Tag Archives: Mindset

Thoughts

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Negative thoughts can make you feel sad and anxious. They take the joy out of life-and they can take a toll on your physical health. That’s why it’s so important to learn how to deal with them.

One way to deal with negative thoughts is to replace them with thoughts that make you feel better. Positive thoughts can make you feel better and more hopeful. And it helps your body too.

Do you have any negative thoughts right now?

Take a minute, listen to your thoughts, and see if you do. If you’re focusing on negative thoughts, remember: You are in charge of what you tell yourself. And, it’s up to you to come up with something more encouraging.

Because of the mind-body connection, your thoughts really can affect your health. By telling yourself more encouraging things, you’re telling your brain to produce chemicals that can:

  • Lower your blood pressure.
  • Reduce your risk for heart disease.
  • Make your immune system stronger so you can resist infection and disease.
  • Lower your stress level and make you feel less anxious.
  • Help you avoid stomach problems, insomnia, and back pain.
  • Make you feel happier and more optimistic about the future.

Sometimes negative thoughts are connected to the way you live from day to day. Here are some things you can try right now to help you see the brighter side of life:

  • Be “mindful” and focus on what you are feeling right now. If you’re sad, feel the sadness. But don’t tell yourself that you have always felt this way and are doomed to feel sad forever. Sadness passes. A negative thought can linger… until you let it go.
  • Share your feelings with someone close to you. Everyone has negative thoughts from time to time. Talking about it with someone else helps you keep those thoughts in perspective.
  • Do something nice for yourself. Maybe you could work less today and play with your kids more. Or you could find something that makes you laugh.
  • Take time to count your blessings. There are so many things for each of us to be thankful for.
  • Eat well. Sleep well. Be active. The nicer you are to your body, the easier it is to feel more positive about yourself.
  • Make social connections. Reach out and enjoy some time with family and friends.

References:

  1. https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Health/Pages/conditions.aspx

Stop focusing on how stressed you are and remember how blessed you are.

Mindfulness: Being Mindful

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Research suggests mindfulness influences how you interpret the world.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ~ Nelson Mandela

To live mindfully is to live in the moment and reawaken oneself to the present, rather than dwelling on the past or anticipating the future. To be mindful is to observe and label thoughts, feelings, sensations in the body in an objective manner.

Mindfulness can help you achieve greater understanding, which in and of itself will bring you peace. It will also help you develop greater inner strength. This will enable you to make better choices in your lives, which will lead to a healthier and more fulfilling life. Being Mindful can mean meditating or simply stopping to smell the roses.

Mindfulness encompasses two key ingredients: awareness and acceptance.

  • Awareness is the knowledge and ability to focus attention on one’s inner processes and experiences, such as the experience of the present moment.
  • Acceptance is the ability to observe and accept—rather than judge or avoid—those streams of thought.

Studies show mindfulness slashes stress, relieves pain, and improves your mood. And scientists are beginning to understand how. One study found that 8 weeks of regular meditation and being mindful can change parts of your brain related to emotions, learning, and memory. Even washing dishes can be good for your brain, as long as you do it mindfully.

As you develop mindfulness through your practice, your emotions will naturally change. The reason is that you begin to identify less with your ego, and you begin to see more clearly your connection with the rest of the world. And when you truly see this interconnection, your loneliness will disappear.

Through mindfulness, your anger and frustration will also subside. As you meditate, your mind will naturally calm down. This will reduce the mental agitation that triggers your unhealthy emotions. They will be replaced with more wholesome emotions, such as love, compassion, and joy.

“Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The more you practice mindfulness meditation, the deeper your understanding of your emotions will be. When you are truly mindful, you are aware of when your emotions arise, what your sources are, and have the inner strength to resist the temptation to fuel the negative emotions, and be able to cultivate the positive ones. This will lead to greater equanimity.

Mindfulness of Your Mind

As you get older, your mental abilities begin to decline. Your memory, concentration, and reasoning ability slowly diminish. This is an inevitable sad truth about growing old. However, not all of your mental decline is due to age, and there is a lot we can do to slow this decline.

Studies have shown that mindfulness meditation helps preserve and even improve your mental abilities. Mindfulness meditation can improve your memory, concentration, and abstract thinking. Several studies have shown that even small amounts of meditation can have a significant impact. The impact is even greater with years of practice.

