All during your life it seems you have given your all to others — family, friends, causes you support. And that’s good. Maybe your motto— or one of ‘em anyway — is I’m Still Standing. So, what more can you do now? What can you do to reboot your life, and get reenergized?

Making some time to remember your pets, or the animals in need at an area shelter or rescue organization if you don’t have a pet, is a way to refuel your energy. Expend energy to increase it? When you switch gears and devote your time and attention to something very different from what you spend most of your time doing, it can recharge you so that you experience a fresh start and gain a new perspective on your everyday life. Giving some time in some way, whether donating some needed supplies (most animal shelters have a wish list) or your time not only helps the pets at these shelters, it also helps you.

Sharing your life with a dog keeps you grounded and in the present. And, just as one thing leads to another in caring for your dog, the path to Enlightenment involves a natural continuation of interconnected steps. One step leads to the next and the last step on the path is really the first step in the continuation of the journey. The step you take today will lead to the step you take tomorrow. These steps are not fixed like the steps in a staircase. They are nonlinear and more fluid. Concentric, but not quite.

Sharing life with a pet who has been rescued takes this a bit further. The pet’s person might be aware of the dog’s likely sad past or may know next to nothing about how the dog grew up. While the dog is focused on its present circumstances with his or her human, the dog can still be imprinted with what has happened in the past. Abuse leaves a very deep scar. A dog can be hand-shy or reactive to sudden movements made by his human until they each get to know each other. Just as Zen needs to be experienced rather than just learned, so it is with a rescue dog. Of course, learning how to properly take care of any pet is a must, and that includes the human learning from how the dog reacts to certain gestures or objects; in time, the dog will hopefully learn to not fear these gestures or objects. Experience can lead to learning but learning is more external and not integrated if it is not accompanied by experience.

Dogs can also help us with the frustrating, never-quenched hunger of wanting more.

Take a look at your dog over there, or any other dog. Does he care if you don’t have the latest version of the iPhone or if your car is older than your neighbor’s? An adopted dog with an unknown past can be happy with himself in your care. Take a cue from the dog and learn to forget about things and what you can’t change. Try to live more in the present. One way to do this is to be more involved with the dog, not just with his or her basic care.

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