I guess this is Sanjay Gupta today I
wanted to talk to you about baby
elephants okay this will all make sense
shortly but because this is the new year
and the new year is type of new
beginnings and new year's resolutions I
thought I'd run this past year and it's
not and maybe it might inspire someone
to do something differently but one of
the things that I am incredibly
passionate about is animals you know I
have a great great compassion for
animals I come from Africa and in Africa
we have a lot of elephants and one of my
favorite charities is a charity called
the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust where they
adopt these baby elephants who've been
separated from their mothers at a young
age and they bring them up and they then
restore them to the world and that got
me thinking because I was reading a
story about baby elephants in other
countries and what tends to happen is
when a baby elephant gets separated from
its mother
and the elephant can sometimes
inadvertedly venture into an an area
inhabited by humans and what the humans
will do sometimes is that they captured
the elephant and then they train it to
work for them for the rest of its life
either as a tourist attraction or to
help carry wood but basically this
elephant ends up becoming enslaved for
the rest of its life now when the
elephant is still a baby
you know when it's held in captivity
it's tied to a tree with a strong rope
or chain and because it is the nature of
the elephant to roam free this baby
elephant will instinctively try with all
its might to try and break away from
this tree that it's tied to at night but
it doesn't succeed because it's not
strong enough to do that you see and
because it's not strong enough to do
that after trying for a few nights it's
sort of accepts the fact that that's
where it is now what is really
interesting is when as the baby gets
bigger and bigger it becomes stronger
and stronger but and it and the village
is a clever because they still continue
to tie it to the same branch or same
tree with the same rope the thing is
that the elephant has actually become so
big and so strong that it could easily
break
from this but because its mind has been
conditioned by these prior experiences
when it was a baby it doesn't even make
the slightest attempt to break free and
this powerful gigantic elephant is
limited its present because of the
limitations of the past this is called
the baby elephant syndrome it is
unfortunate incredibly sad to see
because this amazing creature who is
strong and was meant for the world
spends his whole life enslaved because
it never tries because it is accepting
the false boundaries that were and
limitations that had been created by the
past so when I heard the story I was
really saddened by it I thought well how
terrible but the more I thought about it
the more I started realizing isn't that
what a lot of us do in our lives okay
pretty well much everyone I speak to
through the videos I do yeah suffers
from anxiety everywhere I look people
have health related anxiety people are
fearful of their health people are
fearful of what may happen to them in
the future and in so doing they let the
fear enslave them okay
we're human beings we have we are able
to understand and we should you know try
and understand that actually what fear
does is it enslaves us it places false
boundaries the truth is there is really
nothing to be fearful of you know when
we worry about our heart we think of
this as this very delicate structure and
something bad could happen and we could
drop down that our hearts are incredibly
resilient okay women go through
childbirth where they're carrying to
here where they're so the one heart is
supporting two beings and they don't
come to any harm people go through wars
and never come to any harm
so the truth is our hearts are
incredibly strong incredibly resilient
and the problem that we face is that
largely the fear is imposed upon us
because of our mind because our mind
Jesus to believe these false boundaries
and so one of the things I would say to
you is there is nothing worse there is
nothing worse than missing out on a
whole hearted life because of fear okay
I know that you know we have to accept
the fact that you know we're on this
planet and all of us are gonna die one
day but what is worse than death
what is worse than death is not having
left and if you're looking for a new
year's resolution I would thoroughly
encourage you to aim towards a fearless
life and try and do those things yeah
you know in small doses things that make
you scared and when you do them you'll
gain that confidence and you'll realize
that actually there's nothing to be
fearful of the only thing we have to
fear is fear itself
our hearts are incredibly strong we
should try and make the most of our
lives we should get out there and enjoy
and have fun
and have adventures and be courageous
and look forward to things and spend
that time living a wholehearted life
because otherwise we've miss out on that
which is the most important thing about
life which is life itself so I hope that
this is slightly a philosophical thing
but you know because I deal with so many
people with anxiety and I'd read the
story I really wanted to share it with
you some of you I'm sure I've heard of
it before but I do think that if we can
learn a lot from the story and realize
that actually all we need to do is break
free and there is a life of freedom and
adventure out there waiting for us what
we shouldn't do is let ourselves become
enslaved by fear because enslavement
because that lack of freedom inherently
causes stress and stress is bad for us
so I hope you found this useful I'd love
to hear what you think about this I wish
you again a very happy new year and I
hope this year we were all a little more
fearless life and a more contented life
thank you so much all the best take