In addition to mindfulness, another thing you can do to preserve your mind is to keep it active. However, not all mental activity is equally beneficial. Mental activities that require little use of your mind, such as crossword puzzles, have little effect. What has the most impact is learning a new skill, such as a new language. Learning a new skill forces your brain to create new neural pathways.

Proper nutrition can also have a tremendous impact on your mental abilities. This is more a matter of giving your brain what it needs to function at an optimal level. For example, your brain needs a fair amount of protein and fat to work properly. You also need plenty of fluids. When you’re dehydrated, which many of you are, your memory and concentration are greatly diminished.

Physical activity will also improve your mental abilities. In order for oxygen and nutrients to reach your brain, they have to be transported there through our blood, and physical activity improves the blood flow to the brain. You don’t need to do a lot of exercise to get the health benefits. Sometimes just walking regularly is enough to improve the blood flow.

Mindfulness encompasses awareness and acceptance, which helps you understand and cope with uncomfortable emotions, allowing you to gain control and relief. To cultivate these skills, concentrate on breathing to lengthen and deepen your breaths. Notice your thoughts and feelings, and practice curiosity and self-compassion.

References:

  1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/mindfulness
  2. https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/ss/twelve-habits-super-healthy-people
  3. https://mindfulnessmeditationinstitute.org/2020/12/05/find-greater-happiness-in-your-retirement-through-mindfulness/

Warren Buffett Investing Lessons

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“Most people get interested in stocks [or assets like Bitcoin] when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well.” – Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO, Berkshire-Hathaway, the Oracle of Omaha, has been the most successful investor of the 20th Century and is considered by many to be one of the greatest investors of all time.. His investment track record is simply remarkable with compounded annual returns over 20% over the last 55 plus years.

Essentially, if you had invested $10,000 USD in his investment firm Berkshire-Hathaway in 1965, that $10,000 USD would today be worth over $280 million US dollars.

What follows are several investing lessons all investors can learn from Buffett:

Investing Lesson 1: Risk Comes From Not Knowing What You are Doing

Many first-time investors have started trading in stocks and cryptocurrency without really understanding how these asset classes work. Buffett has advised investors to not chase everything that is new and shiny, and instead to only focus on the opportunities that they painstakingly researched and understand.

Stick to your circle of competence. Try not to be good at all things, and instead try to be great at one thing and give it all you`ve got. It`s better to be known for one thing than nothing.

“Never invest in a business you cannot understand.” Warren Buffett.

Investing Lesson 2: System Overpowers the Smart

Buffett advises that retail investors use a low-cost index fund. Investing via index funds gives you the advantage of a system, it allows for a disciplined investing cycle via SIPs and keeps emotions away from corrupting that framework. In other words, Buffett wants retail investors to follow a system over everything else.

And the system and a clear investing framework finding great business at good reasonable prices that have powered Berkshire Hathaway for the last five decades.

Change the way you see setbacks. You will make mistakes, probably lots of them, as long as you choose to swing for the fences. Buffett believes you can do well if you program your mind to see opportunities in every setback.

“A low-cost index fund is the most sensible equity investment for the great majority of investors.” Warren Buffett.

Investing Lesson 3: Have an Owner’s Mindset

Buying a stock is effectively buying a business and investors should follow the same kind of rigorous analysis and due diligence as one would do when buying a business.

The lesson here is that instead of getting too caught up in the recent movement of the stock price, you should spend more time analyzing the business fundamentals behind the stock price.

You can only genuinely value a business if you can accurately predict future cash flows. This is impossible without an understanding of the company’s operating environment and fundamentals.

And once you have answers to the pertinent questions, invest in a business that you would like to own for the next 10 to 20 years.

On how to invest in stocks. His response is a simple five-word answer: “Invest in the long term.”

“That whole idea that you own a business you know is vital to the investment process.” Warren Buffett

Investing Lesson 4: Be Fearful When Others are Greedy and Be Greedy When Others are Fearful

The stock markets work in cycles of greed and fear. When there is greed, people are ready to pay more than what a business is worth. But when fear sets in, then great businesses are available at huge discounts for anyone who is ready to keep their gloomy emotions aside.

