Inspirational Life Lessons I’ve Learned From My Dog

In this post, I will share with you some of the best lessons and life skills that I have learned in this life from my pet dog, Simba. Simply watching him in this existence has been inspirational for me to live my best, happiest life. I hope it inspires you to work towards making a better life for yourself too. It's a daily effort.

This is an updated post from my old blog site. I originally wrote this post in 2018, and as I update it, we are in 2021. Simba is 5 years old now and the biggest source of my happiness every single day. ♡

There’s a lot that we, as human beings, can learn from animals. I feel like they can teach us a lot about life and our existence. Sometimes I just watch my pet dog Simba, and notice his behavior. I wonder about what he would think, how he would react in certain situations, and also about the motives behind his actions.

Upon observing him for over 5 years now, these are a few life lessons that I have learnt from Simba, and I am trying to remind myself of them every day.

You are a Free Spirit:

Free Spirit – Someone who does what they want with enjoyment and pleasure, and does not feel limited by rules.

Simba lives without a care in the world. He does whatever he feels like doing in the moment. He doesn’t care if it’s right or not. He doesn’t care if he will be punished when we find out what he has done. He just knows that he has an opportunity to TRY to do what he wants. Consequences aren’t even considered for a second.

Now, I’m not saying we live like this in every area of our lives; I mean, don’t run out of the house, and onto the road just for the heck of it (I wish Simba could read this part). 🙄

I just mean in normal instances where we struggle to make a decision, this realization could really help us live happier and easier lives.

There is nothing more liberating than the realization that you can live freely. We don’t always have to think so much. Just do some things simply because they’re fun. Some rules don’t have serious consequences, we’re just made to believe that not conforming to them would be wrong. Those are the rules to break.

Just live. We don’t have much time.

Let Your Loved Ones Know You Love Them a Billion Times a Day...or more:

I could walk out of the house for 5 minutes, and when I return, Simba acts as if he thought he was never going to see me again. There’s jumping, licking, barking, whining and a tail wagging at 100 km/hr.

I could take a nap and when I wake up, there’s more jumping, licking, and a wagging tail.

Heck, even when I come out of the bathroom, he celebrates.

He will literally show you love every time he sees you. Even if he sees you every second of every day, all his life.

Wouldn’t it be nice for all us humans to also let people know we love them every chance we get? Why not? Love never gets old! Show your loved ones how happy they make you, how much you missed them when they weren’t around, and how much you will always be there for them. Who knows how long we have with them? You see, dogs don’t live very long. They don’t waste any time holding grudges.

Get Excited For The Little Things:

Do you ever get so excited about going on a walk right outside your house that you howl and cry? Every time? No? How weird. Simba does. A daily walk is the best gift we can give him. Hands down, nothing could beat it.

You know what else makes him jump and cry with joy? Food. Three times a day. Since birth. Five years down, and still the same level of excitement every time.

A new toy, a tiny treat, literally just walking with me from one room to the next, an empty water bottle, running in the same little garden every day, the high-pitched tone of your voice, a random stray sock – ANY THING. Anything will make him happy. He will get excited for every little thing.

I would LOVE to feel genuine joy at the crunching sound of plastic! What a life! I mean sadness just couldn’t last if everything has the power to make you happy.

Pain Will Fade. Distract Yourself and Keep Going - It Will Fade Even QUICKER:

Animals get hurt too - physically and emotionally. Us leaving our pets everyday upsets them. Sometimes when running around and causing mischief (being their free-spirited selves), they also hurt themselves. But they don’t dwell on pain. They use their never-ending curiosity (about everything that has ever come into existence) to move on, by getting distracted and shifting their focus away from their pain until it fades.

I’m trying my best to apply this to my life. Everyday, I watch Simba hit his head every time he gets out from under my bed, to run to the window when he hears someone outside. It sounds like it hurts bad. But he literally could not care less. He’s too busy guarding the house from little children on bicycles. 🤷🏻‍♀️

When he was injured by a groomer once, he had to wear a cone on his head while the wound on his back healed, and he was in constant pain. But you know what? His daily food routine was still exciting enough to forget about the pain and enjoy his meals with a wagging tail.

That entire week, it looked like I was more affected by his pain than he was.

His spirit made that painful week pass so quickly for himself. It really is a quality we could all use in our lives.

Life is short. Just enjoy whatever you can – there’s no time for anything else:

A lot of times we think we NEED to have some sort of important purpose in life. We spend a huge chunk of our lives overthinking why we are here and what we need to do. What if our ‘purpose’ is to just be happy? To live for ourselves while inspiring others to do the same for themselves?

Animals don’t spend their life thinking “Who am I?”, “What am I here for?”, etc. They live. We too can live for ourselves, for our loved ones, and help out anyone we feel like helping along the way. It doesn’t have to be so serious. You’re just here. Just be. Whatever/however you want to be.

We could all remind ourselves of this when we feel overwhelmed.

I hope this post has brought you some positive thoughts and made you feel a little better about whatever you're struggling with. We all have our own battles, but we can't let them overpower us.

Hey, it's just life. No one's getting out alive anyway. We're just here for experiences. It's all gonna be okay.

Hugs,

Jiya.

♡