Jonathan Haidt’s “The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” is a wonderful text and in it, he uses a metaphor of “The Elephant and The Rider” to understand our minds. In essence, your more “emotional” mind (a very unconscious part) is the elephant, and your more “rational” side, is like that little rider perched up on the elephant’s back. That rider may have the reins, but who do you think is actually in control?
It should be obvious, the Elephant is almost always going to win if there is a conflict in direction the two are going to go.
Unless you have a really friendly, cooperative elephant.
And YOU CAN TRAIN YOUR ELEPHANT TO BE YOUR BEST FRIEND.
One of the ways to train your elephant, is Trance work. Jonathan Haidt lists meditative states as one of the most useful tools for getting your “Elephant” and “Rider” on the same page.
Let us show you how to make friends with your elephant at our next FREE HYPNOSIS MEET UP - “Taking Control of Your Emotional States-Laughter Yoga!”. We will have the FREE “INTRO to Hypnosis-Is it Right For You?” Meet Up in June. Our featured trance of the month from Uncommon Knowledge is “Quiet Mind”. For you hypnosis enthusiasts-I will be presenting at the Hypnosis Education Association Conference in July and want to encourage you to find out more about their Quarterly Conferences in Orlando as an affordable commitment to your professional growth. Lastly, we have included a link to an article presenting the basic science of how our emotional brain, the unconscious, our elephant, effects the body to create health or dis-ease. All the details are below. Until next time-ride your elephants gently.