Have you ever heard the Native American story of the two wolves? It goes like this:

ONE EVENING, AN ELDERLY

CHEROKEE BRAVE TOLD HIS

GRANDSON ABOUT A BATTLE THAT

GOES ON INSIDE PEOPLE.

HE SAID “MY SON, THE BATTLE IS

BETWEEN TWO ‘WOLVES’ INSIDE US ALL.

ONE IS EVIL. IT IS ANGER,

ENVY, JEALOUSY, SORROW,

REGRET, GREED, ARROGANCE,

SELF-PITY, GUILT, RESENTMENT,

INFERIORITY, LIES, FALSE PRIDE,

SUPERIORITY, AND EGO.

THE OTHER IS GOOD.

IT IS JOY, PEACE LOVE, HOPE SERENITY,

HUMILITY, KINDNESS, BENEVOLENCE,

EMPATHY, GENEROSITY,

TRUTH, COMPASSION AND FAITH.”

THE GRANDSON THOUGH ABOUT

IT FOR A MINUTE AND THEN ASKED

HIS GRANDFATHER:

“WHICH WOLF WINS?…”

THE OLD CHEROKEE SIMPLY REPLIED,

“THE ONE THAT YOU FEED”

Recently I was listening to one of the audiobooks in my rotation, The Magic of Thinking Big, where the author, David J Schwartz PhD, uses a similar analogy regarding our thoughts. He asked the reader to imagine that there are positive and negative radio stations – and your mind will always be tuned in to one of those. Over time, whatever station you are tuned into the most gets stronger and stronger. 

Well, around the same time I was listening to this I found myself getting unreasonably bothered by irrelevant things later in the day (how the tupperware was organized in the cabinet, for example). I was trying to tune in to the positive radio station, but for whatever reason I kept focusing on the negative. Then, I tried one of the oldest tricks in the book. Something we’ve likely all heard of. I broke out my journal and wrote down a handful of things I am grateful for. Sure enough, a couple days of that helped to reset the dial and get the positive station stronger in my mind. 

One way to feed the wolf is with a pen and paper. You may be surprised with how filling it is 🙂