance or an unusual shape; maybe a building you know well, or one that your imagination can create. Whatever its shape or size or height, imagine that office building in your mind.
An interesting thing about an office building is that, like your body and mind, an office building has a sort of circadian rhythm to it. Early in the morning, the building wakes up from sleep, a little slowly at first. The daytime security guards arrive, and the cleaning crew, and the support staff, getting things ready for the day’s activities. The workers arrive, a few early ones first and then the rest, and as they come in and get to work everything wakes up. Lights come on, machinery kicks back into active mode, phones ring, printers whir into action. Climate systems keep the building’s temperature at a comfortable level and security systems watch the entrances and exits.
Now imagine what happens at the end of the day. It starts with the people winding down their work, cleaning off their desks, heading home. Done for the day. As the people file out, it’s easy to imagine that everything begins to slow down. As the day draws to a close it feels quieter and quieter inside, less and less busy, more and more empty. By night time, all of the tasks are done; business is finished.
Now imagine the building shutting down for the night. First the cleaning crew sweeps through, emptying trash cans and sweeping floors and dusting, starting at the top floor and working their way down, cleaning each floor, from the penthouse down to the basement. Imagine the security guards making their rounds, starting at the top floor and working their way down. Even from outside, you may be able to imagine the lights winking out as the guards go through the top floor, checking to make sure doors are locked, turning out the lights, making sure the floor is empty, quiet, and still … and then going down to the next floor, doing the same thing … and down to the next … and the next … and the next.
With each floor, your whole building becomes more and more quiet, empty, and clear. And when the guards finish the lowest floor, they turn off the last of the lights, lock the doors, and go home, leaving the building at rest. Imagine that feeling now, of a building completely at rest … empty … quiet … calm … peaceful. And I wonder what it would feel like to wrap yourself in that feeling, to experience it yourself, as if you were alone in that quiet, calm, empty building, completely secure, but surrounded in silence.
If you are using this as an induction, you can segue now into a deepener or your suggestion work.
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