In Berkshire’s 2018 shareholder letter, Buffett wrote, “Seizing opportunities does not require great intelligence, a degree in economics or a familiarity with Wall Street jargon such as alpha and beta. What investors need instead is an ability to both disregard mob fears or enthusiasms and to focus on a few simple fundamentals. A willingness to look unimaginative for a sustained period — or even to look foolish — is also essential.”

In other words, Buffett encourages investors to not follow the herd. And strip away emotions when making investment decisions, which is likely to open up more profitable opportunities.

“What investors need is an ability to both disregard mob fears or enthusiasms and to focus on a few simple fundamentals.” Warren Buffett

Investing Lesson 5: Save and Preserve Capital for A Golden Rainy Day

Warren Buffett goes by the philosophy – hold onto your money when money is cheap and spend aggressively when money is expensive.

Financial expert criticized Buffett for holding onto billions of dollars in cash and not deploying it in stocks. But Buffett was saving all that cash to be used when companies come down from the then astronomical valuations to more reasonable prices.

“Every decade or so, dark clouds will fill the economic skies and they will briefly rain gold. When a downpour of that sort occurs. It is imperative that we rush outdoors carrying washtubs and not teaspoons.” Warren Buffett

Investing Lesson 6: Never Invest Just Because a Company is Cheap

A cheap business may be cheap for a very good reason, but may not be a profitable or favorable investment.

His investing approach is to look at a business’s competitive advantage, intangibles like brand value, cost superiority and its strong growth prospects.

This goes hand-in-hand with his Buffett’s first rule of investing is “don’t lose money.” His second rule is “never forget rule number one.” In short, investors should try to avoid significant losses at all costs, but avoiding all losses is impossible.

“It is far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price,” Warren Buffett

Investing Lesson 7: Time is The Friend of The Wonderful Business

Patience and time are important in investing and has investors can reap the benefits of compounding.

Additionally, “cash is king” and investors must avoid debt at all costs. Buffett has always had a strong net cash position. Cash gives optionality and means you’re unlikely to have to make hard decisions when the market becomes volatile and eventually turns.

Considering volatility, Buffett said, “There is simply no telling how far stocks can fall in a short period. Even if your borrowings are small and your positions are not immediately threatened by the plunging market, your mind may well become rattled by scary headlines and breathless commentary. And an unsettled mind will not make good decisions.”

Buffett is not a fan of the kind of debt that can leave consumers broke and helpless, especially when the markets go down.

“It is insane to risk what you have and need in order to obtain what you don’t need,” Warren Buffett

Investing Lesson 9: Keep It Simple

An element of simplicity is important. Buffett himself follows a simple to understand investing framework, which can best be defined as buying stakes in a business where the price you pay is far lower than the value you derive. He wants investors to invest in simple and understandable instruments only and using a process that one can easily digest.

For example, if you don’t understand cryptocurrency, don’t invest, trade, or speculate in Bitcoins or glamorous-looking investment vehicles we are exposed to every year.

“If you are uncomfortable with the asset class that you have picked, then chances are you will panic when others panic,” Warren Buffett

Finally, treat your body and mind like the only car you could have. If someone offered you the most expensive car in the world with a single condition that you never get another one, how will you treat this car?

With this analogy in mind, Buffett urges you to treat your body and mind the same way you treat your one, and only car. If you don’t take care of your mind and body now, by the time you are forty or fifty you’ll be like a car that can’t go anywhere.

Investing Bottomline

Buffett’s lessons are simple and straightforward. He submits to keep it simple, improve upon what you know, stay within your circle of competence and comfort zone, and there are enough opportunities for one to thrive in investing.

References:

  1. https://www.etmoney.com/blog/9-lessons-in-investing-by-warren-buffett/
  2. https://thetotalentrepreneurs.com/business-lessons-warren-buffet/
  3. https://addicted2success.com/life/5-lessons-we-can-all-learn-from-the-life-of-warren-buffett/
  4. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-warren-buffetts-most-important-224429018.html

Recession…recessions always come with significant increase in unemployment. It’s basically definitional. Employment and gross domestic product fall together during a recession.

Life Purpose in Five Minutes

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Adam Leipzig gave a TED talk regarding discovering your Life Purpose in 5 minutes. In his talk, he discusses a five step process to find meaning and purpose in your life.

