THE WOLF YOU FEED
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THE WOLF YOU FEED
Many of you are familiar with this story, but its relevence and wisdom bears repeating.
An old Cherokee was teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“There is a terrible fight going on inside me – and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked, “But Grandfather, which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
This short, simple story is so powerful. How simple, profound and true. Your mind works like a magnifying glass. What we focus our attention on grows. If we focus our attention on how difficult things feel, that is what we will see and experience. However, if we consciously focus on beauty, light and goodness that is what we will experience. It sounds so simple, but can be difficult. Here are some tools which may be helpful in feeding your good wolf:
1) Gratitude – When we make a conscious choice to look at and recognize all that is going RIGHT in our lives and all that we have it can have a profound effect in stopping negative thought patterns
2) Meditation – Meditation is the act of listening. When we simply listen to and observe our thoughts and feelings rather than get pulled into them, we have a choice as to whether we would like to hang onto them or let go.
3) Get it out – Sometimes we need to get out one feeling in order to experience another. If we are experiencing challenging emotions like anger, hurt feelings or anxiety getting them out through activities like expressing them with a friend over a phone call, writing them down, or physically moving them out through exercise can be very helpful.
