A Tale of Two Wolves
“A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other.
One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery, and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred, and fear.
The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”
The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed”
This parable has been on my mind a lot recently. I think about it from many different angles – self-talk, relationships, information, and how we treat our body, to name a few. In regards to self-talk, are you constantly beating yourself up for mistakes you have made or having compassion for and with yourself? We all go through struggles and in order to move forward, we must have a positive relationship with ourselves. If we cannot love ourselves and be happy in our own skin, how can we expect other people to love us?
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Jim Rohn
Are the relationships in your life healthy or are you with people who put you down? In order to grow and better ourselves, we need to have people that want to see us improve and are not full of jealousy and gossip. I want people in my life who are constantly looking to improve and better themselves. Who needs friends or family members that talk negatively about everyone and try to bring others down?
What type of information are you allowing to enter your mind? Are you reading books and articles that expand your thinking or are you consumed with the nightly news and the drama on Facebook? We might think we are learning something by watching the news but most of the time it is just crap meant only to shock you. The entire point is to incite outrage and sell ads.
What type of food are you eating? You can’t expect to perform at a high level if you are eating processed garbage. My philosophy is to eat real food, lots of vegetables with high-quality proteins, and minimally processed foods. Try to eat organic veggies and grass-fed/free range meat. You need to experiment on yourself. How does your body feel after eating certain foods? Your body will tell you what works for you….you just have to listen. Food is the fuel for our mind and body, change your diet and you change how you feel.
To Sum it Up
It is so easy to get caught up in a negative feedback loop in all of these areas. It is something I work on every day to make sure I don’t get sucked into the vortex of negative thinking, outrage on social media, or going completely off the rails with nutrition, especially this time of year. I find mindfulness and meditation to be one of the best antidotes. It allows me to catch these negative patterns, realize they happen to everyone, and then let them go and move on. Think about which wolf you are feeding and hopefully the links this week will help you feed the good one.
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