In a non-scientific survey of Yale University classmates attending a college reunion, Adam Leipzig discovered to his dismay — despite financial, material and career success — that:

  • The majority of attendees, eighty percent (80%), were unhappy with their lives, and
  • A minority of attendees, twenty percent (20%), were happy

He explained that the people who were happy with their lives knew their life purpose.  For this to take 5 minutes, you need to already know the answers to these 5 things or questions:

  1. Who you are
  2. What you do
  3. Who you do it for
  4. What those people want or need to better their lives
  5. How the people you serve change or transform as a result of what you gave or did for them.

The most successful and happy people in almost every field and walk of life  are outward focus and focus on the people they serve first and foremost.

So, when people ask you, “what do you do”, just respond how what you do changes the lives of people. For example: “I help people build wealth, better manage their money, and achieve financial freedom”.  In a way, this can become your personal brand and elevator pitch. And it can be that simplite.

Adam Leipzig is a producer, executive and distributor. and has produced more than 300 stage plays and live events, and one of the founders of the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

Your Life Purpose comes down to what you really want to do to serve others and what you really enjoy doing to serve other, in the end. What you feel the most alive and happy doing while serving others.

References:

  1. https://www.transcendyourlimits.com/find-life-purpose

Dare to be Daring

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“I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity, is daring to dare.” ~ Maya Angelou

Risk-taking is the act of exposing yourself to potential failure, danger, harm, or loss.

While that might not always sound like a great idea and may push you beyond your personal comfort zone, the adage, “No risk, no reward” rings true regardless of how you feel about potential failures. You have to put yourself out there and move beyond your comfort zone in order to get what you want and to succeed.

History is repeat with those individuals who took the biggest risks and fought against the greatest odds and they were the ones that have been remembered. “You can’t outwit fate by standing on the sidelines placing little sidebets about the outcome of life. Either you wade in and risk everything you have to play the game or you don’t play at all. And if you don’t play you can’t win,” states Judith McNaught.

“It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” Seneca

Thus, dream boldly and reach for the stars. You, and most people, are more capable and able to live their dreams and achieve the big audacious goals if only they’re willing to believe, focus, work hard, be patient and persist. “It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don’t. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever,” writes Philip Adams

References:

  1. https://www.inhersight.com/blog/career-development/taking-risks-quotes
  2. https://www.maverickmindsets.com/blog-posts/quotes-on-risk-taking/

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, and catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain

Mindset Matters: Aging

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Thinking Positively About Aging Extends Life. Positive self-perceptions about aging can prolong life expectancy.

Thinking positively about aging and getting older extends one’s life by seven-and-one half years. This is more than the longevity gained from low blood pressure or low cholesterol or by maintaining a healthy weight, abstaining from smoking and exercising regularly, a study by Yale University researchers have found.

“We found that those individuals who reported more positive self perceptions of aging demonstrated significantly longer survival than those who reported more negative self perceptions of aging,” said Becca Levy, assistant professor in the Yale University Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.

Researchers found that those respondents with more positive views on aging live longer, even after taking into account factors such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, functional health, self-reported health and loneliness.

“We found that the median survival of those in the more positive self perceptions of aging group was 7.6 years longer than those in the more negative aging self stereotype group,” the authors said.

The effects of positive attitudes about aging had a greater impact on longevity than low blood pressure and cholesterol, each of which is associated with a longer life span of about four years.

Positive attitudes about aging also had a greater impact on longevity than lower body mass index, not smoking and regular exercise – each of which extends life by one to three years.

“Our study carries two messages,” the authors said. “The discouraging one is that negative self perceptions can diminish life expectancy; the encouraging one is that positive self-perceptions can prolong life expectancy.”

References:

  1. https://news.yale.edu/2002/07/29/thinking-positively-about-aging-extends-life-more-exercise-and-not-smoking

The Wisdom of Steve Jobs

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“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” ~ Steve Jobs

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” ~ Steve Jobs

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” ~ Steve Jobs

Finally…

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” ~ Steve Jobs

“When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” ~ Steve Jobs

References:

  1. https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/steve-jobs-quotes

The Elephant Rope

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“Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive and Believe, It Can Achieve.” – Napoleon Hill, “Think and Grow Rich”

A gentleman was walking through an elephant camp, and he spotted that the elephants weren’t being kept in cages or held by the use of chains.

All that was holding them back from escaping the camp, was a small piece of rope tied to one of their legs and secured to a stake.

