Puppy Lessons
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Let's get started with today's session. Well, hello there friend. I hope this episode finds you in a curious mood because, you know, I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about this week, and I just decided, like, I wanna talk a little bit about what I'm going through in my own life as it relates to all of us and the tiny little lessons. That exist for us in everyday life. In everyday chaos and conflict and drama.
Right? At work, at home all by ourselves. There are these micro lessons. Just waiting for us to discover them. And in order to see what's there for us, we have to have the right mindset.
So I thought it might be fun to talk with you about what I have going on and how I'm using my challenging and joyous experience of getting a new puppy to do a little bit of personal growth work, to really continue to develop my own insight about myself and to be conscientious about how I'm living my life and how it feels to me. Yeah. Because I think that's really important. And for me, And what I would love to pass along to you is that that's important. It's important to sort of like Be aware of yourself and be okay with how you are, but be willing to, like, just stretch a little here and there.
To look at life as an opportunity to learn and to grow rather than like this miserable experience of suffering. Because frankly, we could do both. Right? So let me tell you a little something about my life. And hopefully, I could pass on a few lessons that I've learned lately as I have gotten used to having a brand new puppy.
I went and picked up this darling little puppy at twelve weeks old. She's a black lab. Her name is Lucy. And it's kind of funny how the whole thing went down because I actually decided to go and get this girl a few weeks earlier than I was planning on getting a dog from the same breeder because she I don't know, man. It's like sometimes things come into your life and it's just like, yes, I'm doing that.
It makes no sense I don't think it's necessarily the right time or a good idea, but I'm gonna do it anyway. And that's what happens. The breeder called and said, you know, this little girl, she was all set to go home and they couldn't come and get her. And it's time, and I just wanted to check-in and see if you have any interest in this black lab puppy. And I'm like, yes, I do.
Even though I have I have like a week away coming up, which is super inconvenient when you have a puppy. And we went to a music festival last weekend. I had to get a puppy sitter, this extreme situation. You know, it's funny though, because I don't know if you guys know this about me, but I can be a little uptight. And I gotta say, having a puppy, put you in the seat of like, you gotta let some stuff go, girl.
And so that's some of the things that I've been working on. As I get used to integrating my life around this darling, very soft little being, You know, the other thing is like a new puppy brings in what any new situation brings in. What life brings in, all the emotions. And to be honest, just like in every situation in life, Sometimes, I don't wanna have these emotions. It's everything from just this joyous child like abandon to the most blood boiling frustration ever.
And everything in between. And so there's that, right, which is so interesting and just another great lesson about how even the coolest, most fun situations can bring about very difficult emotion. I remember that in the early days of having kids too. Or of like having a new job. Like, this is so awesome and also, like, really difficult.
In all these different ways. So, one of the things that I think has been really important in the past few weeks for me is just to kind of allow myself to feel all the different things and, like, just meet up with myself right there. It'd like not be hard on myself. Like, you shouldn't do this or you should feel this way. You should do it this way.
Like, I haven't been critical at all. Or condescending to myself, which is so easy to do. Right? When our emotions don't match up with our expectations, we tend to really get down on ourselves right there. So what are my three well, I don't wanna give you, like, three takeaways, puppy lessons.
These are, like, the tiny little lessons. That a situation, any situation can present for us, that we could instead of dreading we could, like, look for these lessons in her life. Okay. So one of the things that I really want is to not think I know everything. It's hard, isn't it?
Because it's so much like you have confidence when you think you know everything. And so learning is really difficult. I think for every single one of us, and it it brings out this part mess that's like I don't know I don't know what I'm doing and there's nothing that brings out that part anymore than a being that is not in my control or that I don't. Not to not in my control, but maybe that I don't really understand why it's doing what it's doing. And this has been true with the puppy.
And so my puppy lesson number one is more information is always helpful. Oh my goodness. I have to give a shout out to a guy named doggy Dan. He's like the online dog trainer guy. Do you know this guy?
He is awesome. Love YouTube. I joined his little online program, and I've learned all this stuff. That I never knew about dogs. And so the lesson for me here was like, You gotta put your time in, learning about what it is you want to know about, what it is you wanna do.
Right? Whether it's like, I want my life to be more like this, or I don't want to feel like this. We think we know everything Or it's like we know we don't know everything, but we're not that willing to learn. That's really frustrating. Because it always leads people down this pathway that feels like, well, you can't do what you wanna do because you're not willing to learn about it.
But you don't really know you're not willing to learn about it. And I think that's what happens for all of us. It's like, you know, I used to be incredibly anxious. And I was just, like, sitting around going, like, I'm so anxious. Like, I don't know what to do.
I don't even know what to do about this. And then it was like, well, I could learn some stuff about it. And so then I did. I started to get really really, like, knowledgeable about it. And that made it easier to solve the problem.
So I don't really have anxiety anymore. So when we become open and curious and, like, willing to learn, it's so much more helpful. So in terms of like the tiny lessons here, oh my gosh. Thank you, doggy Dan, wherever you are. You're amazing.
I think you might be in England. I'm not sure. But I'm sad you cut your hair. Anyway, he used to have this big, bushy head of hair. Now, he's adorable.
He's a great dog trainer, and I've learned a lot. And information yeah. Friend, remember. Information is always helpful. It raises our awareness, you know.
The more information we have, the more aware we are of what's going on. And also, frankly, last point, it grows our brain. To learn more things, is really good for your mind. It's incredibly expansive, you know. And I'll just pontificate one more thing is like, in terms of mental health, when people stop learning, they stop growing.
That's why I started takeout therapy club because like you, many people that listen to this podcast, they just wanna learn a whole bunch of stuff. So that they can be their best selves. So that they can learn how to be their best selves. That's why I set up the club. So I'm like, I love information, but it's funny.
