Live like a wild Animal

“You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here”- Alan Watts

As a society, humans have separated themselves from the animal world, building houses and fences to keep wildlife away. We have developed a culture that predominantly views humans as “superior” to animals and we associate their wild qualities and instincts with being “uncivilized.”

Human beings may be considered the more evolved species on Earth but there is no denying that the animals who cannot talk are also quite intelligent. From the tiniest bug on the sidewalk to the mighty lion roaming the African savannah, animals of all kinds can teach us valuable life lessons. If we really pay attention, animals can teach us many important lessons that we may have forgotten in the haste of our normal daily lives.

You cannot know what it is like to be a bat by screwing your eyes tight, imagining membranous wings, finding your way through darkness by talking to it in tones that reply to you with the shape of the world. As the philosopher Thomas Nagel explained, the only way to know what it is like to be a bat is to be a bat. But the imagining? The attempt? That is a good and important thing. It forces you to think about what you don’t know about the creature: what it eats, where it lives, how it communicates with others. The effort generates questions not just about how being a bat is different but about how different the world might be for a bat. For what an animal needs or values in a place is not always what we need, value or even notice.

Below are ten lessons to be learnt from the animal world: -

1. How to Live in the Now

If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present. – Lao Tzu

While animals may be able to anticipate their future needs, they do not worry about the future as fervently as humans do. People waste so much time obsessed with following “what will happen next” that we completely forget to enjoy the now. The human condition forces us to constantly seek out the next goal once we have achieved one and sees us mull over past mistakes, as if there is actually something we can do about it now. It’s about time we all learnt to slow down and live in the present. If you ever take a look at any animal, especially baby animals, the only thing on their mind is their current lunch or examining that particularly exciting rock. At the end of the day, what happened yesterday has already happened, and what will happen tomorrow hasn’t happened yet. Worrying about either won’t get us anywhere, now will it?

2. Humans Aren’t as Different as We Thought

Dolphins call each other by name, elephants comfort upset friends, primates use tools and endless other examples prove that humans are not as different than we might think. We like to believe that our intelligence and ability to feel and understand emotions is unparalleled, but more and more we are finding this isn’t the case. If there’s ever been a time to reevaluate our relationship with animals, it’s now.

3. Follow your own path in life.

Horses tend to live pretty independently, and often stray from the pack when they get an itch to explore on their own. While they have a majestic, fanciful appearance, they also have a fierce, stubborn side that takes them into uncharted territory and allows them to pave their own path.

Be like the horse and run freely into the wind without thinking of what the consequences might be – just let your heart take the wheel and drive you where you need to go.

4. Trust your instincts

Some people call it listening to your gut, others refer to it as that little voice in your head. Either way, there is definitely something that alerts us about the best course of action to take in almost any situation. The real question is - how often do we pay attention to important signals about events, circumstances and the people around us? Animals rely solely on their instincts, trusting their senses and reacting to their environment accordingly.

5. Patience

Humans value time about as much as we value money, but rarely stop to think that both of these things only exist because we agree they do. The natural world does not run on your strict schedule, but according the natural rhythms and cues of the planet.

6. Reach your goals and persevere

Whether you have a big exam coming up or you are looking to make the leap and switch careers, goals can seem lofty and hard to attain. Chin up! Salmon swim thousands of miles upstream just to make it back to their birthplace so that they can properly spawn their next generation – enduring extreme physical odds.

7. Live Sustain-ably

The planet is full of natural resources and it is up to us to make sure that we are conscious of our carbon footprint - keeping track of how much we purchase and throw away. We can take a cue from octopus who are some of the thriftiest invertebrates out there building shelters out of discarded debris – modern day re purposing if you will.

8. Compassion

Whether witnessed in the form of inter species friendships or foster parenting, compassion knows no bounds with animals. The relationships we foster with our companion animals also teaches us how to be compassionate as it forces to look beyond our needs and imagine those of another who is vastly different from ourselves. Compassion is all based in being able to understand the feeling of another. Seeing a cow care for her new born calf, suddenly we can understand their relationship and respect it.

9. Respect your elders

Wisdom and knowledge is often times passed down from older people to the younger generation. Those with more years on the planet have amassed a wealth of information, experience and acumen that is worth making the time to listen to and learn from. Elephants know this to be true and their matriarchs remain the leaders of African elephant tribes till they pass away.

10. Listen more, talk less.

Dolphins actually communicate with one another via high-pitched whistling noises, and each one makes a distinctive sound that other dolphins can immediately recognize. They have very advanced communication techniques that rival our own, in some ways, and must listen in order to understand each other’s location in the vast ocean. If they all whistled at once, none of them would be able to find one another – they have honed their listening skills in order to function best as a group.

Humans can especially learn from dolphins that listening to another person, rather than always needing to talk, can actually benefit relationships much more in the long run.

The enhanced faculties of the mind have brought man to a raised ground from which it looks down upon rest of the living forms residing on the planet earth. Man’s desire to gain power and control has also made him somewhat in disharmony with nature. Animals on the other hand are more in tune with nature; they mould themselves according to the changes in the environment. This adaptive personality of animals has made them stronger, and more insightful of their surroundings and natural phenomena. There are qualities in wild animals which can teach us life altering lessons. You would think, what these uncivilized beasts can teach us about life. But the way they conduct their lives reflects certain principles that they adhere to. Those principles can be adopted by you in order to improve the quality of your life.

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”-Abraham Lincoln.

Author: Anjinsen

09.03.18