As the man gazed upon the elephants, he was completely confused as to why the elephants didn’t just use their strength to break the rope and escape the camp. They could easily have done so, but instead, they didn’t try to at all.

Curious and wanting to know the answer, he asked a trainer nearby why the elephants were just standing there and never tried to escape.

The trainer replied;

“when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The only reason that the elephants weren’t breaking free and escaping from the camp was that over time they adopted the belief that it just wasn’t possible.

Moral of the story:

No matter how much the world tries to hold you back, always believe that you can achieve your goals and realize your purpose. Believing you can become successful and a your purpose is the most important step in actually achieving the prize.

Believing is achieving!

The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, believed in their flying machine when the majority said it was impossible. Their unwavering belief was based on thousands of hours of research and experiments. And, the underlying secret ingredients were action and perseverance, also known as hard work and pressing on.

References:

  1. https://wealthygorilla.com/10-most-inspirational-short-stories/

Mindfulness and Wellness

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“Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation, and healing.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

We need to adopt the practice of mindfulness in every realm of our lives.

Mindfulness is a way of being, of experiencing life, that is alert, awake, and present. It is the quality or trait of being aware of what’s happening, in the present moment, without judging your experience or needing to change it. 

Mindfulness is shown to reduce stress and anxiety, improve focus, and provide many other benefits.

“With this self-awareness, you’re able respond appropriately to the present moment instead of simply reacting with emotion fueled by your past experience.”

Moreover, mindfulness bolsters focus and clarity, can help you better navigate relationships with mindful listening and by reducing reactivity, and it can help you achieve your goals. It can make you feel more optimistic and also kinder and more forgiving toward yourself and others.

Mindfulness helps you respond appropriately to the present moment instead of simply reacting with emotion fueled by your past experience.

By witnessing our thoughts and feelings instead of automatically reacting to them, we disengage from our mental narrative and instead lightly hold our attention on the wider, quieter space beyond the thinking mind.

When mindfulness is paired with physical movement, and especially when done outdoors, the benefits are even greater for your mental, emotional and physical health, from measurable improvement in mood and immune function to better cardiovascular and respiratory function.

Studies show that mindfulness can improve confidence, resiliency, and focus among athletes. One study found that mindfulness helped college athletes sleep better, which improves both performance and mental endurance.

Mindfulness rewires the brain

Neural pathways are the superhighways of the brain—the most direct routes from initial thought to desired result. Mindfulness interrupts this process. Being present and witnessing your thoughts and feelings instead of automatically reacting to them, you disengage from our mental narrative and instead lightly hold your attention on the wider, quieter space beyond the thinking mind.

When you repeatedly disrupt the old reactive pathways and make different choices, over time you lay down new neural pathways, effectively rewiring how your brain reacts to certain situations.

These higher cognitive functions can point you toward more healthful ways of handling a situation. Mindfulness is a practice that really reaches into almost every area of our lives.

Here are just a few of the ways that mindfulness can help:

  1. Boosts serotonin levels and reduces cortisol levels — which can help relieve symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress
  2. Improves heart health
  3. Lowers blood pressure
  4. Reduces chronic pain, muscle tension, and inflammation
  5. Improves sleep quality and duration
  6. Alleviates digestive issues
  7. Improves attention, focus, concentration, and memory
  8. Increases self-compassion and empathy

The best way to understand mindfulness is to experience it for yourself! Mindfulness supports mental health in all the ways mentioned above—helping you to bring your awareness into the present moment, to take a mental and emotional pause, and to gain perspective on your situation instead of letting your habitual thoughts and reactions run the show.

Most experts recommend a daily mindfulness meditation practice of 10 or more minutes. You can also practice mindfulness for any amount of time, even just a minute here and a minute there will help you develop your innate capacity for mindfulness.

References:

  1. https://mindfulness.com/mindful-living/mindful-walking
  2. https://mindfulness.com/mindful-living/benefits
  3. https://mindfulness.com/mindful-living/mindfulness-a-beginners-guide

Two Wolves

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An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

  • One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued,
  • “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Feeding yourself with or focusing on negative thoughts can bring out the worst in yourself.

Conversely, positive thinking fuels the goodness within us. We exude joy, peace, hope, kindness, and love.

Essentially, what you focus your mind and thoughts on grows.

References:

  1. https://www.virtuesforlife.com/two-wolves/