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.
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