“Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.” -Benjamin Disraeli
The other day I read about an insightful Native American myth. A tribal elder tells his grandson that inside each of us, there is a black dog and a white dog doing battle.
The black dog possesses qualities typically understood as negative, including envy, greed, sorrow, anger, resentment, and arrogance. The white dog possesses qualities understood as positive, including love, joy, kindness, empathy, compassion, humility, and peace.
The grandson asks, “Which dog will win the fight?” And the elder responds, “Whichever one we feed.”
What an empowering call to action. We can reap tremendous benefits from asking ourselves: What am I nurturing in myself today?
We can choose to dwell on everything we think is wrong, complain about it to everyone who’ll listen, focus on everything we think we lack, and generally go through our days feeding negativity.
Or we can choose to engage with the world in ways that feel right, talk about the things that excite us, focus on everything that makes us feel fortunate, and generally go through our days feeding positivity.
Of course, there is a third, likely more realistic option: We can do our best to recognize when we’re doing the former, and then make the conscious choice to do the latter.
We may never completely eliminate negative thoughts, but we can learn to catch them and dispute them with increasing regularity.
We may not always feel loving and kind, but we can choose to meditate, practice yoga, or do whatever helps us create inner calm, so as to cultivate those feelings more often.
We may never feel permanently peaceful, but we can choose to question our envy, resentment, and discontent to develop self-awareness and act on what we learn.
It also serves us to recognize that we all come from different places, and despite our similarities, we each have our own unique blend of challenges. Contrary to the myth, very little is black and white.
This means it’s our job to recognize how we’re out of balance, without judging why it’s so or comparing ourselves to other people, so we can focus on doing our best to nurture good thoughts and feelings.
We don’t live in a purely positive world, and we can’t control everything that happens to us—but we can make the world a better place by first striving to know and nourish ourselves.
Buddha image via Shutterstock
About Lori Deschene
Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She started the site after struggling with depression, bulimia, c-PTSD, and toxic shame so she could recycle her former pain into something useful and inspire others to do the same. You can find her books, including Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal and Tiny Buddha’s Worry Journal, here and learn more about her eCourse, Recreate Your Life Story, if you’re ready to transform your life and become the person you want to be.
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Though I run this site, it is not mine. It's ours. It's not about me. It's about us. Your stories and your wisdom are just as meaningful as mine. 
[…] striving to know and nourish ourselves. (Tiny Wisdom: What Are You Feeding Your Heart and Mind?Via tinybuddha.com Share this: This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. ← Instead […]
Wow, Lori, just what I needed today. This is one I need to print out and tape up on my bathroom mirror to read when I get out of bed each morning. I have been going though a tragic and frivolous lawsuit for 3 years, and I think it’s killing me. This is what I need to do to rise above the mess, the pain, the negativity, and move on, and not dwell on or hash over and over in my mind all the bad parts. Thanks for this story/post.
One of my favorite stories, the black and white dogs … Coupling your post today with Roo Mullignan’s post, with “who do you want to be in five years” … very meaningful and helpful to me today! Thank you as always for your consistent and beautiful posts … Your beauty is a light in the world!!! With love to you, Sarah
Awesome.
That story hit me right between the eyes. So simple! “Whichever one we feed…” If I happened to be someone who wanted a tattoo, those four words might make on my arm!
You’re funny 🙂
Amen Lori, amen!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it
As simdelish said five hours ago, I needed to read this today!
I’m getting too emotional at work when I don’t have control over the content I’m making for a movie. I’m working with others. Some I supervise. Some I don’t. But I was made responsible for ALL the work coming through my department and I’m getting frustrated when I have to redo someone else’s work, or they change mine.
Is this about my ego? No… Really, it isn’t.
It’s about presenting my best work to the client, and when others who work for me bring that skill level down, I get agitated.
Not a lot, but enough that I have to sound off to cool down.
This is what my assistant is for. I have pledged him to secrecy, locked myself inside his sound proof room and quietly ranted while he listened.
Ten minutes later, as always, I reenter his room, tell him I have re-evaluated the situation, that I am again supporting the person I blasted, and once more affirm with our “pinky promise” that my assistant will never, EVER, mention a word to anyone, including his mom.
At home at night, I become the sounding board for my wife and promise HER I’ll never repeat the words.
I wish I could just skip to the forgiving part without talking about it first. But I’m not there yet. Until I am, I’ll keep reading your spiritual reminders.
Irv
You’re most welcome Sarah! I also loved Roo’s post. It’s so refreshing to think less about goals and outcomes and more about the kind of people we want to be, especially since we live in such an achievement-dominated society.
Thanks Tina!
You’re most welcome. I can understand why that would be frustrating–three years is a long time for something like that to be dragged out. I’m glad this post was helpful to you!
I’m sorry to hear about your frustrating work situation Irv! I know what you mean about wanting to skip to the forgiving part. Sometimes I wonder if ranting does me more harm than good. On the one hand, it always feels cathartic to work through my thoughts and feelings and get things off my chest; on the other hand, sometimes it turns into dwelling when what I really need to do is let go. I suspect it’s all about moderation. Regardless, it’s always good to have someone you trust who will listen and pinky swear not to repeat what they’ve heard!
What
Very powerful post, Lori. This was a ball of truth, wrapped in tiny heart shape kisses. 😀 It’s all about making a conscious decision to do things, say things, and think things differently. We have the power to choose what we give our attention and focus too. In choosing to use that power, we realize that we were more powerful than we could have ever imagined. The power to truly live…. who knew? Thanks for the insightful piece. I was looking for something empowering to share with my friends and followers, and this was just what I needed. Cheers! 🙂
You’re most welcome Deone! A ball of truth wrapped in tiny heart shape kisses…I love that. =)
Thank you. I have been searching for a better mindset after a work related injury. Your posts are amazing, put a smile on my face…… That smile was missing for a long time!
You’re most welcome! I’m glad you enjoy them. =)