Welcome to this week’s issue of Weekly Wellness Wisdom!
What’s New from Centered Living
This fall I’ll be offering a series of tele-classes designed to enlighten and educate about Authentic Wellness. I’m very excited to be introducing powerful ideas and strategies for becoming more centered, authentic and joyful. Please stay tuned for more details in the weeks to come.
Weekly Wellness Wisdom is on its new weekly schedule. Every Saturday you will receive the latest issue. If for any reason, you don’t receive your weekly email, please email me at lori@loriboothroyd.com and we’ll help.
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Wellness Wisdom Feature Article
Befriending your Wolves: It begins with Awareness
In last week’s issue I shared a traditional Native American teaching parable. In case you missed it, here it is again:
A Native American Elder was once describing his inner struggles with a dear friend. He struggled to find the words and after a period of quiet reflection, he shared this:
“Inside of each of us are two wolves. There is a Good Wolf and there is a Bad Wolf. The Bad Wolf is mean, sad, negative and angry. The Good Wolf is open-hearted, kind and loving. The Bad Wolf fights the Good Wolf all day.”
He fell silent again, and after a time, his friend spoke. “Which Wolf wins?” he asked the Elder.
The old man reflected again for a moment and then replied,
“Whichever Wolf we feed the most”.
I requested that you simply reflect on this story last week and consider what insights and awareness came to you about your own “Good Wolf and Bad Wolf”. This week lets take the reflection a step further to awareness, especially awareness of your choices. The choices we make each day, large and small, create our realities. The choices I’m asking you to emphasize are the ones related to your health and wellness. Each choice we make feeds one wolf or the other; over time, all those choices add up.
The question is: Which choices lead to feeding the Good Wolf and our Path to Authentic Wellness?
The first step to making different choices is by increasing awareness of those choices. How do we gain this awareness? We begin by turning our attention to our “Wolves Within” and befriending them (yes, literally making “friends” with both of them). Both wolves are there to serve a purpose, primarily to teach us important lessons about how we want to live.
Here are some simple steps to help you get started making the acquaintance of your Wolves:
1. Pick an area of your life that feels challenging to you right now. Perhaps you would like to take more time for yourself, change some long-standing habit, or add something positive to your life (such as a yoga class or more time with friends).
2. When you’ve identified that challenge, notice when you make choices that impact the challenge (like saying “yes” to someone when you really want to say “no”, eating the dessert you didn’t really want, or sleeping in through the hour of time you have to yourself in the morning). These moments are “flashpoint situations”: The moments when you choose to feed one of the two Wolves, often without any awareness of doing so.
3. Notice how you feel after you’ve made these kinds of choices. Do you feel energized, respected and supported? Do you feel defeated or drained? These are the cues that tell you which Wolf you’ve fed.
4. Make a note of the decision, your thoughts around the decision and what happened afterwards. Isolate this one challenge in your life and look a little closer at how the Wolves you feed contribute to a solution, or to a deepening of the challenge.
How can you begin making new, small choices that feed the Good Wolf? This awareness leads to insights. The insight returns us to Authentic Wellness. Give it a try this week and let me know what you learn! Send an email to me at: lori@loriboothroyd.com.
Personal Reflections
I have found throughout my life that I am well served with “quiet time” and more specifically, quiet, solitary time in nature. At least once each month I take a day (sometimes it can only be a half day) to intentionally create a period of time when I can be silent and alone in a natural setting. This is a time for me to mindfully nurture my “Good Wolf”, center myself and let my mind peacefully wander as it wishes. I often enjoy journaling during this time as well.
This week I chose to take a silent afternoon to be on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, near a beautiful preserve called Sleeping Bear National Park. From its highest point, two beautiful islands can be seen from the shore. The cool Lake Michigan water appears turquoise and crystal clear from this height. It feels distant and separated from the rest of the world here, incredibly tranquil. I leave this place feeling more grounded, peaceful and harmonious than before, ever thankful to have nearby this haven, a place to retreat and renew. And every time I leave I ask myself: “Why don’t I do this more often?”
I think the thing that feels best about a day like today is the awareness that I chose to nurture and support myself, for just a few hours. I commit an act of self-love, of self-responsibility for my wellness each time I make a choice to feed my Good Wolf. And that feeling is absolutely priceless!
To your wellness,
Lori
About Lori
Dr. Lori Boothroyd is known as the “Coaching Psychologist”. She has served her clients and students well over the years through integrating her knowledge from earninga Ph.D. in psychology, as well as her advanced training in coaching and wellness psychology. Appreciated for her warmth and down-to-earth style as much as her expertise, Lori is a dynamic speaker, author and coach. She lives in Traverse City, Michigan with her husband, Dr. Gregory Boothroyd.
For a complimentary coaching consult, to inquire about programs or to ask any questions, please email: lori@loriboothroyd.com
