The One You Feed - Special Episode: Eric talks to Kids About Their Good and Bad Wolves!

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

In this very special episode, Eric meets with several students from a school in Colorado. Their counselor, Ms. Rebecca has shared and discussed the parable of the two wolves with her students, and with the parents’ permission, invited Eric to “interview” the students. You’ll discover just how early the bad wolf starts appearing in our lives. But even at this young age, they have their own ways of trying to ensure they feed their good wolf. Themes discussed in this episode: Dealing with dissatisfaction or discontentment Managing the inner critic Learning from our mistakes How comparison undermines self confidence and joy To learn more, click here!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The One You Feed. Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have. Quotes like, garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you think, ring true. And yet, for many of us, our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity, self-pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't have instead of what we do. We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking.

Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction, how they feed their good wolf. Welcome to The One You Feed. In today's episode, we have something a little bit different. Recently, I was visiting a friend of mine who lives in Colorado, and she mentioned that she had been teaching her students about the parable of the good wolf and the bad wolf. After hearing this, I thought, I bet those kids have some really good

ideas about how to feed your good wolf. So I asked if I could speak with them. The reason I thought this would be so interesting is because as adults, we can be so immersed in our wide and complicated world that we can forget how wide and complicated our lives felt back when we were kids. We tend to think of childhood as the simpler times, before we had to worry about things like dissatisfaction, rumination, guilt, comparison, imposter syndrome, or insecurity. But when talking to these kids, what surprised me was just how early in our lives the bad wolf starts appearing. Maybe it's always there. That being said, these kids are great, and even at this young age, they have their own ways of trying to ensure they feed their good

wolf. One of the kids I spoke with is Emery. Hi, Emery. Hi. Thank you for talking with me. You're welcome. What are the, it looks like you've got some sort of crown on or ears. What am I seeing here? My cat ears. Your what ears? My cat ears. Oh, your cat ears. They have gems on them. They are beautiful. And you have a bow. Thank you. You look really nice today. I love your cat ears. I made my mommy and daddy make me wear this because they always say, choose between a headband or a bow. And I did bow today. So Miss Rebecca probably taught you a little bit about the good wolf and the bad wolf. What do those things mean to you?

What do those things mean to you? They mean like how my personality ends up every day. So what are some of the things your good wolf says in your head to you? My good wolf says, you can't do this. What are some of the things the bad wolf says? You can't do this. You can't do this. You're not smart. You're not smart. So what do you do when you hear that in your mind? I know I am smart and so I just ignore the bad wolf. You just ignore the bad wolf, huh? And I listen to the good wolf. Uh-huh. Do you ever find that hard to do? Yeah.

Sometimes the bad wolf just keeps talking even though you ignore it. Yeah. Yeah, what do you do then? I keep listening to the good wolf. You just keep trying to hear the good wolf, huh? Do you ever ask anybody for help with that? Yes. Who? Yes. Who?

Mommy. I say, Mommy, my bad wolf says something that's not good. She says, don't listen to the bad wolf. Ignore the bad wolf and listen to the good wolf. What does your bad wolf say to you? What does your bad wolf say to you? What does my bad wolf say to me? Well, he says, you're not good enough. You don't have enough.

You need things you don't have. You should be more like this or more like that. That's something my bad wolf says. My bad wolf says like, when I buy something that I actually do want, then I'm like, well, I want that instead. So you think you want something, you get it, and then you still realize you want something else. Yes. So if something was $1, I could get, and I kept getting the same thing, I could get 10 of them because I have $10. Or you could get one thing that's $10.

Or I could get two things that is $5. Well, you know your math pretty well. Yeah. So, do you think that getting things makes you happy? Yes, it does. I'm like, I'm like the only

one in this whole entire, not this whole entire country, but this whole entire world that wants toys. So they make you happy, but this whole entire world that wants toys. So they make you happy, but do you stay happy or do you end up wanting something else? I end up wanting something else. What Emery is talking about here is something we all have to learn to deal with. Dissatisfaction.

In part, our minds are striving machines. It doesn't come naturally to most people, if anyone, to remain satisfied. But we all have that little voice in our heads that says, well, it'd be nice if we just had and fill in the blank. But there is a remedy for dissatisfaction. And Emery already knows it. It's gratitude. You know what makes me, like like the happiest? What's that?

