The Two Wolves

“Reason is a slave to our passions” David Hume

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher who is best known today for his worldwide popular theory in skepticism and naturalism.

Hume proposed that nothing could be known without perception. (Perception is an accumulation of our experiences via our senses; sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch).

Our perception is the impetus for our actions. We learn from past experiences that convert later in our reasons to choose or not to choose particular actions. Therefore, reasons are not the first line of understanding, but it’s our instincts (Our emotions).

Our thoughts vary substantially - from contentment and anxiety, happiness and anger, satisfaction and resentment, to joy and jealously. This juxtaposition of thoughts is the burden that a conscious creature will have to navigate throughout his life.

This neurological battle of emotional desires and rational thinking is best characterized in the Indian legend of the “Two Wolves”. This metaphorical story talks about one of the most important battles of our life – the one between our good and bad thoughts.

The story:

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

So let me bring this back to the original point of my blog, “It’s not an eating problem”

Emotions can lead to disturbing thoughts. These thoughts, in turn, create more emotions which create more thoughts – and on and on…

The thoughts (the problem) are followed by a behavior. This behavior (overeating, smoking, drinking, gambling, etc.) is what we mistake as the problem, when in fact it’s just the symptom of the problem.

It’s a disruptive loop of mistaken issues.

As it turns out, “It’s not what we’re eating; it’s what eating us”.

The bad wolf in this story is a metaphor for the limbic system. It supports a variety of functions including emotion, behavior, motivation, and long-term memory. Emotional life is largely housed in the limbic system.

The good wolf in this story is the Neocortex. This is the executive director of our behavior.

If impulses dominate our life, it means the bad wolf is in control. One the other hand, if we have the ability to delay immediate gratification, the good wolf is directing the urges of the limbic desires.

One of the most effective ways to deal with the bad wolf’s emotional thoughts is by taking a deep breath and then disputing them.

Before following the impulse, hold your own thought pattern under scrutiny and ask yourself:

- Is this thought true and accurate? Build your case with real-world evidence: write down all proof for your beliefs in one column and the counter-examples in the other.

- If you do find support for your beliefs, is that evidence accurate or just another symptom of your distorted thinking?

- Is this thought helpful in the long run or just distressing?

- What’s the worst thing that can happen? On a scale from 1 to 10, how likely is it that this will actually happen?

- What would you tell your best friend if they had these negative thoughts?

- In which ways would your life change if you stopped believing your negative thoughts?

This method will create greater peace, confidence and a more positive outlook by learning how to clarify and evaluate our thoughts. After all, this battle can be won because we have the ability to become more aware of the choices we make and the payoffs we receive.

We do what we do because we get something from it.

There is a lot we can learn from this Chinese proverb:

- Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words.

- Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions.

- Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits.

- Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character.

- Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.


The next topic will focus on the cognitive dilemma concerning the fight or flight mechanism in modern times.

This issue is called the Amygdala Hi-jacking.

Kelly Hitchcock: It's not an Eating Problem

Kelly Hitchcock: It's not an Eating Problem: It’s not an eating problem; it’s an emotional thinking problem. When you get this, you can logically think about the symptoms (eating, smoki...

It's not an Eating Problem

It’s not an eating problem; it’s an emotional thinking problem. When you get this, you can logically think about the symptoms (eating, smoking, drinking, etc.) that manifest from emotional thinking.

Do you disagree?

If it’s not a thinking problem, what is it?

No one is making you eat anything. It’s your choice. Do you think you’re choosing to eat certain foods because you’re hungry or perhaps just because they taste good? 

Maybe - but maybe not?

Think about it; you know the health issues related to being overweight. You know the body image issues associated with being overweight. We know that a diet composed of high fat, high sugar and high salt wreak havoc on our health and looks, so why do we do it? 

Have you ever considered the neurological payoff that you may be receiving from these foods? We know that dopamine is the reward neural transmitter in our brain. When we partake in a pleasurable activity, our dopamine levels spike in our brains pleasure center. 

