Animals Teach Us 14 Things About Love That Most Humans Literally Never Figure Out
From loyalty to playfulness, animals model the kind of love humans spend lifetimes trying to master.
Jake Fagan | Unsplash Animals don't read relationship advice or attend therapy sessions, but they understand things about love that many of us spend a lifetime struggling to grasp. They live with an emotional honesty and presence that we tend to complicate with fear, ego, and expectation.
Animals can teach us some of the most valuable life and love lessons that can have a great impact on our relationships. From the lifelong loyalty of elephants to the rescuing efforts of dolphins, who have been known to save people from sharks, animal love lessons are abundant.
Animals teach us 14 things about love that most humans literally never figure out:
1. Don't judge yourself and others
Animals can teach you not to judge each other or be preoccupied with disabilities. Instead, focus on your abilities. You don’t see a three-legged dog or a cat with one eye feeling sorry for itself.
In our human relationships, we could learn so much from this acceptance. We spend enormous energy judging ourselves for not being enough. We look at others and fixate on what's broken or different rather than celebrating what's uniquely there. Animals remind us that love doesn't require perfection.
2. Offer comfort
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Animals are sensitive to when you're sick, and they offer physical comfort and emotional love. They can make you laugh and forget about your problems, and be in the moment.
This is love in its purest form. Showing up for someone's pain without trying to take it away. Most humans struggle with this balance their entire lives. Animals just do it, instinctively understanding that sometimes the greatest gift you can offer is simply being there.
3. Don't overanalyze situations
Animals are not attached to ego, status, looks, or success. Instead, offer an open curiosity and trust for physical and emotional attachment. Humans, on the other hand, have turned love into a strategic game.
We tend to dissect every interaction, searching for hidden meanings until we've thought ourselves out of genuine connection. Love thrives in simplicity and withers under the weight of constant examination.
4. Be observant
Animals can teach you how to be observant and tap into all of your senses, including your sixth sense. This kind of observation is a form of love.
When you're truly paying attention to someone, you pick up on things that matter. Animals remind us that love isn't just about grand gestures, but about being observant enough to truly see the one you love.
5. Be committed
Listen and watch out for each other just as animals do when they protect each other from predators. This kind of commitment isn't flashy or conditional. It doesn't waver when things get difficult or inconvenient.
In human relationships, we often mistake commitment for obligation or sacrifice, something that weighs us down. But animals show us that real commitment is vigilance rooted in genuine care. It's paying attention to the people you love, noticing when they're struggling before they have to ask for help, and showing up consistently
6. Give and expect nothing in return
Animals can teach you to awaken deadened emotions through kindness, affection, and respect by giving and accepting each of these without expecting anything in return. This is perhaps one of the hardest lessons to learn.
We've been conditioned to view love as transactional. Animals teach us that real love isn't about what you get back. It's about the act of loving itself, freely given, with an open heart that doesn't focus on keeping receipts.
7. Communicate
You can learn how to communicate with animals. Even without spoken words as their eyes, their body language, and their touch can tell you everything you need to know.
Animals have mastered the art of honest, unfiltered communication that transcends language. Communication isn't just about finding the right words. It's about presence, attention, and authenticity.
8. Enjoy the special moments
Run free of superficial wants and desires. Animal play is much more obvious — they run, leap, shake their heads, whirl around, and thoroughly enjoy frisky behavior without any inhibitions.
Real connection happens in these unguarded, fully present moments. Animals remind us that love isn't something we achieve or perfect; it's something we experience when we stop performing. The special moments are happening all around us, but only if we're willing to leap into them with the same wholehearted abandon.
9. Learn to forgive
Animals can teach you how to forgive each other after a conflict with true reconciliation, no hard feelings, no pent-up resentment, and anger, but with a kiss and some tail wagging. Humans, on the other hand, can hold onto hurt for years.
We replay conversations in our minds, build cases for why we were right, and let small conflicts calcify into relationship-ending resentments. We confuse forgiveness with weakness or think that letting go means condoning bad behavior.
10. Have more fun
Animals can teach you how to make life more fun by making love and play a priority, so that schedules don’t rule or ruin your life. They don’t watch the clock or make excuses that they are too busy or too tired to spend quality time with the one they love.
We often treat fun as a luxury. We let work, responsibilities, and exhaustion become barriers to connection, forgetting that play and laughter aren't frivolous add-ons to love; they're essential ingredients. Animals remind us that prioritizing joy with the people we love is what keeps relationships alive and vibrant.
11. Breathe and relax
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Animals can teach you how to relax with no worries, anxieties, or stress. Just look at a cat or a dog lying on its back with its paws wide open.
Watch how they breathe slowly and consistently as if they're meditating. We often hold our breath or take short, quick breaths instead of long breaths that oxygenate our entire body.
12. Be patient, compassionate, and grateful
Just look into their innocent eyes when you give them a treat they have been waiting for unwearyingly. You can learn how to use the same lesson in your own life when waiting for someone to call or meet you, even if they're running late.
13. Learn to adapt to change and learn new tricks
Many people are unwilling to challenge themselves and fear that change is always negative when, in fact, it can be the greatest lesson of all. Animals don't cling to "the way things have always been" out of stubbornness or fear.
They assess their environment, recognize what's changed, and adjust accordingly. In relationships, this kind of adaptability is everything.
14. Appreciate your surroundings and be fascinated by the smallest object for hours.
People often have an insatiable appetite for more, better, and different surroundings, objects of desire, and materialistic things. You can learn how to be thankful with less from animals. They're not settling or missing out. They're genuinely enchanted by their world because they're actually paying attention to it.
They haven't trained themselves to overlook the ordinary in pursuit of the extraordinary. When you can find fascination in what you already have, in the simple details of your everyday environment, you unlock a kind of contentment that no amount of acquisition can provide
Dr. Ava Cadell is an author, counselor, and founder of Loveology University. Her mission is to empower people to overcome intimate guilt and shame so they can enjoy the benefits of healthy relationships.
