Excerpt: ‘Inside every person there are two bears, forever locked in combat for your soul. One bear is all things good, compassion, love, trust. The other is all things evil, fear, shame, and self-destruction.’ — This quote from The New Mutants Movie lays the foundation for a deeper discussion about what’s going on inside of ourselves. Enjoy!
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“There’s an old Native American proverb that says, ‘Inside every person there are two bears, forever locked in combat for your soul. One bear is all things good, compassion, love, trust. The other is all things evil, fear, shame, and self-destruction.’“
Dani, The New Mutants
As soon as I heard this quote from The New Mutants Movie, I was immediately reminded of the The Story of Two Wolves and the quote from Sitting Bull of the two dogs inside: “Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.” Each story conveying a similar message that within each of us there are two forces—whether they be bears, wolves, dogs, whatever—that are constantly at battle for our soul and its right to dictate our actions. Which force will win? As The Story of Two Wolves and the quote by Sitting Bull both indicate, the one we feed the most.
Spoilers ahead: At the beginning of The New Mutants movie, Dani is unconscious that there’s even a battle going on inside of her. It isn’t until later in the movie when she discovers that this evil force that manifests as a bear, is taking control of her mutant power and is wreaking havoc on all of those around her. Once she becomes conscious to this evil inside, and with the help of her mutant friends, she slowly learns how to awake from her unconscious state and confront the evil bear. And with her entire life force backing her up in the confrontation, the evil bear—as big and evil and scary looking as it is—submits. This is quite a powerful representation of how it may play out for us when we wake up to our evil, too.
Like Dani, most of us are unconscious to our “evil bear” inside. It’s almost as though we live in a state of constant distraction and dismay and spend most of our time in life reacting to everything that happens to us. It is as though we are living our lives as pinball machines. We don’t act unless we’re acted upon. Our gears don’t turn until an outside force hits a button that forces them to turn. We wait around playing music and shining pretty lights until something decides to slam into us. Well, wake up call! …This shouldn’t be your life! We’re not a game that’s to be played with. We must become the player who chooses to play rather than the person who waits and is played.
Rather than wait for a force to slam into you before you turn your gears, learn how to control your gears now. Turn inward and take inventory of your emotional standing and acknowledge what forces are dominating your battles inside. Figure out which bear you’ve been feeding the most (or wolf or dog) and forecast what responses you’re most prone to reacting with when slammed into. You must learn how to acknowledge and become acquainted with these forces before you can ever learn how to control them. And don’t get it twisted, these bears—these forces—are alive inside of you just as much as they are alive inside of Dani as depicted in the movie.
Sure, maybe you don’t manifest a giant evil bear that wreaks havoc in a literal sense onto the world. But, you very well may be feeding the “evil bear” inside of you which continues to manifest itself over the “good bear” (because the bear you feed is the bear that will win) which results in you taking unconscious, harmful, and hurtful actions onto the world. And as I mentioned in the beginning of the post, the scary part is, you might not even be conscious that you’re doing it. There is no literal bear manifestation—just abstract reactions that you have to interpret and learn how to understand and control on your own.
And one of the reasons why this practice is so important, too, is because until you become conscious to the effects of your actions and learn how to control yourself—you may be causing excessive and unnecessary pain. The example used in the movie to explain this compares baby rattlesnakes to mature ones. Dr. Reyes asks Dani, “Did you know baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adult ones? They haven’t learned how to control how much venom they secrete.” And the same is true for you, too. Until you learn how to control yourself, you may react excessively and with “more venom” than what’s needed.
We must learn to control our reactions and how to respond to situations with grace. And it starts with introspection. We must pay closer attention to which “bear” we’re feeding. Are we feeding anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego? Or are we feeding joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith? Because whatever we feed is what will continue to grow and strengthen—and ultimately, win.
And remember that as big as your “bear” might be, you are always bigger. Because what’s inside of you, by nature, must be smaller—otherwise, it wouldn’t fit inside. So rise to the occasion and stop being played. Become the player of your own life and take control of your bears. You’re the only one who can. And do it not just for you and your own sake, but for all of ours. Good luck.
Read Next: The Story of Two Wolves: A Tale About Handling Inner Conflict Mindfully
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Written by Matt Hogan
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