This almost always guarantees we will be more likely to return to that activity. This is the same mechanism that makes us desire the foods we choose to eat.

Fat, salt, and sugar elicit a large dopamine response because at one time in our history the nutrients were extremely hard to come by. (Our dopamine levels are actually higher prior to eating the food…this mechanism drives us to make our food choices based on the past experiences with the food)

These nutrients (fat, salt, and sugar) are essential nutrients for our species survival. It’s very ironic that what was once hard to get is now available in abundance.

Fast forward to modernity and we have once again, as humans do, over corrected.  It’s very ironic that what was once hard to get is now available in abundance. (This is the subconscious work of the limbic system)

We are all at the mercy of our limbic system. Our emotions drive our behavior, and our consciousness tries to rationalize our behavior.

Our subconscious and conscious battle will be the next topic I will cover. 

This is the good wolf bad wolf story – the wolf that wins is the wolf you feed.

The Aspiration Gap

“I do not understand why I do what I do; for what I want to do I don’t do, but what I hate I do”   – Romans 7:15

What’s your aspiration? Before you answer this, ask yourself two questions:

1. What am I doing right now? (Write it down)  Nutritionally, exercise, reading, watching, my job, after work hours, and weekends.

2. What type of life would I like to have, and how far apart are the above interests from the life I say I want?

This is called the aspiration gap – this is the distance between what I’m currently doing and where I want to be? Depending on the distance, this issue can be quite troubling for some people causing aspiration paralysis. The wider the gap, the more stress and anxiety.
Within the aspirational gap lies a psychological conundrum called cognitive dissonance.

"Cognitive dissonance is labeled as, “the stress and anxiety that results from simultaneously holding contradictory or otherwise incompatible attitudes, desires, and beliefs” –Dictionary.com

The Aspiration Gap is that space between the changes I am now able to make and those that I know I need to make. I have a paradoxical relationship with my Aspiration Gap; on one hand, I want to close it, bringing my practices closer to my knowledge of where they need to be; on the other hand, I need to keep aspiring to more realistically sustainable changes, while continually stretching and extending my aspirations.

There is a fine balancing act of keeping my aspirations far enough from my current practices to keep me from becoming too comfortable, but close enough so that I don’t become overly discouraged. I also have to stay keenly aware of the fact that it’s the journey toward my aspiration, not the aspiration itself - which is the reward. If we only focus on the aspiration, we risk losing the message of what it means to aspire. The reality is, aspiring is a process, not a destination. This process can be used in all of our desired transitions to develop workable goals and to close the aspiration gap in all areas of our lives.

The concept of The Aspiration Gap also highlights two connected, though in some ways distinct areas where the place I am and the place I want to need to operate. While it is a great challenge to change our energy practices both individually and as a community, it is also crucial that we change our beliefs - because we don’t do what we know; we do what we believe.

While we aspire to live a better quality of life, the belief that it’s possible can also make a big difference.

A well lived life is the manifestation of aspiration, perspiration, and inspiration.

What do I Want?

"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive" -C. S. Lewis

What do I want to accomplish?

Why do I want to accomplish this?

What are the requirements?

What are the constraints?

I’ve been in the personal training business for over 30 years. I’ve had clients who are very successful, and I have clients who’ve made minimal changes.

What is the difference in the two groups?

Thoughts

That’s right – thoughts.

It’s not a slow metabolism – it’s not gluten intolerance – it’s not carb sensitivity – it’s not that you don’t have enough time.

It’s our thoughts

The reason we don’t change for long is because we have a set of beliefs that keep us who we are – not who we want to be.

Think about it – everything you’re doing right now is a reflection of your thoughts and beliefs.
If you attempt a new diet with the same belief system, guess what? It’s only matter of time before you return to your old patterns of behavior because of your belief system.

We don’t do what we know, we do what we believe.

If you’re looking to change something don’t look for external fixes, you hold the keys to success in the palm of your hand – actually, the secret is between your ears.

Nothing changes if nothing changes.

If the changes occur internally, the externals will follow.