If that's not toys, it makes me happier than toys. It's just when I wake up and I get to look and I get to look out my window and put my slippers on and just look at the beautiful things outside. Oh, that makes me happy. Yeah, I like that too. I like looking out the window at beautiful things. Maybe I should get some slippers. You think I should get some slippers? I have, yes, you have to. I have to get some slippers?

Okay. Yes, I have ones that are really fuzzy. Fuzzy, okay. And they come off always. And I have one that's on, that goes on one foot the other is Elsa, and it goes on the other foot. So you've named your slippers. No, it has the picture of Anna and Elsa. Oh, I see.

Tell them what movie that's from. I don't know what that is. Frozen. Frozen, okay. Do you know what else makes me happy? What? Your cat, your cat ears. Your gem-studded cat ears. It does?

Yes. The minute I saw them, it made me happy. Yep. You make me happy talking to you. I also love my cat ears, too. Yes. And I'm really grateful for what I have because I cry whenever I think of something that I don't like that's mine. I cry. What do you mean? Even though we can overcome our feelings of dissatisfaction by focusing on what we're grateful for, the little voice does so much other than tell us that we need more.

As Emery herself has experienced, the little voice often tells us not to forgive ourselves. What makes you cry? Thinking of things that I didn't mean to do. Like one time I bit my daddy and he got blood. And whenever I think of that, it also makes me cry.

Sometimes. Did you say you were sorry? Yeah. It was when I was like three? Yeah. It was when I was like three or two. It was when I was very little. Do you think you can let go of that and not worry about it anymore? Yeah, I could. Yeah. He's probably

forgiving you. Yeah. And last year I was five, then I was four, now I'm six, so it could be when I was four, too. Yeah. It was a while ago. It was.

Do you bite people anymore? I bite my brother sometimes when I'm frustrated at him. Oh. I bet that the good wolf is not in support of you biting your brother. Would you agree? Yes. It's definitely the bad wolf that controls that. It's definitely the bad wolf it's definitely the bad wolf that definitely the bad wolf controls definitely the bad the bad wolf is the biter

yep yep well what what do you think you could do next time you want to bite somebody i think about it first yeah and my last question is how do you like how do you like ignore the bad wolf? Well, that's a very good question. I, do you ever hear like, like say you're in one room and there's a sound coming from the other room and you can't really turn it off so so sometimes when i'm trying to ignore the bad wolf i just sort of imagine it sounds coming from another room and i just try not to really pay much attention i pay more attention on the good wolf yeah well i think that's smart.

You seem like you do a pretty good job of that when you're not biting things. I do. Thank you so much for talking to me. I've really enjoyed it. You're welcome. Thanks for letting me wear your gem-studded cat ears. That was kind of the highlight of my day. You know, I really admire Emery's self-awareness.

Even at her young age, she can pinpoint when her bad wolf rears its head and tries to lead her astray. It's so common to get caught up in feelings of dissatisfaction and rumination. The mind has a way of fixating on things, whether they are new shiny things or painful memories. And Emery clearly experiences that too, but she seems to have some solid coping skills when her inner critic flares up. Sometimes, though, the inner critic comes in another form, especially when we find ourselves in the cycle of making and breaking promises to ourselves. Hi, Quinn. Hello. Thank you for sitting down with me.

You're welcome. So, Miss Rebecca sort of talks about the good wolf and the bad wolf, or the helpful wolf and the unhelpful wolf. Do you have names for them? What do you think of? I mean, I think the good one should have like a good like cheery name and the bad one should have like kind of like a like a not like a very good name because it's like a can we think of some bertha or something bertha for the bad wolf yeah it's not a very good name so no unless your name's birth out if your birth out there i apologize for uh you know i hope there's no birth is listening but there might be you never know um you wrote down under the bad wolf bullying do you do you get do you

bully other people when you're in the bad wolf or other people bully you that make you feel bad well the bad wolf is a bully the bad wolf is a bully to the good wolf i see okay that makes sense what are some of the things the good wolf. I see. Okay. That makes sense. What are some of the things the good wolf says to you? Like the good wolf, like as if it was like talking to me right now. Yeah. I mean, like don't listen to what the bad wolf is saying. He's just jealous or something.

