A<\/span>s we approach our later years, we often face new challenges as we become empty nesters, retire or don\u2019t\u2019 know what the new purpose in our lives could be. But this opens a wide space for new opportunities that we couldn\u2019t consider before. What can we do to bring more spice into our lives and to color our golden years?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at our best friends, our dogs!<\/p>\n As we grow older we might feel unloved because of divorce, grown-up children with their own lives, loss of the responsibilities and appreciation from our jobs. But the ones who are always there for us are our dogs.<\/p>\n They love us unconditionally and unreservedly and enclose us in their big hearts. Dogs don\u2019t do this consciously, but from them, we can learn to love ourselves and therefore others. Forget the make-up, 20 pounds too much on our tummy and grey hairs. Let\u2019s love our unique inner beauty and with that comes the appreciation of our outer beauty, too. This opens a whole new avenue to love others from the bottom of our hearts.<\/p>\n Lots of people who get older and retire feel that they are not worth anything anymore. Our self-esteem has hit rock bottom; we feel useless.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s compare this with dogs that you adopt from shelters. Often, they had lived a difficult life and are shy when you adopt them. Now they have to live up to the challenge to carve out a new life for themselves in the new family.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just so amazing to see how the self-esteem of a dog changes from a shy dog to a dog who settles down well and displays his self-esteem and self-worth. We can do the same. From our downs, we can reach great heights again by understanding that we have more worth than ever. Let our self-esteem grow with our years and know that we are the best that we can become!<\/p>\n Often, we doubt ourselves and our abilities, especially in demanding situations. Dogs can serve as outstanding examples of trusting in themselves. Moreover, dogs have more trust in us than we have in ourselves. Trusting ourselves makes us better and stronger. What\u2019s wrong with trusting ourselves? Previous failure doesn\u2019t mean you will fail again \u2013 it might have just been an obstacle that you had to learn from. Let\u2019s trust ourselves and our experiences and put them to use in our lives and those of others.<\/p>\n The beauty of getting older is that our wisdom increases. We might not look at it that way, but this is how it is in nature. Old dogs have a wisdom that is unparalleled. They teach the little pups or younger dogs what to do. They display their wisdom on a daily basis and serve as role models for the younger dogs. Dogs can teach us that the older we get, the more valuable we become for ourselves and others. Let\u2019s use this wisdom and find new ways of sharing it either in our families or in our communities.<\/p>\n Often in our daily lives, we are excited at the start of something new, but this excitement quickly fades into the same boring routine, day in, day out. Our enthusiasm is gone, and what\u2019s left is a shell that does things because they must be done. So, what can we do?<\/p>\n There is one great solution – our dogs. They show us what real enthusiasm is and how to preserve it. Dogs\u2019 pure joy in doing things is unprecedented and they should be our role models to bring back and infuse joy into everything we do. Our lives will be so much better if we live with continuous enthusiasm instead of falling into the same boring, frustrating patterns.<\/p>\n During our lives, we so often have to adhere to social norms or constraints by work or family that our feelings have to be concealed. Dogs have no pretenses, vanity, ulterior motives, or defensiveness. They don\u2019t fear being judged as people often do. Dogs simply show their feelings and moods in an open, transparent way. Every day, they show their joy, fear, pain, hunger, playfulness \u2026 or just the need for a walk. So why we don\u2019t start to live like our dogs by embracing our feelings and enjoying what we really feel. Let\u2019s dance, jump and sing with happiness as this lights up our lives and brings us immeasurable joy.<\/p>\n Sometimes we might find ourselves in a situation where we think everything is over and there is nothing left to do. We have lost our courage to start something new. What about our dogs?<\/p>\n People say that an old dog is never too old to learn a new trick. And that\u2019s so true! We can encourage them to achieve a task by setting manageable goals and praising their success. And most importantly, understanding when they fail and helping them regain their confidence, so they try again without losing their dignity. This is what it is all about\u2014understanding what a tremendous difference encouragement can make. So, if our dogs can do that, why can\u2019t we?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s give the same kind of encouragement and kindness to ourselves. Every time we fall, we get closer to achieving our goals and therefore our courage increases because we are preparing for what we want to do. Let\u2019s have the courage to do whatever we want and to realize our dreams. The best time to live our best life is now!<\/p>\n The Roman philosopher and statesman Seneca offers a clear conclusion when it comes to one of\nour biggest mistakes in life: Don\u2019t live in the past; don\u2019t live in the future; live now, in the present. So many of us focus on what we want to achieve or what we did in the past that we forget to live in the now\u2014 until it is too late.<\/p>\n Dogs don\u2019t make that mistake. They are the champions of living in the present. They care only about what is happening now. They don\u2019t plan for tomorrow or think about what they did yesterday. Our dogs are a daily reminder to live in the present because they take life as it comes. So, let\u2019s start to live authentically in the present.<\/p>\n Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. However, in our modern world, empathy is decreasing, and our personal lives are getting colder and colder. Let\u2019s go back and look at things from a dog\u2019s point of view in order to understand, respect, and to learn from the patterns in dog packs. Instead of taking, these dog leaders give back and help nurture their families or dog packs. So can we! Let\u2019s feel the warmth in our relationships and bring empathy back to our families and communities.<\/p>\n Nowadays so many people are out of balance. When was the last time you listened to your gut feeling? Can\u2019t remember? Too much stressed out to even hear it?<\/p>\n Then, it\u2019s time to make a change. Dogs do this naturally and never doubt themselves. Let\u2019s go back to our origins. Let\u2019s learn to once again trust our senses, our inner feelings, and our wisdom and follow our destined path; our bodies will not mislead us.<\/p>\n We all know the famous song \u201cWhat a Wonderful World\u201d by Louis Armstrong. Dogs can serve as fabulous role models for us to create and live our own wonderful world. If we learn from dogs, our lives will be much more enriched and satisfying with new meaning and purpose. And don\u2019t forget, it\u2019s never too late to learn something new to improve our lives! Let\u2019s embrace how our dogs can teach us to create profound and long-lasting joy and happiness!<\/p>\n 10 lessons we can learn from dogs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[134,135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2021","category-winter-2021-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10762"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11123,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10762\/revisions\/11123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. Let\u2019s give ourselves the love we deserve<\/h3>\n
2. Let\u2019s feel that we are more worth than ever<\/h3>\n
2. Let\u2019s trust ourselves<\/h3>\n
3. Let\u2019s share our wisdom<\/h3>\n
4. Let\u2019s infuse our life with enthusiasm<\/h3>\n
5. Let\u2019s live our feelings<\/h3>\n
6. Let\u2019s find our courage again<\/h3>\n
7. Let\u2019s live in the here and now<\/h3>\n
8. Let\u2019s get empathy back into our life<\/h3>\n
9. Let\u2019s embrace our gut feeling<\/h3>\n
Dr. Margit Gabriele Muller is the author of Your Pet, Your Pill: 101 Inspirational Stories About How Pets Lead You to A Happy, Healthy, and Successful Life.<\/em><\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"