Anxiety versus Joy, Which Wolf Will Win?

Anxiety versus Joy

Which Wolf Will Win?

In the Cherokee legend of the Two Wolves (a.k.a. “Which one do you feed”), a grandfather uses a metaphor of two wolves fighting within him, to explain his inner conflicts to his grandson. When his grandson asks, which wolf wins, the grandfather answers, whichever he chooses to feed.

We each have two wolves within us.  One feeds off of fear and creates feelings of anxiety and causes suffering.  The other feeds off of love and creates feelings of joy and causes bliss.  In this article, we will explore ways to change our lives, by becoming aware that with each thought we feed one of the two wolves within us.  The saying goes, “you are what you eat,” but in this case, you may discover that you are what you feed your mind.

The first step in changing anything is to be aware, that what needs to be changed exists and have a general understanding of what it is.  To this end we will dive into the banquet of illusions, that have become food for thought.

Food for Thought.  So often suffering arises out the illusion that the subject of a fearful thought is real in that moment. But most often, the subject of a fearful thought is not real in that moment,  and instead, it is simply an illusion that habitually arises in response to a trigger and results in unconscious DOING or what we sometimes refer to as “doing without thinking.”

When DOING is not a conscious choice, we suffer.  Like so many habits, this habit is best tackled first by awareness.  To help us become more aware of this habit, we will explore what happens before fear and anxiety sets in.  The fear that we are referring to here, is not a fear response that is helpful, such as the fear response that causes you to automatically step back from ledge to avoid falling.  Instead, the fear we are talking about here is harmful fear, based on illusory, not actual, threats.  These  that is the cause of so much suffering in the world.

If we understand the process of how we come to state of fear, we can then dig into “the why” and ultimately reduce the harmful stress and anxiety that causes so much suffering.

Here is a general overview how fear, anxiety and related suffering happens.

• Suffering starts with a habitual response to a trigger;
• The trigger could be just about anything that happens, outside or inside ourselves;
• A habitual disempowering thought follows the trigger automatically;
• The disempowering thought activates fear in our brain;
• Thoughts of reason and logic are drowned out (for more on this read our article on Calm Your Monkey Mind Understand and Embrace It);
• That part of our brain that is responsible for reintroducing memories of our past and beliefs about the future, is activated;
• Memories of the past and limiting beliefs about the future that are associated with the disempowering thought are identified;
• Then the brain sends out a prescription to be filled by the pharmacy-like mechanism in our brain;
• This pharmacy, never closes, has absolutely no restrictions, and fills every prescription that is presented to it, no questions asked.
• The prescription, is filled immediately;
• Soon the body and mind are flooded with natural, but harmful, chemicals;
• Fear never fails to show up at this banquet, feeding its insatiable appetite for such chemicals;
• As fear feeds, negative emotions come up and trigger more disempowering thoughts, from which more corresponding memories of the past and limiting beliefs about the future, come up and fuel the tumultuous cycle;
• The prescriptions continue to be filled, and fear continues to feed and grow;
• Conscious choice making is not possible from this place, that is, from this state of mind;
• Absent conscious choice making, the body and mind function on autopilot;
• The DOING commences;
• Sometimes the DOING consists of thinking and hyper-analyzing, sometimes it’s physical DOING and sometimes both.
• Thoughts of victimization related to the DOING, together with feelings of anger and resentment, join in;
• Suffering ensues;
• Fear and suffering over extended periods of time, mutate into anxiety.

When we put our attention on what we fear, we feed anxiety, and fuel emotional suffering.

Whenever we become aware that we are putting on our attention on what we fear, instead of what we want, it may be helpful to remember the popular Cherokee legend of the Two Wolves (a.k.a. “Which one do you feed”), in which a grandfather uses a metaphor of two wolves fighting within him, to explain his inner conflicts to his grandson. When his grandson asks which wolf wins, the grandfather answers, whichever he chooses to feed.

Here is a more straight-forward breakdown of the concept:

Attention on Thought Fearful Expectation + Perception that it is Real Now = Food for Anxiety, Fuel for Suffering.

Attention is “food for thought.” When we focus our attention a thought about a fearful memory or expectation that we fear, as though it is happening and real in that moment, we feed anxiety, and fuel emotional suffering.

Attention on Thought of Pleasant Expectation + Perception that it is Real Now = Food for Joy, Fuel for Bliss.

When we focus our attention on a thought of a memory or expectation that serves us well, such as a beneficial experience, as if it is happening and real in that moment, we feed peace, joy and happiness and fuel emotional bliss.

Here is the cool part.  

What happens if we do not perceive a thought as real or happening in the moment?  

Attention on Thought – (WITHOUT) Perception that it is Real Now = Food for Wisdom, No fuel for emotional affect.

That is, when we focus our attention on a thought of any memory or expectation, without the perception that it is real or happening in that moment, but rather, perceive it simply for what it is, that is, a thought, memory or expectation, the energy provided by that attention feeds wisdom, not emotion.  This attention, is emotionally neutral.

We can become aware that the memory or expectation, it is not happening right now and it is not real in this moment; and become aware that only the thought (about it) is, happening and real in this moment.  This awareness, if practiced regularly, will change a keystone habit and can significantly reduce our fear, anxiety and emotional suffering.

When we are aware that our thoughts of fearful memories and expectations are nothing more than thoughts, and are not real now, we can use those thoughts to feed our wisdom; then we can choose to direct our energy toward focusing our attention on what we are grateful for, so that we can feed joy and fuel bliss.  

When we choose to redirect our attention from fearful thoughts that don’t serve us, to things we want and things that do serve us, it is not the same as denying the existence of something that is real,  because  ______________________.

We hope you enjoyed this article and found it helpful.  We love to hear from you.  Please leave a comment and let us know how you would complete the last sentence of this article.  We will be publishing readers’ submissions, so check back soon.

We encourage you to read our article on the Monkey Mind.  http://selectivefocusmag.com/calm-monkey-mind-understanding/