Which Wolf Will You Feed?: How to Change Your Life by Changing Your Thoughts

By Michael Stribling

Has your current life situation got you down? Do you want to feel better? Your thoughts and feelings influence your health by affecting the energy in your body. Negative thoughts lead to negative experiences; positive thoughts attract positive experiences. When you change your thoughts and feelings you change your life.

"Which Wolf Will You Feed?" describes ways to improve your mental health. With simple strategies like practicing gratitude, positive thinking, and living in the present moment you can improve your health— and your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098340179

Book preview

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Copyright © 2020 Michael P. Stribling

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Printed in the United States of America.

First Printing, 2020

Print ISBN: 978-1-09834-016-2

eBook ISBN: 978-1-09834-017-9

Michael P. Stribling

www.leela-books.com

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Which Wolf Will You Feed?

The Basic Idea

We’re on Autopilot

We Become Addicted to Our Feelings

Shame

Drama

The Long-Term Effects of Stress

The Good News

Gratitude—Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Water is Very Sensitive to Energy: Make Your Energy Positive

Stay in the Present: The Power of the Now

Surrender and Acceptance

Challenges and Opportunities

There Will Be Downtime: Reframing Relapse

We Reap What We Sow

Difficult People

The Need to Be Right

The Importance of Critical Thinking

Nonattachment

Happiness Is an Inside Job

Reasons to Do This Work

Practical Points to Ponder

Seek Balance

Avoid Spending Time in Chernobyl

Be Mindful of the Energy You Expose Yourself To

Be Quiet Sometimes

Meditation: Taking a Look Inside

Mental Rehearsal: Think About What You Want

One Final Caveat

Bottom Line

Appendix

Deep Breathing

Personal Mantras

Some Starter Kits for You to Explore

For Those Who Are in Recovery from Addiction

Mantras for Anytime / Anywhere

Mantras for Gratitude

Mantras for Remembering the Future

Putting it All Together

Creating Your Own Personal Mantras

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Since this is my first book, I have a lot of people to thank. I’ll start with the authors whose work has inspired me over the years and to whom I owe a great deal of gratitude. Among the many who have contributed to this book, I especially want to mention the following: Dr. Bob and John W.; John Bradshaw; Rhonda Byrne; Dawson Church, Ph.D.; Joe Dispenza, D.C.; David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D.; M. Scott Peck, M.D.; Price Pritchett, Ph.D.; Eckhart Tolle; James Twyman; and probably some others that I have forgotten to mention. Please know that you have my unending gratitude for your contribution. Most especially, I want to thank my wife, Alana [pronounced uh-LAWN-uh], for her continuous encouragement and undying support. I can’t imagine completing this project without her. I am very grateful to share my life with her. This book is dedicated to her.

My hope is that Which Wolf Will You Feed? blesses the lives of all those who read it.

Introduction

In 2020, the life experiences of pretty much everyone on the planet were turned upside down. The COVID-19 pandemic was the primary reason for this. At the time of this writing, the situation is still very serious, at least in the United States, and we’re facing an uncertain, and dangerous, future. That’s making a lot of people very nervous, and understandably so.

Among all of the challenges we face, including economic upheaval and stress, maintaining a positive mental attitude is critically important. It’s vital to develop, protect, and nurture our mental health, especially during these upsetting times. But that endeavor is made all the more difficult because of the negativity that surrounds us, and there is a lot of it in the world today.

The truth, however, is that this negativity has been all around us for a very long time; it just seems worse now than it’s been in the past. We’ve become so accustomed to this negativity and anxiety in the world around us that we consider it to be a normal condition. Now, more than ever, we need to focus on taking good care of ourselves—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Others have written about diet and exercise, and these are very important to our health and wellbeing. What I want to focus on in this book is our mental health, especially what we think and feel, and what we do as a result of those thoughts and feelings.

Many of the ideas presented here evolved through my work as a psychotherapist with inmates in a jail setting. However, I’m convinced these concepts apply to everyone; I know I’ve worked hard to incorporate these ideas into my own life. While the inmates I served were imprisoned in a locked facility and had lost their freedom in that way, I believe many of us are imprisoned in our heads and hearts, and our freedom is just as compromised. If we are prisoners, we are prisoners of our own design.

To be honest, I have to say that there are probably very few original ideas in this book. As Isaac Newton once said, I stand on the shoulders of giants, and I am very grateful for the concepts that others have developed before me. This book may be more of a greatest-hits collection of