The following story was passed on to me as a bit of Cherokee Wisdom. I don't know any more about it's origins.

As we begin rebuilding ourselves and preparing to move to the next stage in our lives, it is good to occasionally evaluate which wolf we're feeding.

Our tendency as humans is to experience "positive" emotions together and "negative" emotions together. So, when we feel frustrated, we're more susceptible to also fee angry and depressed. When we feel happy, we're more open to feeling grateful and loving.

Sometimes when you're in a funk -- feeling the darker emotions -- you need to just let it wear itself out. But you can also force yourself away from the negative emotions and toward the positive.

More and more research is showing that you can actually make yourself happier and give yourself a more positive mental attitude by doing the things that happier, more positive people do. Even if you're not a big jokester, exposing yourself to humor and things that make you laugh will help you to be more happy and less sad.

This is definitely not the kind of thing you want to solve with a pill. Pills that make you happy also tend to have all kinds of unwanted side effects. Intoxication leads to hangover.

It is much better to train yourself to trigger more happiness and less anger. Parents of very young children know that there are times when you simply cannot do anything to help a baby stop crying. At some point, the child has to learn to comfort herself.

Well we, as adults, need to do the same thing. But too often adults comfort themselves with alcohol or drugs. We don't really learn to comfort ourselves, we simply learn to medicate ourselves.

One of the great benefits of daily quiet time is that you learn the habit of quieting your mind and your body. You know what it feels like and you learn how to get into that state. So, when the world comes beating at your door and the "dark" wolves want to be fed, you know how to go, have some quiet time, and take control of your emotional health.

It is also important to evaluate who you spend time with. At work, in your personal life, at school. Everywhere.

Do you hang around with angry people who seem never to be happy? Or people who seem to ruin every personal relationship they have? If so, you'll get caught up in that negativity.

You can't fix other people. The best you can hope for is that they decide to make some changes and ask for help.

Perhaps one of the most difficult things a person can do it to change the people he spends time with. In our culture, it just doesn't feel "right" to cut people off, move away, and separate yourself from them.