What’s your wolf?

One evening a Native American elder is talking with his grandson.

The elder says, “In life, there are two wolves inside of us which are always at battle. One 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 elder and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”

The elder replies, “The one you feed.”

Unless your days are spent levitating in a cave up a mountain pretzel-legged with a long beard, or you're Pollyanna, chances are your brain is programmed to prioritise negativity. Add to this the "January blues" of cold days and dark nights (in case you're wondering why you're feeling extra low, moody, unmotivated, today is Blue Monday - aka the most depressing day of the year), you may well have one HANGRY bad wolf gnashing this morning.

Neuropsychologist Dr Rick Hanson puts it, “The brain is like velcro for negative experiences, but Teflon for positive ones”. Our brain seeks out the bad news, feeds on it, freaks out about it and then ruminates, ruminates, ruminates on a mental merry-go-round. Fun!

This isn't our fault, in fact our brain's doom-mongering is simply a survival thing, thanks to our amygdala prioritising the negative to keep us safe. This was helpful back when the neighbouring tribe might've stolen and barbequed our cave babies, but tends to hinder our happiness when it's in overdrive over Paula stealing our promotion.

The good news is, if we become aware of the two wolves, we can choose which thought stream (which wolf) we feed and in turn regulate our amygdala and rewire our brain's capacity for positivity. Neuroplasticity at work. Mindfulness and meditation further strengthen our ability to change our brains in this way - helping us feed our "good" wolf by default.

So which wolf will you feed today? The rabid gnarly one snapping for'I'm so bloody useless / what if the nightmares come true' scraps? Or the puppy-eyed cuddly snuggly one rolling over for a tummy tickle and sweet snack of self-compassion?

Where attention goes, energy flows...

Love, Jo x