The chief was sat at the edge of the hamlet, clearly deep in thought. The clan was beginning to become worried and nervous, but no-one wished to annoy him. ‘Chief,’ he asked, ‘what’s going on? You look so uneasy. ‘ The chief just sat there, and the elder thought he had not heard.
‘You know, it’s like there are 2 dogs fighting within me all of the time – a white dog and a black dog.
The elder looked at the chief and expounded noiselessly, ‘Chief, so which dog wins?’ The chief sat noiselessly for a second, and then responded : ‘the one I feed the most.
Each one of us have some version of that story going on within us all of the time, on some level.
Yet we, everybody, also have another part of ourselves, at our core, beneath the loud yappings of the ‘black dog self’.
The large yellow faculty bus is coming down my road again. As fast as the days get noticeably shorter, as quickly as the nights are a little crisper, and as quickly as the gigantic yellow college bus starts appearing in the morning, I am getting energised to learn. Com and ordered all of the books I have had on my wish list for a period of time. Dog info sites. And I have purchased some new PDF software that I am now learning as I play with some new coaching offerings. You’d think I was preparing for college myself. Everytime you notice you are acting from ‘black dog self’, place a check in the ‘black dog’ column. Think about a situation where you acted from your ‘black dog self’ – a fight, fight, or other upsetting situation. Actually put yourself back there, into how you were feeling at that point.
Inna Nirenburg is a robust life coach and workshop leader.