Positive thinking: feed the good wolf

I am a big fan of positive psychology and positive thinking, since I personally believe that looking on the bright side of life is definitely more beneficial than dwelling on the negative stuff, thoughts and events.  And I would like to share something about positive thinking with you in this article. 

First of all, I would like to say that in general we think too much about what goes wrong in our lives, and not enough about what goes right. Please do not get me wrong; there are negative things happening in our lives, and of course sometimes it makes sense to analyze bad events so that we can learn from them and avoid them in the future. For example, not studying for an exam and having to retake it, while all your friends are having fun and chilling. This is a very simple example, but it can go even further with friendships, not taking enough care of our well-being, being too stressed and letting negative feelings overwhelm our mind and body, etc. 

In general, people tend to spend more time thinking about what is bad in life than focusing on what is good. One way to keep this from happening is to get better at thinking about and savoring what went well. I call it “feeding the positive wolf” from a short story that I would like to share with you. This story has really inspired me and I hope it will also bring some sort of inspiration for you. 

There is an old Cherokee legend known as the tale of two wolves. A grandfather explains to his warrior grandson that there are two wolves within each of us: One wolf is positive and beneficial, while the other wolf is negative and destructive. These two wolves fight for control over us. The grandson is curious and asks, “Which wolf will win?” the grandfather replies, “The one you feed.” 

How can you do this? One possibility from positive psychology is to write down three good things that went well today. And please try to focus on small things, we do not get As in important subjects every day J.  It could be that you had a nice chat with your friends, wrote a difficult essay, went running etc. 

Writing about these positive events might seem awkward at first, but try to stick to it for at least a week. It will help you to feed the positive wolf and also to go to sleep with a positive mind. Good luck.

“Positive energy = positive results “