There's an old parable where a grandparent says to their grandchild,

in life there are two wolves at battle within us.

One is a good wolf which represents things like kindness and bravery and love.

And the other is a bad wolf which represents things like greed and hatred and fear.

The child paused before looking up and asking,

well which one wins? The grandparent answered, the one you feed.

I'm Eric Zimmer. 25 years ago I was a homeless heroin addict.

When I first heard this parable in recovery, it changed the way I approached my entire life.

Darkness is actually a beautiful teacher and usually is the thing that consistently guides us to,

oh this is where we have a wound, this is where we need to heal.

And that ends up being this really positive transformative place.

Misery is actually our ally because there's energy in there, there's caring in there, there's motivation in there.

Regardless of the progress you've made in life, I believe all of us could benefit from wisdom on handling common problems.

The same thing that can when it's not working right predispose us to anxiety and depression is the very thing that can bring us to our highest and deepest selves.

It helps us grow and helps make life more manageable.

With my heart I know that being kind and being just and compassionate is freedom, I just know it.

Which is why on my podcast, the one you feed, I've interviewed over 500 guests including scientists, authors, researchers, psychologists and spiritual teachers.

There are certain things that we definitely cannot change about the human situation.

And yet we're incredibly prone to sort of staking our self worth on managing to change them.

We'd all love the perfect conditions.

But if you wait for them, you will wait and wait and wait and pretty soon it'll be over.

The podcast is connected with over 25 million people and was an Apple podcast to the year, a word winner, and has been a favorite of O Magazine.

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