A friend of mine posted this piece of wisdom on her blog a few days ago, and I felt like I had to share:
An old Cherokee was teaching his grandson about life :
“There is a struggle inside me” he said to the child. “It is a struggle between two wolves.
One is full of envy, anger, greed, jealousy, arrogance, resent, possessiveness, lies, superiority and false pride.
The other is good, at peace, happy, serene, humble, generous, true and full of compassion.
This struggle is happening too inside you, my child, and inside every person.”
The grandson pondered for a while and asked his grandfather : “Which of these two wolves will win the fight ?
The old man simply replied : “The one you feed.”
It may seem silly, but when I read this short text for the first time, something snapped in me.
This goes for life in general, but I think it also goes for that specific aspect of life I’m dealing with on this blog.
I can choose to feed the wolf of anger, resent, woe-is-me thinking, self-loathing and eating to bury my problems and negative emotions. Or I can choose to feed that other wolf, the one that speaks of benevolent thoughts, acceptance, positive thinking, dedication and self-love.
I can choose to live in a cycle of bingeing/anger at myself for having let it happen, dieting, then bingeing, then dieting again. I can also choose to say “No” to the raw desire to eat whatever, embrace a healthy lifestyle for ever, and nurture myself in other ways–I may not have much money to treat myself, but I can at least enjoy a walk in the sun, or light a scented candle on my desk. A candle will not solve my problems, but neither will fast-food.
This is all the evidence, you might say, and I would agree. It is evident. It is something we should all know and apply. Alright. Now how many of us are actually able, from the start, to embrace the second path, the one of benevolence? It’s not as easy as it sounds.
I guess this hit home with even more strength because tthe past week has been pretty rough in terms of thoughts and feelings. The second semester has started again, I didn’t have time to get some ‘mental rest’ between taking my exams and attending classes again, and we of course got the mandatory speeches by every teacher about “if you want to succeed in my class, you need to put up with at least ten hours of work for every session”–which, as irrealistic as it is, can still grind you down when you’re already feeling down. And goodness knows I’ve been feeling down, about having to hold a job and being unable to focus on my studies at 150%, about aiming at a competitive exam and not being ‘allowed’ to pass my B.A. with ‘only’ the average grade… Down, I tell you.
However, this does not mean I have to let that angry wolf win.
It is hard. It takes much talking to myself, as well as much talking myself into, for me to stop resorting to that silly band-aid of snacks and ‘comfort foods’. Yet I have to do it, because I do not want to go on spiralling downwards.
That young, benevolent wolf is going to grow up and become strong, I tell you.
January 27th, 2008 at 04:20
Amazing insight. Great post.
Thanks
Brenda
January 27th, 2008 at 09:15
You’re welcome.