We have three Labrador retrievers. Two brown and one yellow. I like to tell them that they are like a bunch of bananas, “the brown ones are bad and the yellow ones are good”. Honestly, I love all my dogs and they each have their good and bad traits. Though one thing they have in common is that they all “live the dog’s life”. Dogs really know how to live it up or chill it out. Here are my top five reasons you should take a cue from your pup on how to live your life.
1. Enjoy the Ride
Dogs don’t care where you take them, they just want to go along for the ride.
Head stuck out the window, tongue out, breathing in the fresh air and totally
absorbed in their surroundings. We all need time to relax and unwind and just
enjoy the ride. Try being present in the moment and enjoy the now. Yesterday is
over and we are not promised tomorrow. Today is all that we have so make the
most of it.
2. Unconditional Love
Your dog is always waiting at the door when you come home. They are crazy
excited to see you whether you have been gone for five days or five minutes!
That’s true love and loyalty. We humans need to take a lesson in love. It’s
sometimes difficult for us to love others. Start with loving yourself, you
can’t give away what you don’t have. With a stockpile of self-love, life and
loving others gets a whole lot easier.
3. Wide Open Energy
I told you we have three Labs right? Well if you ever had a Lab you know that
they love to chase a tennis ball, in fact, they will chase it until they nearly
collapse if you aren’t careful. Why do they do this? They’re full of energy and
life and they’re having fun! So get out and get physical but do something you
enjoy. Exercise doesn’t have to be a chore. Find a physical activity that
resonates with you and then have fun with it!
4. Forgive & Forget
Did you get home late? Forget to feed your furry friend? Maybe you just yelled
at them for tracking mud across your just-cleaned-carpets? No matter what, your
dog will forgive you. Dogs do not have the capacity to be mad at you. Dogs
don’t even need to think about forgiveness, it’s natural for them. Forgiveness
for us humans can be a little more challenging but the benefits are tremendous.
Relief of stress, freedom from the past and greater happiness and health.
Hey, I’m liking the sound of that!
5. Gratitude
Dogs, by nature, are happy creatures. They greet us after a bad day, they
console us when we are sad. They always seem to know how we are feeling. Have
you ever noticed them watching you? Just
waiting for a sign of acknowledgement? Wagging their tails when we take care of
them? One of my Labs even “smiles” at us when we get home. He wrinkles up his nose
and whiskers and literally smiles! We need this level of gratitude in our life.
Being grateful for the things that are provided for us. Gratitude is what
grounds and roots us. It is essential for a well-balanced life.
I will admit that sometimes my dogs drive me crazy but I wouldn’t give them up for the world. They brighten my day when I get home. They keep me company and they make me laugh.
And they have taught me a thing or two about life in general. I hope that I have been able to enrich their lives as much as they have enriched mine but I seriously doubt that’s possible.
