Circus Elephant Syndrome

nisarg — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:39:27 +0000

Circus Elephant

Ever see a circus elephant anchored to the ground? A small chain fastens to a metal collar tied around the elephant’s leg. And the chain is attached to a small wooden peg driven into the ground.

15,000 pound elephant could yank that wooden peg right out of the ground or break that little chain in two.

But the elephant doesn’t do that. Why not?

When the elephant was a baby, her trainers used the same collar/peg/chain method. At that young age, the contraption was indeed strong enough to prevent the animal from breaking away. And break away that elephant tried!

But pulling at that chain every day caused a cut to appear on the poor elephant’s leg, exposing the sore sensitive layers of skin and tissue, forming a deep wound. It hurt so bad that, realizing her effort was fruitless, the baby elephant stopped trying to escape.

She never forgot that terrible experience, the poor elephant. And so, as an adult, whenever she was chained by her handlers, she knew she would never get away. “If I pull it will hurt. Besides, it’s impossible to get away.” The large elephant had what we might call an “assumed restraint.”

Most of us don’t realize it, but we suffer in life with this same terrible condition. We live our lives and pursue our careers restrained by our imprisoning mental beliefs of life’s limitations. We think many things are impossible—things we once thought possible. And we laugh at how foolish and immature our beliefs once were.

There is a chain.Break it.

Ever see a circus elephant anchored to the ground? A small chain fastens to a metal collar tied around the elephant’s leg. And the chain is attached to a small wooden peg driven into the ground. 15,000 pound elephant could yank that wooden peg right out of the ground or break that little chain in two. But he won’t do that. As a baby elephant, trainer used same method and gave terrible scars to prevent him breaking away. As an adult, he is still living with that mental restraint.

There is a chain. Invisible. Created by one or another failure. Break it. Move on. Be free, be fearless.

Block building

niraj000 — Mon, 26 May 2008 01:28:27 +0000

Each one of us has some or other mental block. The block which stops the person from thinking in certain direction, from acting in certain manner, from moving ahead!

“I would love to top; but Maths is just beyond my brains!”
“I just can’t control my temper in such condition!”
“I love to go to movies; but I don’t have time!”
“I want to be happy; but the world is too cruel!”

Think for 3 minutes and you would have a small list of your personal self -nurtured blocks. These blocks prevent you from being what you like to do, what you desire to be.
Just try to push the block a little, and you will start building a structure of your limitless and self achieved happiness.

A childhood story:

Several deers were brought from jungle to zoo and kept into fence. They tried hard to break the fence for days but failed and lost courage. Then they begun to adjust within the fence and didn’t bother to come even near to the fence. On one sunny day, the fence was removed. Everyone expected the deers to run away. But they didn’t… The fence built in their mind was much stronger now!!!

~ Story credits: Mohammad Mankad

Aren’t we slightly more intelligent than deers?

~Illusion

LifeMantras » Blocks

Circus Elephant Syndrome

Block building

Aren’t we slightly more intelligent than deers?