Yeah, you wrote down things like encouragement, bravery, kindness, hard work. Those are all sort of good wolf things. Yeah. Yeah. So if you find yourself in the bad wolf area, right, you're feeling afraid or you're feeling you wrote lazy or angry or you're saying to yourself nobody likes you what do you do what do you do then i mean i would tell him to stop then if he didn't stop i would tell him to stop a second time and then if he didn't stop the third time i would probably like tell like somebody that could like

help yeah you just tell somebody like i'm having these difficult thoughts i don't quite can't quite get him to stop yeah like sometimes like when kids are mean to me i talk like i get miss rebecca and like we usually talk with them it usually like works out kind of yeah that's good do you feel like kids are mean to you a lot yeah yeah kind of yeah why do you think that is i mean like i can be like a little disruptive in class sometimes. And that seems to be like the main reason that they don't like, they don't like, like me that much. Why do you think you get disruptive in class? Like, I think it's like funny, but then I realize it's not funny. And then like, they kind of just say like, it's like lame kind of.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That probably doesn't feel very good, does it? Yeah. So what do you say to yourself after that? So when either you've realized you acted disruptive in class or somebody's been mean to you, like what do you do then? I mean, I try to like just like think like, why did I do that? And then I try and then I like try to like stop.

But then like the next day I kind of forget I said that to myself. Yeah. Yeah. Do you get frustrated with yourself? Yeah, sometimes. Yeah. Do you also forgive yourself? Yeah, sometimes.

Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about when you stay frustrated versus when you forgive. Like, what are you doing in your head? What are you saying to yourself? I'm saying, like, I can do better the next day. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, you can. We all make mistakes, don't we? Yeah. We all do things from time to time that we don't feel great about. The path to growth often involves making mistakes and learning from them. When we act in ways that hurt others or make us feel guilty, it's easy to beat ourselves up. But self-criticism usually doesn't help us become our best selves. Instead, we can acknowledge our

mistakes with care and understanding. Rather than falling into shame or numbness, like Quinn, we can reflect on why we acted that way and how we want to grow. Of course, we have to apologize when needed and set intentions to act more thoughtfully next time, but it's also important that we don't skip the step of self-forgiveness. We all make mistakes, don't we? We've been talking a lot about our inner critic, how it makes us feel guilty, how it makes us ruminate, but the inner critic also does something that's really valuable. It reveals our ideals. It shows us what we care about and that can be a good thing, especially when we have nothing to rely on besides our conscience. Hi, Mackenzie. Hi. I'm so happy to be sitting here with you. What grade are you in? Fourth.

Fourth. Okay. So how old are fourth graders? Or I should say, how old are you? Ten. Ten. Okay. So tell me about, what do you understand about this idea of the good wolf and the bad wolf? You wrote some things down. What does slay queen mean? My good wolf just uses that as a term that I'm nice to other people, basically. It means you're awesome? Yeah. Slay queen, like you're slaying it. Yeah. Yeah?

Yeah. Okay. That's good. So what sort of things does slay queen say to you? When you're in slay queen mode, what sort of things are you saying to yourself? I'm awesome. I'm powerful. I can do this.

Yeah. Okay. And what sort of things make you in slay queen mode? Like what sort of things are happening in your life? Either things you're doing or things that you see or read. What helps you become slay queen? A big word that I understand are getting a perfect score on a test. Okay. What if you get not quite a perfect score? What if you get like most of them right, but not all of them? I will be a little bit disappointed,

but I'll still be pretty happy, but not enough to go into slay queen mode. Not enough to go into slay queen mode, but not enough to go into bad wolf mode. Does the bad wolf have a name to you? Do you call it anything? I call it my unconscious. Your unconscious? Yes. Okay. That's very interesting. Why do you call it that? Conscious? Yes. Okay, that's very interesting.

Why do you call it that? Because my conscience is supposed to, if I'm going to do something that I'm not supposed to do, it's going to tell me I shouldn't do this. But my unconscious, it wants me to do it. It like wants me to do it. And so are there times that you're unconscious? Your unconscious is the phrase you're using. That you're in that place and you don't want to listen to Slay Queen. You're just like, I just want to do this thing.

