4 important life lessons that I learned with my…cats!
What can we learn by observing the behavior of those curious little ones?
As a 14 cat owner, I kind of acquire some sort of knowledge when comes to cat issues. Okay, I’m not a vet nor a zootechnician, so everything I’m writing is purely related to my personal observation for the past 10 years. Surely after so much time watching and analyzing behavior patterns of 14 different cats (and 5 more that had already passed out :/), I feel quite like a pro.
Every cat owner knows this specific fact: each animal has its own, original, and unique personality, just like humans. I’m not saying that dogs or whatever animal we can mention don’t have their own personal differences. I’m just making a totally unbiased statement about those little cutie furballs, that bring joy to thousands of people around the world.
However, we tend to look at these creatures purely in a degree human-animal. But what if we could shift our sight for something more egalitarian? In case you have forgotten, cats also think (not like us, surely), feel, communicate and develop many other aspects that are deeply relatable to us. This way, I compilated the 4 most important life lessons given to us by our beloved ones.
Without further ado, here’s what I’ve learned in ten long years observing the cognitive behavior of house or street cats:
1. Be yourself, always and forever
Okay, that’s actually obvious, right? It’s public knowledge that cats have unique personalities, and it’s because of this specific fact that we’re so crazily driven by our little furballs.
Agreed, but have you ever thought about how this authentic characteristic can be a life lesson for ourselves? Well, I have.
As I said before, I take care of 14 cats, which constitutes 14 different and unique personalities. Here lives with me a cat who’s extremely antisocial and pees whenever he wants. Another one loves doors and meows to every single door of my apartment. I even have a giant 6-kilogram furball that loves belly rubs (yes, it’s a miracle for the psychology of cats!). They all have left a mark on me and there are conceptions that make me remember each one.
It’s a curious aspect, because cats, unlike dogs, who tend to be submissive to their owners, don’t really care whether their temper is going to be a burden or not. So, that leaves us to our first lesson: which print will we leave in the world?
In the human world, it is normal to behave according to the status quo. You probably can remember countless times when you stopped doing something you love because they told you it wasn’t normal, or wouldn’t bring enough money. If we had a catly brain, this would be entirely different. Our world would probably be constituted mainly of artists and our offices would be a lot more bizarre or authentic.
So, whatever the occasion is, whether your family is going to approve or not, think like a cat! Maybe this will bring more mindfulness to your life.
2. Communication is everything!
You may disagree, but cats are extremely communicative living beings. Reflect about it: If they feel hungry, they will communicate, when needing some caretaking, you can hear them “meowing” and laying lazily on the floor. Or, even, when finding hostile the presence of another cat in the house, they will pee in places or constantly fight with this other alpha animal.
This shows how much they respect and cherish communication skills. We can even recognize patterns of personality and information signs in our own furballs. For example, I have a cat that whenever is in need of some tenderness, will sit behind my notebook and wait patiently until I open my arms so he can stretch into the giant human hug.
Sometimes, in our daily personal life or during the work routine, we’re ashamed to communicate ourselves with coworkers or familiars, especially when it comes to vulnerability. I’m not saying it’s an easy task: to open up our hearts to other individuals is a tough process and demands trust (we will talk about it on the next topic).
Nevertheless, if we could take the first step through mutual trust, our colleagues would recognize our behaviors easily. A person who has difficulty with a specific issue wouldn’t be afraid to ask for help, and the ones who acquire the knowledge of the weak points of their colleagues would know when to offer help.
I know, human emotions are complex and cannot be reduced to cat issues, but if we could just be sincere with one another, always, I bet the world would achieve a better stage for humankind.
3. Create a strategy for mutual trust
To be vulnerable doesn’t mean be a fool. And that’s another life lesson observed with our little furballs. Especially street cats, they tend to acquire broader trust issues, but can easily learn how to love and be loved by human beings.
They undergo stages of mutual trust. First, we start feeding them and we can watch by far when they catch the food we give. Second, they start approaching when we arrive with the food, after approximately one month or more. Third, they sniff our feet and let us touch their heads. Fourth, they will let us catch them in our arms. And so goes on…
But this demands time and loyalty. Yes, cats are can be loyal, but it doesn’t mean submissive. It implies that we can — following the example provided by our little ones — also create stages for gaining mutual trust. We can start by starting an informal conversation with a fellow colleague, or telling them some random fact about yourself. Who knows, this could be the beginning of a beautiful partnership.
It’s actually fantastic how cats can actually be that smart and develop such a complex memory of past events. This goes way beyond my field of work, but definitely, it’s a conversation I would love to have in some pub (with a couple of beers, preferably) with a psychologist specialist.
4. The world is a huge jungle
We live in a vast, wide world, that needs to be explored no matter what. If we narrow this cognitive perception to a cat’s mind, they probably identify your home as a vast jungle that needs to be cleared.
Cats are exceptionally curious (they probably just break the glasses of your home for pure experimentation) and have the eager willingness of experimenting everything. They would be formidable scientists, entrepreneurs, or artists.
Most professions we know in this XXI century demand an acute sense of curiosity and experimentation. If we could take this lesson from a cat, it would probably tell us to risk everything just to see what the result could be.
Surely we’re not going to risk our lives (or yes, it depends on your intentions, who knows), but we must decline this eminent fear of failure. Trials can go wrong and it’s the natural way of living on this planet. But what we can’t do is judge ourselves, or other human beings, for just trying to discover something new and interesting that can be applied to enhance our human environment.
And don’t be afraid of judgment. Think like a cat: experimenting is fun, and how far can we go while pursuing our passions?
Be a cat, my friend
Cats are curious and sometimes bizarre but can teach us so much. While behaving more like one, we have the possibility of living more authentically, peacefully, curiously, and communicatively.
In popular culture, cats have always been portraited as villains, but who says rebels and unique personalities are the definitions of evilness? Contrariwise, they just showed us how plural the emotions can be, and how necessarily there’s not one noble specific personality that defines the bilateralism good or bad, but we all can achieve goodness in the world, despite our inners thoughts.
I hope that this article was useful for anyone who’s needing some changes in life, taken from the example of the biggest specialists in authenticity we can find on the whole planet!
Above all, be like a cat, think like a cat, and feel like a cat, this will take you to great places!
