Life Lessons from Pets 3: Be Present

This is part 3 in a series of articles about the wisdom that animals bring to humanity. We’ll dive into a couple lessons I feel are super important for humans working through what we are on this planet. We could all use some more wisdom of the animals. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2

To recap from last week: Play is an essential part of life for all animals. It’s a bit of wisdom that we would do well to remember for all of the benefits that it gives us mentally and physically!

Lesson 3: Be Present

As humans we have a tendency to think about how things were, or how things are going to be. We’re either in the past, or the future. Unless we concentrate, we rarely find ourselves right here. 

When I take stock of my thoughts, I can easily find myself busy thinking about the conversation I had yesterday. Ruminating how  I wish that it had gone differently. Maybe I’m thinking about the meeting I have next week and how many ways it might go wrong. Or he fact that there are 3 million things on my to do list that have yet to be done.  

Through all of these thoughts about the past and the future,  I’m exhausted. 

I know I’m also not the only person that has arrived at a destination only to realize that I have no recollection of the actual getting there. My brain was so consumed in the moment by being elsewhere. I was not in the moment that my body was on autopilot while my brain ran amuck in the past and future. Getting that far out of the present moment can be dangerous when the autopilot doesn’t catch a minor detail - like the car pulling out in front of you.

What if, instead of letting your mind go monkey-style, you get present?
What if you created a time and place for thinking about situations in retrospect? 

What if you created a special time and place for future planning?

Not being present  is one source of the near constant levels of anxiety and stress that we experience culturally. 

NOW is the only moment that matters. It also happens to be the only one we have the opportunity to control.

Our pets are constantly reminding us to be in the now. They live here and now. It’s the only place they can live.

They don’t wake up the next morning and gripe about Buster stealing their toy yesterday. 

They don’t mope around in anticipation of the vet appointment next week.

They don’t tell stories about how Buddy tried to steal their treat from them and they got mad and had to run away and then they got stuck in the closet when they tried to hide it.

Releasing our grip on the past and future can feel scary. Our brains like to tell us all sorts of stories about the bad things that will happen if we don’t rehash scenarios hundreds of times in our heads. The truth is that doing that does not accomplish anything. It keeps us from enjoying what’s happening right in front of us. 

This week for me, it’s been watching the leaves change with every drive I’ve taken. It’s noticing the dew on the plants that looks like thousands of little jewels. The cat prints over my car from my client’s feral cat colony. The foggy mornings where everything has been shrouded in mystery.

Being here and now brings a sense of peace, and our pet’s know this. It’s way more comfortable to live in the here and now, and makes it so much easier to focus on one thing at a time that needs our attention, and then flow into the next.

Let your pet be a constant reminder to bring yourself back to the present. Lean on them for support to come back here and now, and find the joy in the present. 

Let’s connect. I’m offering FREE Pet Problems to Peace sessions. We’ll evaluate what is occurring with the animals in your life. Struggling with pet problems? Unsure why your furbaby keeps doing that one thing? Unsure how to help stop a certain behavior?
Let’s chat! Click here to book your Pet Problems to Peace call!