And you're in your unconscious? Yes. Yes. But sometimes I imagine you're in your unconscious, it's telling you to do something and then you decide not to do it. What are some of the things you say to yourself that help you to not, not do that? Um, I'll say I shouldn't be doing this. I could get in way more trouble and it would make me feel really bad if I got in more trouble. And if I did it and nobody found out, I would feel really guilty and I might take it out on someone.

You mentioned two things there that stop you. One is you don't want to get in trouble. The other is you don't want to feel bad about yourself inside. Which one of those feels more important to you? Feeling bad about myself inside. Yeah. Well, that's actually good. You know why?

No. Well, because at some age, as you get get older right you there won't be the same things to get in trouble with right and someday your parents won't be there looking at every step you won't be in school telling you everything to do and then at that point it's really your own conscience that becomes important you know that desire desire to feel good about ourselves. And it seems really wise to me that you recognize that even if you don't get caught, it still feels bad. That's really good. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden.

And together on the Really No Really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you. And the one bringing back the woolly mammoth.

Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. How are you, too? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really No Really, sir.

Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah, really. No really.

Go to reallynoreally.com. And register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason Bobblehead. It's called Really, No Really, and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See, sometimes our conscience, or as McKenzie would say, our unconscious, is our companion to keeping us on the right track. Our conscience is constantly evaluating things, including ourselves. That's

how we know whether we've made a mistake or should feel proud. But where are we getting the standards from? Are they coming from within or somewhere else? Well, I guess to answer my own question a little bit, they certainly don't come only from within. A lot of the standards we apply to ourselves come from comparison with others. These comparisons may be inevitable, but we should still be careful about with who and how much we compare ourselves. Hi, Riley. Hi. Thank you for sitting down with me. Thank you for inviting me here.

Yeah. So we're going to be talking about the helpful or unhelpful wolf or the good and bad wolf. Do you have names for them? Um, my inner con on my inner conscience, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. That word. Your inner conscience, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. That word. Your inner conscience. Yeah. Yeah. And so what, what are some of the things that the, um, this,

for the, on the bad wolf, it looks like you wrote crusty. What's that? Well, like, I'm just like, not feeling myself that day. Got it. Like just, just feeling weird or like my hair doesn't look good and it has a lot of dandruff and I don't know, it's just a word that comes up when I thought of it this morning. Yeah. And it just, so you're, it's the ways you talk to yourself that put yourself down. Yeah. Yeah. And on the good side, what are some of the things that the good side says to you? some of the things that the good side says to you? Like you look good today or like I did really good on that test earlier and I'm smart and I, I don't know. Yeah. And so, you know, you mentioned that you feel good when you feel like you look good. You feel good if you did good on a test. What about when you're not doing,

if you don't feel like you look good or you didn't do good on a test, how do you talk to yourself and how do you kind of not get stuck in that? Well, sometimes when I am picking out my clothes for the day and I just want to like feel good that day, I could always just mix and match my outfits and try things I haven't tried before or see what my mom has in her closet because we're basically the same size. And if I don't do well on tests, I could always talk to my teachers. Teachers, they always want to help you. I've learned these past few years in middle school. They're just there for you. And if you are struggling with something, they will be happy to make you do a better grade because they don't want you to fail either. Right. Right. What about feeling? I'm just I'm just curious about this, about feeling good about yourself, even if you don't feel like you look good or you don't feel smart.

Well, surround surrounding yourself with people who care about you, like friends, family, surrounding yourself with people who care about you, like friends, family, talking to outer relatives who you don't see over and connecting them with your phone or a computer and or your friends, you could always just be like, hey, I want to talk to you. And if they're a good friend, they will help you through whatever you're feeling that day. So surrounding yourself with people you love. Do you feel like you can kind of say anything to your friends? Oh yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. That's good. That's really good. What sort of things, you know, make the good wolf or the bad wolf show up? You sort of mentioned how you feel like you're looking

or how you feel like you're doing. What are some other things? Well, mentally, you should feel good on the inside and out. And on the inside, you just need to do what you love. So if you don't like, for example, soccer and you're playing soccer, you have to just have to make the best of it and meet a new friend to play soccer with. And having that mental goal to just, I'll get just through another month of doing soccer and then I'll be done with it and I can do things I enjoy. And then just talking to people saying,

Hey mom, I don't want to do soccer anymore. That would be another good mental thing for your mental health. Yeah. So, I mean, one of the things that often is not good for our mental health is when we compare ourselves to other people. And I think that's like at your age, I remember being your age and I feel like that was about the time that I did that the most. Yeah. Do you feel that? Yeah. Comparison is definitely one that hurts the most for yourself or if someone compares you to another person.

