Beast + Balance: A Tale of Two Wolves
A few weeks ago I went to an event called Beast & Balance led by El, a CorePower teacher & all around wonderful and bad*ss Chicago gal. She led amazing classes, got local companies to show off their food/drinks/expertise and created a wonderful environment for people to sweat, flow and connect with each other.
While the whole thing was an awesome experience, the story that inspired her to host the event struck me the most. I had read it on the website, but I didn’t REALLY let it sink in until I was settling into my mat and she read it out loud to us.
Laying there in child’s pose, this story all of a sudden made so much sense to me. I’ve personally had days/weeks/months when things weren’t going my way and it was hard to pull myself out. The negative “wolf” felt more relatable, more comfortable even. We live in a world that praises dominance. We have extremely high standards for success and silly timelines for adulthood (especially for women). It’s SO easy to count those as the most important things in your life – whether you have them or you don’t.
Yet, kindness is entirely underrated in my opinion. I’ve talked about this here on the blog before, but it’s a lesson I am continually trying to teach myself… how can we be there for others if we don’t know how to take care of ourselves? Within this story, I believe that “feeding” the positive wolf is not just about practicing kindness towards others, but allowing it to start with you. If you treat yourself with respect, find ways to stimulate your mind and strengthen your body, create a relationship with some sort of faith (no, this does not need to be religious), find peace and joy every day – all of those things will not only allow you to treat others with more compassion, but it will also help you navigate through both the highs and lows with the least amount of bruises.
This way of living doesn’t make your positivity fake, it just means that at the end of the day, things like empathy, hope, and love are simply more important than hate, greed and ego.
I’ve had a particularly busy week… and it’s really not going to slow down for another month at least. It’s so easy to focus only on the fact that I’m overwhelmed. It’s easy to only focus on the fact that I want more page views, more followers, more sponsored work, more, more, more. It’s easy to be jealous of other people who seem to have it “easier” than I do. And it’s especially easy to resent the fact that I could do more, more, more if only I had more time.
I certainly have all of those thoughts – I won’t ever deny that. But this story was such a good reminder to not allow those thoughts to win.
Obviously, just because yoga helps me doesn’t make it right for you, but I do think that there is so much value in identifying something that “feeds” your good wolf, so that part of you can always find it’s way back. And if the other guy is more prominent in your life right now, what can you do to feed the positive more? How can you allow more peace, joy and compassion into your life?
So now, I offer the question up to YOU – what do you guys do to feed your good wolf?
Do you spend time with loved ones? Go to Church? Do you have a place or activity that makes you feel particularly inspired? I’d love to hear 🙂
Photos by Julie Kennedy
September 1, 2016 @ 1:57 pm
I am 100% guilty of feeding the evil wolf. It's sad, but true. But this analogy helps put things into perspective. Remember to feed the other wolf.
XO Helen | http://www.KaleidoscopeSpinning.com
September 1, 2016 @ 2:52 pm
Helen – right? This story breaks it down so well!! I hope you do something good and feed the other wolf today <3
September 1, 2016 @ 5:28 pm
Thank you so much for this post Lauren! It is exactly what I needed to hear. I too am in a place where there is a ton going on, and I have been definitely feeding myself thoughts about how overwhelmed I am, and stressing over how much there is to do. However with that, comes a lot of exciting opportunities as well. I definitely want to be more mindful of having more positive thoughts, and feeding the good wolf.
September 1, 2016 @ 7:08 pm
LOVE this! Thanks so much for sharing, Lauren! I can be guilty of starving my good wolf at times. It's easy to get sidetracked when life gets busy and things feel overwhelming. Thanks for the reminder, and the words of encouragement!
September 1, 2016 @ 5:30 pm
This made me tear up at work and hit me in the soul. I definitely think I am going to use this as the intention for the class I teach tonight.
Jacque | http://www.mixplorology.com
September 2, 2016 @ 1:04 am
I absolutely love this. Definitely going to be a bedtime story for my little guy. 🙂