Mental Chains

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

There’s a story about how elephants are trained to be compliant. When they are young, a metal band attached to a chain is connected to one of their legs. The chain is attached to a stake in the ground. The elephant is unable to free themselves from the stake. They are just too young and not strong enough to do that.

Living with a chain trains them into obedience and compliance.

Even when the chain is removed, its memory is sufficient to keep them bound and limited in place even as an enormous adult elephant.

Many systems trained us to be obedient, just like the elephant.

We forget one thing.

When we were young, we didn’t have a choice about how we would live.

We were taught by parents and educators and told what to do.

Punishment consisted of bad grades from teachers, disappointment, and worse from parents.

We quickly learned that we didn’t have a choice.

As adults, we have our own key that can free us from those mental chains.

There is a risk to being liberated that each of us experiences.

We may fail.

We may embarrass ourselves.