TRAPPED AND AFRAID:WHY SOME PEOPLE NEVER ESCAPE

By Ⓒ WANDRACHENAULT, Mama(cita)SezWisdom™ October 2023

We all know the story of the elephant.  The largest creature on earth often captured,  trapped and controlled by a metal anklet.  The largest manual on earth,  is capable of setting himself free. But,  the elephant has lost contact with  his essence, his strength, the giant he was meant to be.  So, he relinquishes control  and,  because he is  no longer in touch with his true identity, he  allows himself to be dominated by a small man with a small stinging stick.  Emotionally and intellectually defeated, he believes that he is defeated and the elephant surrenders, gives up and becomes complacent.  Despite the elephant’s powerful  capability  of  experiencing deep emotional memories, he settles for less than he deserves and begins to make peace with his surroundings and lives a life that is minimized. He is unable to explore, experience, and enjoy, the so much more he is capable of experiencing.  

But, we all know that the elephant, although a prisoner,  is strong enough to break free and survive. What can we learn from this? You can’t find happiness if you’re not willing to look for it, find it and fight to maintain it. And you certainly won’t find happiness if you don’t believe it exists or that its for everyone else and not for you. Even worse, you won’t look for what you’ve concluded isn’t possible or you don’t deserve.

Happiness is an individual thing. One man’s happiness can be another man’s poison. Happiness has to be defined by one’s self. Dont allow other people to tell you, dictate to you or convince you that they can define your happiness…that may be their happiness but it’s not yours.

The  pursuit of happiness is the idea that you can  reach your highest state of consciousness, potential self and universal love. The pursuit of happiness is an element of Shadow Work. Sometimes, traumas from childhood  or life events scare us into first catching our breath, as we run  looking for safety. And then, deciding that it would be too difficult or scary to look further or for fear of the potential that we’d fail, we allow ourselves to just accept a sort of status quo. We buy into the perception, that lesser is acceptable and better doesn’t exist. We give up.

Photo by National Geographic

Conditioning

The elephant becomes conditioned;  the animal never realizes that she could break free. Sometimes we humans also become conditioned and exploited, like the elephant. Maybe the elephant once felt exploited or abused, but doesn’t complain or even cry about it anymore. We can, also, become conditioned to hurt and to pain and then we stop trying to get or think about what we desired, dared to think we deserved and begin to settle for what we have. Maybe we tried to break free, once but we weren’t strong enough mentally, physically or spiritually. The elephant was usually trapped as a child but goes on to be a strong and capable adult but she is still trapped by her memories of failure or inadequacy. Those past failed attempts to actualize ourselves can minimize our perceptions of who we’ve grown to be. So maybe you failed at it before, but you’ve grown and are capable now. Don’t allow yourself to be conditioned. Test the water, take the journey and find your way out of the labyrinth – escape,