Happy April Fool's Day!
I hope you have fun pulling a safe prank on someone today. I love pranks and jokes and fooling people in funny ways that gets a laugh out of them, always in good fun of course. Something to lighten our spirits.
But sometimes we can fool ourselves, too. Fool ourselves into deceptive thinking. We tell ourselves just one more cookie is okay, or I can go a day or two without keeping to my healthy diet plan, or I can do this drug for just one evening. Some things are okay in moderation, but if we say yes too often it can easily lead to bad habits and an unhealthy life and eventually toward unhappiness and discontent. So how do we make the right choices?
There is a story of a Native American grandfather telling his grandson about the troubles in the world, about the unfairness and the suffering and the malaise. He told his grandson that within each person lives two wolves. One wolf represents all the negative energy within us; the fear, the suffering, the hate, the discrimination, the greed, the lust, etc. The other wolf represents every positive energy within us; the happiness, the love, the joy, the peace, the friendship, the calmness, the interconnectdness, etc. The grandfather said that these two wolves are locked in battle within us, fighting for control over our lives. The grandson asked, "Which wolf wins?"
The grandfather said, "The wolf you feed."
This story of feeding the right wolf is very powerful. We can easily fool ourselves into feeding the wrong wolf, feeding that negative energy within us, by giving into unhealthy habits and bad food and bad substances and bad actions. Sure, it's okay to eat fast food every now and then, to enjoy desert once in a while, to go to a party and have a few drinks or whatever. But when we do those things too much it can seriously infect our lives with unpleasantness.
Feeding the right wolf, filling our life with positive energy, keeps us healthy and happy and leads to a fuller, more content life. This is easier said than done of course. We all know intellectually that eating healthy is good for us, that exercise is good for us, that meditation is good for us. But how do we get into the habit of it?
That's where discipline and mindfulness of our choices come into play. Over the next few weeks I am going to write several posts on how to develop mindfulness and discipline to stay mindful through simply daily activities. It isn't hard to be mindful and aware of our actions, but it does take discipline. Stay tuned!