The Elephant in the Room in Working hard or hardly working - journey to physical and mental health

Recently I was given a metaphor that blew my mind:

There is a baby elephant in the circus. Every night it is tied with a rope to a wooden pole to know how far it is allowed to wander. After awhile, it becomes second nature to the elephant to know it’s boundaries and how close it can stay to the pole. As the elephant grows bigger and stronger, the size of the rope doesn’t change, nor the strength of the pole. However the elephant has been tied to it all of its life. It is all it has ever know. It doesn’t not realize that as a grown adult, that it would be able to break free of the rope and pull the post from the ground. So the physical chains of the child, become the mental chains of the adult.

How do you break the rope?

How do you take a look at yourself as an adult and break the ties the have been mentally ingrained in you your entire life, but are holding you back? How do you make yourself realize the power you truly have over things like your own happiness. Because leading a happy life is my rope. It was ingrained in me over and over again that it was something I could never attain. Something I would never have. Something I would never be worthy of. Until one day I unwittingly resigned to myself that a happiness is simply unattainable. I don’t know when that happened. The factual part of my brain says - that simply isn’t true. The emotional part of my brain says - I can’t envision myself ever being happy because I never truly thought I would be, that I deserved it, or that it was even possible for one such as myself. I need to break that rope. I can’t even begin to explain how difficult that journey has become. First the realization that I have put these mental restraints on myself, and now the utter helplessness in wondering - how do I change that mindset? I have to somehow convince myself that it is not only possible, but that it is possible for me. That I am worth it. That I am powerful enough to break free of the cage I have constructed around my joy.

I don’t know where to begin. It’s overwhelming to even think about.

I am sad for that adult elephant. I want it to know how powerful it is. I want it to break free.

It’s as though I’ve been imprisoned, and haven’t realized that the key has been in the palm of my hand my entire life. I am my own jailer. I am the only one who can set myself free. I don’t know if I have the courage to do so. I don’t know if I have what it takes.

I don’t want to be limited by fear, or any of the terrible things that have morphed my thoughts into what they have become now. I have to figure out how to take charge and change them into something brighter. Something that will no longer weigh heavy on my soul.

I have to figure out how to break the rope.