It is a tough thing that everyone has to deal with, but people just need to work through it. And yourself, you just need to push yourself to do what you want to change. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's that old idea that, am I better than I was yesterday? That's a much more useful comparison than, am I like like that person or am I as pretty as they are? Am I as good looking as they are? Am I as smart as they are?

You know, but it's always interesting because in school it's such a small contained thing, you know, that like that your your comparisons are kind of right there. And you can't see the whole huge world outside of that. You know, when you get to be a little bit older and outside of school, at least for me, I suddenly realized like, oh, wait, like, you know, there's a there's a big world of people out there. And I don't I'm not competing against these five people that I thought I was right. There's you know, there's there? There's lots of options and choices. Oh, yeah. And people who are older, people have told me that right now, my age, you think parents are just trying to control you,

but later in life you're going to realize that I actually should have listened to them. And I don't know where I heard that. I heard it somewhere. I'm trying to think, but something along the lines of that. Yep. Most grownups are not trying to control. They're trying to help. Now, sometimes they're also controlling and that feels, no one likes to feel controlled. Definitely. Right. You know, no one likes to feel controlled. Definitely. Right. You know, no one likes to feel controlled. Um, but yeah, we sometimes know what we're talking about as grownups sometimes. And, and you guys also often know exactly what you're talking about. For the most part, for the most part, you think so? Of course. Do you have any questions for me about the good and bad wolf? I don't think so.

Not that I can think of. I don't know. Okay. Well, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. As Riley said, comparisons, especially to others, can undermine our self-confidence and joy. I couldn't agree more that it's better to focus on our own growth rather than measuring ourselves against arbitrary standards. You can do this by checking in with yourself and saying, am I better than I was

yesterday? This keeps the focus inward in a motivating way. It's about progression rather than perfection. Building on that idea of inner comparison, I want to introduce one more of the kids I had a chance to speak with, Lily. She talks about something akin to imposter syndrome, that feeling that we're lying about who we are. It stems from the gap between how we present ourselves versus our inner experience. But rather than judging or doubting ourselves, maybe there's another way to think about it. Hi, Lily. Hello. Thanks for sitting down with me.

Yes, thank you for having me. I'm very happy to. You were telling me just before we started that you like to ride horses. Yes, I do. Yeah? How long have you been doing that? Um, I'd like to say five years when I first started, when I first moved here, that is when it became much more serious than, um, just a love for horses. Yeah. Well, you must

be good at it after five years. Yes. Yeah. So, um, you know, we talk about this idea of good and bad wolf or helpful or unhelpful wolf. Do you have names for them or what? What do you how do you think of it? Just I don't think there's any. I don't know how I would look at it. It's more of just don't let the negative feed off of you and all your failures and more live off of the success instead of fails. So focus more on the things that go well than things that go badly. Yes, because those bad things happen. Yep. So you wrote down some things that, you know, the good wolf tends to say or the bad wolf tends to say or the positive and negative, to use your terms, are success and failure.

And one of them that I thought was interesting is, I am listening. What does that mean? Just knowing that there are people there and are supportive about what you are thinking and won't bring you down for it. Yeah, so people you can share about what you're feeling and they will encourage you versus make you feel bad? Yes.

Do you have any people in your life who make you feel bad when you share what's going on? I don't have any names, but there are probably people out there. Okay, okay. And so what sort of things cause the good wolf and the things the good wolf has to say, like, you know, you know this, you're smart, you'd be good at this. What sort of things cause that voice to show up in your head? Um, it's in math. That's, I don't always feel so confident. And then I just

have to tell myself, Oh, Hey, actually you'd be good at this or you know what you're doing. Yep. And so you, and so with math, you just keep trying. Yep. I had an experience recently that was really good for me about trying. So I started rock climbing inside of like a gym, you know, but then I got a chance to climb outside once. I've actually gone a couple of times. The first time I went, I got there and I went up to the wall and I just could not. I mean, I looked at it. I was like, there's no way I'm ever going to get up that.

