50 Lil' Habits: Walk the Dog
Life is better when I walk my dog … for the most part.
Our "go big or go home" culture has left many people feeling overwhelmed, stuck, and gloomy, when all it takes is a lil’ action to turn things around.
Want to try out a new daily habit? I've got a few suggestions.
Here's one:
Take a stroll outside and bring a four-legged smoochy bear with you. Don’t have one? Borrow your neighbor’s!
Life is better when I walk my dog. It lights up my values. I get to be outside, moving my body, bonding with my fuzzy companion. I’m usually listening to something uplifting and I’m not in a hurry. It’s quintessential Me Time.
Life is definitely better when I walk my dog. As a matter of fact, the big bang of Lil’ Habit was many years ago in Hollywood when I took my dog Brodie for his morning walks on the Runyon Canyon trail, a nearly 3-mile off-leash loop. I had just read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and I used the hike to practice being present, and I did it every single morning because it made everything better. That’s the foundation of Lil’ Habit as a way to heal, something that brings you back to YOU every day.
Life is better when I walk my dog … for the most part. Truth told, it took some work for my dog Milo (pictured above) to be good on a leash. He’s strong and he pulls, and I learned the hard way that all it takes is a surprise misstep to sprain my ankle, both my ankles, twice. OUCH.
Life is better when I walk my dog, so Milo and I went to doggy bootcamp to learn how to walk a reactive pup. He’s great on a leash now, unless he’s not walked consistently, then he reverts to pulling because he’s forgotten what all the smelly things smell like and he’s got to sniff everything right now.
When the weather is unwelcoming or my Resistance has its reasons, I make the walk lil’ by taking Milo to the end of the driveway. And guess what, even that makes our life better.
If this LIL’ HABIT resonates with you, make it stick by talking about it with a friend.