Learning from our pets

One of the best things about working with animals is how much they've been able to teach me. We can all learn so much just from being with, and observing our pets.

For instance, they just live in the moment. Nothing is more important than what they're doing right now. They don't fret about what's passed, nor project worry about what might happen in the future. They act on whatever feels right for now, whether it's a sleep, eating, running around in the garden, or demanding to be petted.

From that I've learnt that plans, goals and to-do lists should know their place. These are tools we create to help us in our lives, but frequently they take over, and can become almost tyrannical. We beat ourselves up if we don't do what we planned to, if we don't reach the goals we thought we desired. Plans and goals are great tools if they are used as guides, but they should be just that.

They work best if they're reviewed on a regular basis to see if they still meet our needs - if not, they can (and should) be changed. Just because we thought we should achieve something all that time ago doesn't mean that we still should. We change every day of our lives, and so does what's important to us.

People write To-Do lists as aide-memoirs, then find that they keep on adding stuff that comes to mind. They're setting themselves up for failure as the lists become "everything I can think of that I want to do, and then some..." Then get very stressed and unhappy when they've not been able to complete all their tasks - but they didn't need to in the first place. My To-Do lists are called "things I might do if and when I feel like it". They're still on the list, but I've taken all my pressure away, just by calling it something else.

Coming back to our pets, I realise we can't behave in exactly the way that they do. They don't have bills to pay or commitments to meet. They just do what they do and know they're going to be fed, loved and have somewhere safe and warm to sleep. But we can learn to "un-pressure" ourselves a little. Live in the moment, do what you can, and love what you're doing. Everything else then just seems to fall into place..........

What have you learnt from your pets?