Because even though I'm a teacher and an educator and I'm like, do an information forward therapy method, I still think I know everything. So I was glad that I was kind of opened up a little bit when I got the puppy and was like, oh, boy. I'm out over my ski's man. I'm not gonna be able to do this without more information. So that's an awesome micro puppy lesson.
Okay. So the second thing that I've learned that has I always come back to this lesson and that that is something that I want you to understand. You're gonna learn things and then like you're gonna forget about them for like five years. And then you're gonna be like, oh, shit. Like, I learned that and that was really helping me with my mindset or my perspective or my whatever, I need to bring that back in.
So we always are really hard on ourselves and we're like, well, Why didn't you do that? This is what it is to be a human. Just return to it. And this is a skill that I used to really cultivate. And I kind of have not been paying attention to, and it's so funny because the little puppy smells so good.
Right? And comes in with all this joy and all this Just silliness. Just silliness tripping over everything, falling down. She's a snuggler, and she's gonna be a giant dog. Don't tell my person.
I kind of had him convinced he was gonna be on the smaller side, but it's not looking so good. We'll just we'll just see what happened. But you know, it's like all this different energy comes into the house. And my puppy lesson here is like your energy matters. And it's one of the things that I've learned in the training process too is that When we give a lot of energy to things in terms of a dog, right?
So it's like She loves to jump up on the couch. I don't know. They must a letter on the couch when she was a puppy puppy. And I would have too because she was so stinking cute and still is. But we don't want her on her couch.
So she jumps up there all the time, and it's like, the micro lesson for me is like it matters in that moment what you do. So what we've learned is like you just don't give any attention to it really. Just stay in a very calm and neutral place and just correct her without even really paying attention. So just like push her down or put her down. And it's interesting.
The other thing is like, there's a thing about dogs, right? They share most of their DNA is the same as wolves, and we know a lot about wolves. We've studied And a calm approach in a wolf pack lets the wolves know who's in charge. Right? Because the leader isn't flipping out.
The leader is like in charge. And so when you have a dog in the house, what I've learned is like someone has to be in charge. And your energy matters. Because if you're calm and kind of you just like busy with your life and paying attention to the members of your pack when you need something from them. Right?
Because jobs dogs love to have job in so do humans. It's really, really helpful. And then the the way that I've kind of brought that into my life is to remember that Yes, when dealing with the puppy, it's really important to have good energy. Right? Because any response is a response basically and any risk sponses a yes.
And don't you feel like that with some people too? That, like, when we respond all big and we have so much like anger or frustration or you know, control or whatever with people, then their response is a little bit more difficult as well But when we can sort of go, like, do I wanna give a ton of energy to this? Moment in my life, to this person, to their patterns, to their, you know, projections, to their whatever. Or do I wanna, like, spend time thinking about this and what it does to me And then we can, like, decide. Like, no.
I don't wanna do that. Right? Because your energy is finite. You do not have infinite energy. My friend, I wish I wish I wish for both of us, but we don't.
We only have so much emotional energy in any given day. And so what my puppy lesson is is like It matters. It matters how we all spend it. And we could all kick back a little and have, like, more neutral energy. You know, I got so irritated with somebody last week And I'm over here in my corner just stewing about something ridiculous.
I actually this is a dumb I this is funny. I actually brought it up with one of my boys who is like, my boys are twenty one in nineteen. And I got halfway through why I was irritated. It wasn't about him at all. And he was like, I can't even listen to this right now, mom.
That's ridiculous. That's how bad it was. And so I was like, oh, okay. So the puppy lesson there is like, Where are you putting your energy friend? And is it worthwhile?
Maybe it's good to check Kayla Sevity who's very direct and frank and can help you decide whether it's a good use of yourself. You know? So that's my puppy left my my micro puppy lesson in everyday life. Right? We can learn some of these things like was that worth it for me to spend my evening thinking about whether that interaction went like I hoped it would or not.
The answer might be no. Okay. So my one more lesson and then I'm done. And I think what I'm really looking at right now. Today in this life with this puppy is like three words, patience, time and a decent plan are gonna continue to serve me.
And my new best friend. Patience is necessary. Learning for all of us, puppies and people, puppies and full grown adults. Learning takes time. And if we're not patient, we won't learn.
Because if we're not patient, then we tell ourselves I was like, oh, it's not worth my time. I don't have time for this. I can't learn this stuff. And yeah. We can.
We all can. And having a decent plan, frankly, is just helpful. I gotta say. So I hope that helps you to think about your own life and what you're tiny little lessons that show up for you in life are. Oh, and I'll leave you with this super funny thing, which is another thing that I learned on my puppy training adventure, which is the philosophy of peas.
P's, p e e s. It means potty. First, we potty. Then we eat, then a little exercise, and awfully go to sleep. And wouldn't that be a great model for not only caring for a puppy day after day.
We just cycle through this again and again and then again. Wouldn't it be great if we could do this as humans? A little potty, a little snacky snack? A little exercise, and off we go to sleep. Now, this is a good life friend.
Look around you. There are wonderful things all around you, ready for you to explore. Just be willing to learn your puppy lessons. Okay? Okay.
Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time. Thanks so much for listening. The goal of this project is to provide simple mental health education to everyone who needs it. So if you want to help me help people, forward an episode to end or even better, write a kind review.
Thank you so much. And if you like my style and you're ready to dig in a bit, Come join the club at takeout therapy dot com. I'm now hosting a monthly workshop and exclusive off social media community and providing personal growth action plans for those who are ready to push a bit. I also do one on one mental health action plan coaching and I actually have some wiggle room on my schedule. So check out the free and paid resources at takeouttherapy dot com.
Let's keep working together towards change. Because it matters. And so do you friend?
