Holidays in general have no personality preference. Yes there is introverts day on January 2nd and of course there are most winter holiday parties for extroverts.
Whether you are more of an introvert or extrovert, here’s my holiday gift to you. May you find some love today whether you are in a relationship or not.
It’s from an unknown author – I tried to search for giving credit and came up short. If you know who it is, please let me know in the comments? Being a dog lover like I am, I had to share it with you:
Dog Inner Peace Wisdom on Valentines Day For The Innie And Outie In You
I first got this dog wisdom in an email from my husband and while he usually credits where things like this he shares come from, he had no idea either.
Adapted from Inner Peace – author unknown
If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without a glass of wine,
[Tweet “If you can sleep without the aid of drugs, …Then You Are Probably ..The family dog!!”]
Just how does this help you on Valentines Day? I’m getting to that, just bear with me. Otherwise a little history lesson might get lost.
This was a holiday founded in the days of the Roman Empire. It started then as the Lupercian Festival, a celebration to honor the God of Fertility and men would choose a wife. But then, if you remember the emperor Claudius, this changed when he outlawed marriages.
Just where would my hubby and I be if that law stayed in place! My goodness where would hundreds of thousands of us be?
What were the couples in love to do? They went to the Bishop Valentine who secretly married them.
That wasn’t as positive an experience for the Bishop as for the couples in love. Valentine was sent to prison. When he learned is was to be put to death, he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter.
Enter our current card tradition. Valentine started writing love letters to her and on a last note he signed it, “From your valentine.”
It was a Pope Gelasius who then outlawed the old Lupercian festival for good and found it to be an opening to honor Bishop Valentine.
You can find out more about the history and origin of this holiday at Essortment – Your Source for knowledge.
Now for the Inner Peace, that love you can give from the inside then out, from dogs innate wisdom:
“If you can start the day without caffeine.” We all might need or want a charge throughout the day, but for your own inner peace, consider another way to get it first thing in the morning. I’m only about 50% there, meaning about 3 or 4 times a week I start the pot of coffee for me and my husband.
“If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains.” Exercise, make some luxury time and consider slipping away into a warm bath in a Jacuzzi. Aches and pains melt away and the smiles start the minute you’re in it.
Here’s an idea from Morty Lefkoe: no matter what comes your way in any one day, or week, or year, think and say to yourself, “My life works.” He spells out the recipe on his blog post, “My life works”—a context for your life.“If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles.
“If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it.” Whether you’re a guy or gal, if you are the cook in the house, find your favorite top 5 to 10 dinner recipes and rotate them during a month you know your schedule is going to be hectic. I’ve found this habit is an easy to show love to myself! It’s such an energy saver.
Letting go of control is so difficult for me. What I use as my role model to keep at it is our beloved poodle Chanel, now enjoying life again on the Rainbow Bridge. She never complained once when we headed out to dinner without her, left for weeks at a time for vacation or just founds our selves to tired to play ball with her.“If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time.”
Gosh, two in a row for me to work on! Maybe this is an introvert thing? All I know is, it might have to make it eventually to a daily habit for me to let it go.“If you can take criticism and blame without resentment.”
Hooray, back on an inner peace streak here. My morning routine leaves me feeling like can conquer the day. Bring it on world!“ If you can conquer tension without medical help. ”
“If you can relax without a glass of wine,” Does it count I wonder if you just have a weekly dinner drink, or two? Probably not. I have no evidence (no hidden bottles, no morning after glasses) our dog ever drank.
If I need to spell this one out, it’s likely you might need a naturopath or medical doctor unless you have and are going through a most significant life emotional event. Understandable, to me at least.“If you can sleep without the aid of drugs.”
Likely we are not as adept with all of these inner peace and energizing ideas as our furry friends. But for the love of others, and us it’s worth checking off as many Inner Peace actions from the wisdom of a dog to start to achieve it more often.
Which of these ideas are part of your daily life?
What other inner peace ways, to go from love inside out, would you consider might fit in on Valentines Day?
