An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”  He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”  The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”  The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”  

I often think about the destructive habit or addiction voice being like a monkey on our backs tapping us on the shoulder and tempting us “you’ve had a rough day, you deserve a large bottle of scotch / line of coke / large piece of gateau / other addiction of choice”, “you’ve just won that deal, you should celebrate with …….” basically the addiction voice is anything (image, feelings, thoughts) which causes us to self soothe or tries to make us self soothe. 

The addiction voice though, will never ask the most important questions: (1) how long will I feel good for? (let's be honest the answer probably ranges from a few minutes to a few hours at most) and (2) what price will I pay for this choice? (probably many days, weeks, months, years or even decades). 

One of the techniques I have found super helpful is the 3 second rule, which really just means that when I have a thought that might not be helpful, I count down 3-2-1 and then make sure I stop the thought progressing, by changing the environment - stand up / go for a walk / make a cup of tea, call a friend etc.......

Stay tuned as next week in the vlog will take this one stage further..........

Jules Radford

Founder, The 28 day RESET challenge