The Sled Dogs That Live in ur Mind

Imagine a pack of Sled Dogs. Five or six, hungry, strong willed, and a very stubborn pack of dogs.

Now imagine instead of each dog racing down the snow capped mountains in unison;

we find them pursuing their own directions, and racing toward their own goals. One of them is

running towards the lake to get a nice sip of ice cold water, another one is chasing squirrels,

and another one is not interested in anything, except laying its furry body on the cold ground.

Now let me ask you a question. If you were the one in charge of this pack, and you had

somewhere to be, do you think you would have an easy time getting anywhere?

Now lets reimagine the same scenario- but instead of Sled Dogs, we substitute our furry

friends with our humanistic desires. The parts of our mind that dictate the things we do or don’t

do through out the day. Instead of dogs, we have desires that stem from our “ego” and

“primal” instincts, to our logical and thinking brain, as well as the part of our mind that deals

with our “spiritual” and “intuitive” desires. We can label these parts of the brain in so many

different ways, but this doesn’t matter as much as understanding the main point: different parts

of our minds have different goals and desires. Have you ever noticed that sometimes you feel

hungry and you desire an unhealthy snack, but you also desire to be healthy and feel good

after a meal? These are the different sled dogs that desire different things. They are not in

cohesion. If one wins, and gets their way, the other one gets upset and feels left out. And vice

versa. This example is the conflict between your primal desires, and your logical ones. But how

about a person who wants to make money, have an attractive partner, and be respected and

adored; but they also want to live a life that isn’t trapped by their material possessions,

superficial pleasures, and accolades. They want to live a life that is filled with love and freedom

in their day to day life; that is not subjected to conditional praise and completed goals. A life

deeper and concerned with something bigger. This is the battle of an ego desire vs. a spiritual

desire.

Normally when humans bump up against these conflicts inside their mind, they end up only

taking care of one or two of these desires, and in turn, sacrificing their pursuit of the other

desires. A person who chooses to be rich and successful, finds themselves pushing

away their desire to be charitable, and compassionate and in the moment. Or a person

who escapes their material world, in hopes that they can fulfill their spiritual desires, but in turn

end up suppressing their ego mind and their primal mind.

The problem doesn’t lie in the pursuit of any one of these things. Each general desire and

specific desire in the mind is important, because it is the natural desires of the human

experience that cannot be controlled. You cannot control that you have a desire for sex, or how

much desire you have for it. You cannot control how much you want something or don’t want

it; whether its spiritual, or ego based. But what you can do, is honor it. Honor its place in your

life. Accept that your desire is more powerful and more stubborn than your discipline or

suppression of it will ever be. By honoring it, by observing it, you can start to see that all your

desires have their place.

But when we suppress these desires. When we give one, more attention and power over the

other, we end up with sled dogs who take too long to get anywhere. We end up dragging half

of them, while being pulled by the other ones. What we want is unity. What we want is harmony

and natural flow. But how do we get there?

We start by being mindful and learning about ourselves. What does our heart and body and

mind want from us? And then we find ways of creating compromise. We go and live in our

society that asks us to be responsible and take care of ourselves financially. But we also look

for ways of expressing our spiritual needs. We notice our primal needs, and instead of

completely shutting them down, we compassionately work on a balancing act. The greatest

balancing act that any gymnast could ever perform.

The second thing we do, is we tune into our mindfulness, and find compassion for the human

struggle. And we find connection with our fellow human; understanding that we are all dealing

with this internal challenge and suffering. When we choose to honor our desires, it is the

moment we can finally start living in harmony, and ultimately letting go of certain desires that

don’t serve us. But we don’t repress them, we honor them by making sure their voices are

heard.

Every dog is part of the pack, and serves its master. Honor them, and they will do the same for

you.