Agree with you that we would benefit from looking at life the way the dog does in the quote from the unknown author. Do most of it anyway. Just have a cup of coffee in the morning. But that’s normally the only coffee I have every day.
Do remember that emperor Claudius was married to a horrneous woman called Messalina. She really personified evil and that’s probably why he though marriage was such a bad idea.
Nice picture of you and your husband.
I just love dog wisdom. We’ve had 3 dogs to learn from!
Thanks for the picture compliment Catarina!
Pat — lovely post and beautiful wedding photo. Another attribute of dogs is that they love unconditionally. No rules, no harping about what’s wrong with their relationship with their owners. Isn’t that one reason why people have dogs — they receive unconditional love. Nice if humans could do the same.
You are so right about the unconditional love from dogs Jeannette. I think one of the reasons we humans usually outlive dogs, and even cats, is because it’s one of the lessons we are here to learn! They get it, we have to learn it.
Ah yes… Lessons from our ‘fur children’. All good ones that more of us should pay attention to. I enjoy reading about the history of how modern day events and holidays came to be.
Cheryl, indeed there is wisdom in all our fur babies! I have learned to take a nap from our last little pup. hahahaha
Thank you for the lovely valentine list! I don’t like coffee and so that one is checked off. I’m not always cheerful but I don’t talk about my insignificant woes much. I could use a little help sleeping though the night; that’s the one thing I miss about being a child. No pets anymore but they surely did have those attributes. I hope your Valentine’s Day was lovely.
Dogs (and cats) give us lists for so many things in life. Indeed from the ones you live, you are one sweetheart to yourself on Valentines Day Beth!
Hi Pat, ahh we should take some inner peace lessons from our furry best friends. They seem to have it down, don’t they? Sometimes I look at my fur kid, Samuel, and think what a life! If I could just learn to relax like that. If I die I want to come back as a beloved house cat. Lol
For sure in my reincarnation Susan, if I can come back as a dog or cat and find myself in the loving care of people as good as or better than we were to ours, I’m in for it!
What a lovely Valentine! Thanks! And I love the wedding photo too:) So sweet! I’ll likely never give up coffee, but that’s a choice:) I miss my fur kids like crazy. They give so much and require so little…humans could take lesson or two from them for sure. It’s lucky for us that they can’t talk, right? LOL
Indeed if they could talk Jacqueline! Oh the stories they could tell. But then, they tell those stories often by just the look on their face and in their eyes.
Delightful, Patricia! Dogs are unconditionally loving too, a true valentine, in a manner of speaking. Thanks for this post.
For certain Ramona – dogs are a true valentine!We can never learn enough from them.
Lovely photograph!
I can relax without wine.
I can sleep without aids.
I am learning (painfully) how to take criticism.
I do not require caffeine in the morning.
Letting go – give me time on that one!
Brilliant write up!
Thanks for the photo compliment Phoenicia. I thank my husband for taking time a few years ago for scanning thousands of them! Are you part dog with all your, I cans? ;>
Hi Pat – what a lovely post – Dogs (and for thousands, cats) not only can teach us those things but have you ever noticed that when you’re horribly tired or stressed out, sitting down petting the dog actually re-energizes you? Wish I had a dog right now to be my Valentine.
Oh yeah Lenie. That stress relief they provide has been research, by HearthMath I believe. And they found that the reenergizing and stress relief goes both from dog to human and from human to dog. How cool is that?
Inner peace is being surrounded by people who truly love me. Watching them go about their day, puts a smile on my face.
My philosophy on love is simple: you do not choose love, love chooses you. Embrace it.
Lovely sentiments about what inner peace is about for you Alice.
As much as I love my dog, I had not previously thought of him as a role model. As a Valentine’s Day message I would think about how just being with the people he loves makes him completely happy and content, that is unless there are some new food smells coming from the kitchen.
Ken, when I first started as a speaker and trainer, I would use dog stories all the time! They’ve been my role models for years.
Patricia you were a beautiful bride! Thank you for sharing your wedding picture. I don’t know what I would do with my dog, Plot. I could be out of the house for five minutes or five hours, and he’ll greet me full of enthusiasm and love. Studies on dogs show just petting a dog lowers blood pressure and has a calming effect on people. Dogs are the poster animals for unconditional love.