And like I couldn't even figure out like even the first few places to put my hand. Cause like in a rock climbing gym, the holds are colored, you know, what color to go for. Right. And on an outdoor wall, there's none of that. The first 15 minutes I went like half a foot. I mean, I went nowhere and I was like, this is not going to work. This is not going to work. I almost gave up. Then I was like, just keep trying. And before long, I was all the way up there, which was kind of amazing because I really was certain there was no way I was going to be able to do it. You have some experiences like that?

Maybe in ELA, there's times when we're supposed to be writing and I have no idea. Oh my gosh, I'm never going to get this done. Have no ideas. My brain is empty and I end up just reading or talking to someone and get those ideas a lot from parents. And then you do it and it works out. Yeah. And I'm really proud of the work. It's what takes you the longest. Well, that is a really good lesson to carry through your whole life, which is that most times when you start something, particularly something that's like writing or creative, is that you it feels like you can't do it. I mean, literally every single time I have to write a talk for like a speech or something or, you know, a presentation I'm giving when I sit down and do it, I'm like, I'm not going to be able to do this. It isn't any good. I don't have any good ideas. And I get to talk to a lot of best-selling

authors, and they all say the same thing. You just have to get something down, and then it gets better. So talk to me about some of the things that the bad wolf says to you. What are some of the voices in your head, the negative side of them? It's just a lot of you can't do this or they can do this better than you. It's a lot of comparing, which I'm working on getting rid of it. It's not good. Yeah. It's hard, though, isn't it? Yeah.

It's hard. I mean, we naturally do it as humans, right? I think we're naturally wired to do it. We are a social species. My experience is you can't stop it from happening, but you can not listen to it or not encourage it. Yes. You know, like if I walk into a room full of people I don't know, I'm immediately going to start judging the people around me and how do I compare to them. But then if I can just let that

go. It does nothing but make everything worse when you compare 100%. So what are some of the things that you do to get you to stop comparing? It's, well, it's, it's also, um, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. So someone might be better at something else than me, but I might be better at something else. And it's a lot of just making up that we're all different. We all have different learning speeds. Yeah, you're uniquely you. Yes, no one else is no one else is like you and you're not like anyone else.

Not only does the conscience make us compare ourselves to others, but it tells us what we are capable of. When it says that we're not really the person we claim to be or what others think we are, it can feel like imposter syndrome. But by acting as if we are the person we say we are, we can begin to create the evidence we need in order to truly believe it. Our conscience, inner critic, or narrator is something that virtually every one of us will live alongside for our entire lives. It's that chattering box that will tell us what we need. It will tell us if we should think of ourselves as good or bad. It will cause us to feel guilty and ruminate, and it will tell us what we should think we're capable of.

us what we should think we're capable of. Since it's almost impossible to get rid of the chattering box altogether, we have to learn to cultivate one that we can trust. In the best of times, it should tell us things that make us feel inspired to realize our best selves, have the unconditional love to forgive, and nudge us into feeding our good wolf. Cultivating a conscience you can rely on can begin at any time, but what's been so great about speaking to these kids and making this episode is I've had the opportunity to see how, even at their young ages, they've got a keen insight into that inner narrator we all wrestle with, the voice that compares, judges, criticizes, and they're already developing strategies to manage that unrelenting inner critic, whether it's focusing on gratitude,

surrounding themselves with affirming friends, or simply asking, how can I improve rather than why am I not good enough? These students are learning the fundamentals of emotional intelligence, self-compassion, and how to feed their good wolf. While these kids are fortunate enough to have learned these skills so early, many of us have had to learn them in our adult lives. I hope that if any of these techniques are new to you, you can use them in your life as well. If what you just heard was helpful to you, please consider making a monthly donation to support the One You Feed podcast. When you join our membership community with this monthly pledge, you get lots of exclusive members-only benefits. It's our way of saying thank you for your support. Now, we are so grateful for the members of our community.

We wouldn't be able to do what we do without their support, and we don't take a single dollar for granted. To learn more, make a donation at any level and become a member of the One You Feed community, go to oneyoufeed.net slash join. The One You Feed podcast would like to sincerely thank our sponsors for supporting the show. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together, our mission on the Really No Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor, what's in the museum of failure, and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer.

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