THE FLEA AND THE ELEPHANT... How the subconscious is programmed

GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH DISCOMFORT.
 
There is a great example that I read from the book “The Code to Joy” that says your subconscious is like an elephant, and your conscious mind is like a flea riding the back of the elephant. So...if that flea is on top of the elephant saying “go left” but the elephant wants to go right because of its programming, guess where you are going to go??? You guessed it- you’re going right!!
 
The process of self discovery is literally becoming aware of the vast subconscious programming so that you can live in a state in which you can have more awareness and more control around your reactions instead of living as a slave to them. Your reactions, your addictions, your habits, your patterns… they all stem from deep in the subconscious until you create awareness and discover the beliefs that constructed them.
 
Another classic example in the self help world, is the example of how the mighty elephant, if it is programmed to believe it is tied to a stake in the ground, will remain in the same place even if it has been freed. It’s programming keeps it stuck in one place- despite the other circumstances around it that might be providing alternate options.
 
To take the elephant analogy one step further, the mighty elephant once presented with freedom, chooses to stay put, both because of it’s programming AND because the programming it knows is considered SAFE or FAMILIAR. Anything beyond that stake in the ground, or that stagnant living, very often becomes a threat or something scary because it is unknown. But also, it is just what it knows. And that primal instinct teaches us to do what we know to produce certain, reliable results.
 
But what most of us want is not the “norm”. What most of us want is superior and outrageous results. A life of dreams. A life of hitherto untapped possibility. 
 
It takes a brave fucking soul to walk that path.
 
We have societal (or tribal living) and lizard brain primal instincts working against our ability to be the manifesting maniacs we are desiring to become. Becoming a human race capable of making our dreams come true means evolving beyond the parameters we have been conditioned to live in. On a mass consciousness level, it means breaking free and changing thousands if not millions of years of biological, chemical, and instinctual programming. Whoa. No wonder it’s feels like such a shit show out there right now!
 
There is not a prior relationship developed to know what might be in that unknown space. That survival instinct of the subconscious therefore unless given proper training, will always tend to keep one in familiar territory, creating fear around new opportunity. Even if those new opportunities are our greatest dreams and our highest potential, they are contradictory to our programming and therefor a threat.
 
Remember, this is all happening inside the elephant, or the subconscious. This is not part of your conscious awareness, until you make it part of your awareness. So although you may consciously desire greatly to lose 25 pounds, or make more money, or meet the partner of your dreams, many of us aren’t able to actualize that in our reality until we discover the subconscious programming that prohibits real growth.
 
The problem is that most of us haven’t been raised or encouraged or educated on what it means to create change in our life. Most of us were given more examples of creating safety, familiarity, and consistency in favor of a reliable life. With modern technologies, for many of us ease at our fingertips, and general lack of emotional understanding, we have tricked ourselves into believing a false sense of comfort. But only a precious few have actually tapped into and set an example for living a full life.
 
And I’m not talking about the movie stars or famous personalities- I consider even fewer of them to have the whole package- although many of them do demonstrate what society sees as success- hot bods and fat wallets- few of them have a holistic understanding of a rich life. That’s not to discredit or disregard the successes that they have had, but there are people who have tapped into a higher level of understanding and happiness that live in ashrams with few possessions, or are living what many would call an average life.
 
They key is that they are living in complete alignment with themselves and their personal ideas, beliefs, and desires around success and fulfillment.
 
Our true nature is CHANGE. Our true nature is EXPANSION. Our true nature is to push the boundaries. Our true nature is LOVE in which we are fully supported, fully taken care of, fully thriving in all aspects of life.
 
To thrive, to expand, and to explore the great potential within each of us, we must shift our understanding by:
 
 

1. Aligning our subconscious with the conscious so they can work as a team
2. Discovering the beliefs that keep us afraid of moving beyond that comfort zone
3. Creating new ways to support oneself whilst dealing with the perceived discomfort that comes with change
4. Learning to self love and support oneself in that journey into the newest and highest version of self by
5. Understanding that creating any new belief is going to be unfamiliar and therefore very often uncomfortable, because in most cases it is going to be a trigger to the very belief you are trying to replace.
6. Beginning to identify and discern between the discomfort of unfamiliarity and the discomfort of going against your own intuitive feelings of what is in your highest good.
7. Making peace with the fact that expansion never stops. Growth never stops. So essentially, GET COMFORTABLE WITH DISCOMFORT. Change your relationship to change.

 
When the subconscious and conscious mind are living in alignment, that is when you have access to your full potential. When the flea and the elephant can co-operate, that is when all systems within you are working together for the same outcomes. That is when manifestation happens at its greatest. That’s when you see results!!