I never liked cats. They seemed untrustworthy, and I was pretty sure I was allergic to them. At least that’s what I thought until 2022 changed my mind.
Due to a small existential crisis, I left Toronto at the end of 2021 to come to the suburbs and live with my best friend, her family and their cat. To my surprise, I discovered that I’m not allergic to all cats—just to the ones who aren’t short-haired. I also learned that not all cats are evil: some are very sweet, friendly and affectionate. The cat I’m living with happens to be one of them.
Not only is this cat one of the nicest ones I’ve ever encountered, but living with her seems to be improving my mental health. That’s a good thing: Thanks to my small existential crisis, my mental health needs all the help it can get.
Living with this cat—Alice is her name—is helping me manage my depression and anxiety, not only because it’s soothing to pet her and care for her, but also because she’s setting a good example for me. I struggle with perfectionism, performance anxiety and imposter syndrome; I don’t see evidence of any of those things in my friend’s cat.
Alice seems quite content with herself. She needs a lot of attention (I can relate), but she’s pretty chill. She seems to have life all figured out. I’ve noticed two habits of hers in particular that I know I can learn a lot from—reaching for nothing and napping all day.
Reach for what you want, but not too far
When the cat isn’t getting the attention she wants, she sometimes gently paws at my clothes, snagging her claws in and lightly grazing my skin. If that isn’t working, she does this bizarre but adorable thing where she reaches her paw towards my face, gets closer and closer… and then freezes in midair.
It definitely gets my attention—I always worry she’s going to reach further and touch my face with her claws. She never does, though. She just pauses, her little paw hovering in space as if to say, “I could do it, but I’m not going to.”
Why doesn’t she keep reaching? Because she’s already reached her goal: She has my attention, and that’s all she wanted.
What I can learn from her behaviour is this: Don’t expend more effort than you need to in order to get what you want. Sometimes going three-quarters of the way is enough to achieve results you’re content with.
Save your energy, she seems to be saying. As a perfectionist, I’m taking this to heart.
Work when you have to, nap when you don’t
Alice loves to sleep. It brings me peace to watch her nap.
Naps have always felt overly indulgent to me. Isn’t there something else I should be doing in the middle of the afternoon? Alice doesn’t have anything better to do, but I’m a grown woman. I should be dusting or responding to emails or working on my small existential crisis. Still, one day I took a page from Alice’s book and indulged in a long nap.
You could say I woke up more cat-like than I was before: my muscles were relaxed and my mind was calm and clear. I felt peaceful and rejuvenated. My small existential crisis felt a little bit smaller.
Does Alice nap so much because she’s so chill, or is she so chill because she naps so much? Either way, I’ve decided that getting more sleep is rarely a waste of time.
Reach for less and nap more often
It turns out that Alice is a wise teacher, albeit an inadvertent one. Thanks to her, I’m learning to reduce the energy I waste on things that don’t matter and increase the time I take to rest. Easier said than done for us humans, but it’s a way of life that has already proven to be worth striving for.
I’ve learned two more things from her: Some cats are quite wonderful, and I’ve fallen in love with this one. It remains to be seen if these revelations result in my getting an Alice of my own someday.
«قراءة ذات صلة» CAT SPOKEN HERE: Gratitude for a purrfect life»
image 1 super-mapio من بيكساباي image 2 André Cogez من بيكساباي
