Created page with "The Elephant or Your Elephant, as used in [[SolSeed Book of Days]] entries, is a metaphor for your subconscious mind. Jonathan Haight is the author of this metaphor. In his boo..."
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The Elephant or Your Elephant, as used in [[SolSeed Book of Days]] entries, is a metaphor for your subconscious mind. Jonathan Haight is the author of this metaphor. In his book, the Happiness Hypothesis, he describes how the best metaphor for how the conscious and subconscious minds interact is the metaphor of a Rider and an Elephant. The Rider represents our conscious minds. The Rider instinctively believes she is in control of her actions and her body. But although she may hold the reins, the Elephant is huge and powerful and her ability to control it is very limited. If the Elephant decides to eat some chocolate then the Rider can pull and tug on the reins all she wants but the Elephant will end up eating the chocolate. The Rider may delay the Elephant, may distract it but in the end the Elephant will win. At that point, the Rider will immediately jump into her true role and rationalize and explain why eating the chocolate was what she intended to do from the beginning to other Riders around her.
Our hope is that by learning to work with our Elephants rather than to fight them, we can cultivate sound instincts.