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A post shared by Science Based Intuitive Eating (@victoriaevansofficial) on Apr 7, 2020 at 6:28pm PDT

There’s an old Cherokee parable that goes like this:

An old man was teaching his grandson about the meaning of life.

He told his grandson that inside each of us there is a fight going on.

This fight is between two wolves. One wolf is Evil and the other wolf is Good. 

The grandson asked the old man, “Which wolf will win, Evil or Good?”

The old man replied, “The one you feed.”

Sometimes we go through our lives on autopilot, not taking a second to become aware and mindful of what we are actually doing and why we are doing it.

Have we been feeding the evil inside of us without realizing it?

Each of us has these two wolves inside. For many of us, we’ve spent years feeding the Evil Wolf, the one I refer to as the “Dark Wolf,” and neglecting the Good Wolf, the one I refer to as the “Light Wolf.”

Some might call this our ego, the negative stories that we continue to tell ourselves or the habits that aren’t serving us.

When contemplating this one day, I wrote a short poem that I hope will resonate with others:

The Dark Wolf Inside Me

 Sometimes we want to feed the darkness because it is comfortable and familiar.

Sometimes we do not want to step into the light because it means that we have nowhere to hide.

We are seen for all we are, all we are capable of, and perhaps that is what scares us most.

That unbridled potential we are not sure we are worthy of.

It can feel overwhelming to think ourselves deserving of greatness—paralyzing even.

We might choose instead to once again shrink ourselves back into the safety of the shadows.

But happiness, my dear one, will never come from feeding the darkness, because happiness is the light.

So we must ask ourselves, which are we feeding?

Here is a simple, yet powerful, journaling exercise to do when we’re not sure where we’re directing our energy:

Step 1: Take out a piece of paper and make a ‘T’ chart.

Step 2: On the left-hand side, as a heading, write “Dark Wolf.” 

Step 3: On the right-hand side, write “Light Wolf.”

Step 4: Under each heading, write out all the different behaviors, characteristics, and experiences that we believe truly embody each of these different wolves.

These can be behaviors we want to change, things we want to add more/less of in our life, who we want to become/not become, or anything that we feel represents what it means to be either feeding the darkness or feeding the light.

Step 5: Once the chart is complete, we can ask ourselves, “Which wolf am I feeding today?” Then take steps to add in more of the light. 

This simple question can radically shift our lives, if we let it.

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