Awe Pamela. Thanks for that compliment of the bride photo. Dogs have an amazing way to share their inner peace with us.For sure there needs to be a poster for that!
Oh I love the dog poem and copied it! Ah yes, there are days I’m quite happy for it to just be me and my little Lucy.
I must admit Valentine’s Day is a holiday I’ve always preferred to skip – even when I was married. I recall sitting in my office (when I worked in an office) watching the flowers being delivered and the women comparing who got the biggest or most expensive bouquet, and then listening to them brag about who got what and it was all so childish to me. I always told me husband that it would mean MUCH more to me if he’d surprise me out of the blue because he felt like it than be guilted into it because of a commercial holiday. Of course he never did, which is just one reason why he’s the “ex”. 🙂
Don’t have a pet dog but I appreciate this wisdom. Now, I can say I am an introvert.
Mahal I bet anyone or everyone can relate to the inner wisdom we can get from dogs! Thanks.
I love this poem! I recently gave up caffeine and am not enjoying it very much. I can’t even imagine working on all the other pieces! Love the wedding picture, by the way. 🙂
Meredith, we’re just not our precious fur babies with their innocence and peace. Still I love learning from them. Thanks for the picture compliment.
Lovely post. Brought back fond memories of our dogs. We could learn a thing or two from our furry friends.
I suppose one of our saving graces Donna is that we CAN learn.
I love the photograph of your wedding. And I agree, dogs can really lead a great example for us. My husband and I were joking on Monday about how dogs will be really insistent about getting something they want, but as soon as you take it out of their sight, they seem to forget it was ever there. In the same situation, humans will be upset for hours, days, etc.
Erica what a fabulous observation of dogs versus humans. They are truly a source of inner peace wisdom.
Patricia, I’m going to attempt to answer your question “Which of these ideas are part of your daily life?”
“If you can start the day without caffeine.” – I can but those around me won’t enjoy it.
“If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains.” – I could but those aches and pains remind me I’m alive and better off than most physically.
“If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it.” – I could but why would I?
“If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time.” – I am that loved one. Hope others understand.
“If you can take criticism and blame without resentment.” – OK, I can’t but I’m better at it in my 4th decade than in the past.
“If you can conquer tension without medical help.” – I try.
“If you can relax without a glass of wine,” – Now we are just getting silly.
“If you can sleep without the aid of drugs.” – No problem.
What other inner peace ways, to go from love inside out, would you consider might fit in on Valentines Day?
“if you can love what you have and not be resentful of what others have.”
My take on eating the same food every day and being grateful for it is likely as an introvert: it’s a huge energy saver. Well not EVERY day. But we have about 10 or 12 favorite dinner recipes and I just go through them and then again. I love your addition to inner peace wisdom Kire! Thanks!
This is such a nice poem and lovely post.
I think that all of us try to follow, few of the points mentioned in poem. IF we do not, life, will be like a burden.
Time, is best healer, when time goes on, we forget about things that give us pain at a certain moment of time.
Well, I am so much habitual of the coffee, but I try to start my day with a silent prayer from my God. Who can help me, protect me and guide me. He knows everything for the future and can give me better idea where to move. All I can do is to keep my worries and pains away from people but share with Him as He will never be bored.
Be like a burden – I doubt that feeling or thought ever crosses most dogs minds. Thanks andleeb.
Beautiful wedding photo. Nice!
You are so right about the unconditional love from dogs. I wish we humans can learn from them.
Thanks for the photo compliment. Dogs are truly one of God’s amazing creatures. I think even if they were with us longer, we just wouldn’t get all their wisdom.
Personally I feel that if we could adopt a few of the traits owned by dogs we may just be a little better off. Forgiveness, optimism, pride, and generosity spring to mind.
Tim, I think you are right: just a few traits and we will be a little better off. That’s a great way to look at it.
Delightful, Patricia! Dogs are unconditionally loving too, a true valentine, in a manner of speaking. Thanks for this post.