Lessons Our Animals Teach Us to Become Our Best Selves

0:05 There are some people that make their work just another thing they have to do, and there are those that make their work something that they want to do. Welcome to Working on Purpose with your host, Elise Cortes. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration from those people who have found deeper meaning and personal connection to their work life. It's beyond nine to five. It's working on purpose. Now Here is your host, Elise Cortes. Welcome back to Working on Purpose. So thanks for tuning again this week. I'm your host, Alise Cortes, joining you live from Dallas, Texas, which his home base for me. If you've been tuning in for a while, then you know this program is all about helping people create more meaningful and purposeful lives and equipping leaders inside organizations to cultivate meaning and purpose. Elicit's passion inspired contribution, innovation, and persevering performance. I talk with my guests to draw on their expertise and share my own experience consulting, speaking and developing workforces across the globe. Before we get into the program, let me give a shout out to our sponsor Rite with rent to Buy dot com. This real estate service offers a new way to home ownership and allows you to purchase a home when you may not be entirely ready. It's a great option if your credit is not in the best of shape, or you're in a transition such as divorced, downsizing, relocating, or unsure your a new area as you embark into your next chapter of life and justin you as you've been able to rent to buy cars, appliances and furnitures, this is your chance to rent to home and then have the right to buy it afterwards. You can visit rent with right to buy dot com. Each week in these conversations, I hope you

1:37 walk away with something you can immediately put to use in your life or your work. And if I can do anything to help you along your journey, go to my website at least coretes dot com and use the contact me feature to message me and let's open a conversation and explore what's going on for you and see how I might be able to help at me you rate, I'm glad or connect it and thanks for listening. Now onto this week's program with us today is doctor Joanne Lefevre. She is a Gnarian promoting intuitive medicine. She guy's families and tuning in with their pets, themselves, nature, and the universe to make better medical decisions. Doctor Joanne is the author of Animal Teachings from Haley's Angels Methods. She join us today from the state of Florida. Doctor Joanne, Welcome to Working on Purpose. Thank you so much Elise for having me. I'm very excited to share with you and your listeners the teachings of animals on my path bien venue. It's so wonderful to have you.

2:29 And again, I so appreciate that you can speak various languages, English, French, what else? Oh, yes, studio espanolomien. Well, it's it's wonderful for our listeners to be able to hear that lovely accent of yours. And I want to thank you for finding me and when we were generating this conversation about what did we want to situate? What do we want to talk about? One? I love the fact that I can showcase you as a woman clearly working on purpose in service of your calling. We'll hear more about that. And I also wanted to have you as a guest on the show because people's lives today are intimately intertwined with their pets, which greatly impacts their meaning of course, in the quality of life. And of course that's a lot of the world that I'm focused on, and I know for my own experience there's so much animals can teach us about becoming better versions of ourselves. And so for those two reasons, doctor Joanne, I wanted to have you on the show. So I've get you for an hour. Are you ready to go? I'm ready to go. Okay, Well, I always like to help our listeners understand really how it was you got into this space. And you've got this amazing story that about early on how you connected with animals and took the red of becoming a veterinarian. But could you give us, you know, the short version of what that was. Since I was a very young child, I've always connected with animals more than people.

3:49 And I was a middle child, so I had a lot of time kind of left alone, and I would be outside playing with butterflies and letting the ants crawl on my hands and playing with the worms, and that it's still my home, you know. The best place for me is to be outside and to just be amazed by the beauties of nature. So as a teenager, I was blessed to work in a wildlife refuge for a couple of years and that definitely pushed me into ved school. And my passion for helping animals is just still very alive today and more and more, and I just can't stop, you know, wanting to make the world a better place for them and for people, because, like you said, they have so much to teach us if we are ready to receive their teachings, they have amazing wisdom for us. And what was it just to go one more level deep there for our audience, Because keep in mind that many people listening to the show are hoping to discover their own purpose. That's a lot of the reason that they tune in. So how did you know for sure that it was animals that you wanted to work with, that was your calling. Well, one thing is that I could not have seen myself do anything else. You know, when I did other jobs, summer jobs as a student, I either was not good at it or my heart was not there either. So you know, if your heart is not in that right place of you could just work endlessly, then it's not your place, you know. I just felt like Okay, this is not work. This is so much fun. Like if I can make a living doing what I love, let's do is because

5:23 I just feel like I'm playing every day. So that's really the way I go about life. It has to be fun and my heart makes the decision over my brain. That is beautiful. And I want to echo something that we heard a few weeks ago from a previous guest, doctor Alex Patacos, who is also called doctor meaning he says he greatly advocates for people creating a life, not a living, and so do you have created a life? So have I, and I appreciate that very much. It's not always easy, right to listen to our heart, but ultimately I think it always works out the best. I agree it's not, but yes, you have to overcome a lot of fears and self doubt. But at the same time you have to just go for it, because I agree it's the purpose of life, being happy, doing what we love and being in service right and which is absolutely what you're doing. And to that end, there's so much we could talk about here, but I want to next get us into because this is so pivotal for you. The story in your book that one of how you met your husband is great. We got to talk abouit about that and his dog, Haley, and so great. And I love how you talk about how helping her pass at home helped you become a much better person than who you were prior to the founding of this company. And you say, tapping into our own deepest potential, expressing it to its fullest is the most rewarding experience ever on earth. Be the best you can be. I love that. That is so right. I'm so with you on this. So for our listeners who haven't yet read your book, first tell us how it

6:55 is that you met your husband and then came to know Haley. So seriously, it was a blessing and it was an intuition call. And I'm so I'm so grateful, I'm so I pat myself in the back every day for listening to my gut feeling on that one, because that was years ago. That was sixteen years ago when I met my husband, and I did not know how to really listen to my gut feeling and I was still very much in my brain. But anyway to sum it up, I had moved to the Northeast and that's where he's from, and I wanted to a dream of mine came back from when I was a kid, of taking dance lesson and that was my first job. I was finally making money and I wanted to pursue that dream. But I was alone. I didn't have any partner, and so I was very afraid of like, well, am I going to look crazy going to take dancing lessons on my own? And I had other options that I was considering, but my heart was not in them, like working out at the gym or so I ended up just like, Okay, I'm going to be crazy here and I'm just going to show up at the dance studio by myself. And my husband happened to be the teacher there.

8:01 But he's he's a rock musician, he's a singer songwriter. He doesn't really belong in a ballroom dance studio. But he was there for just a few months in his life because he was DJing at the time and he was learning some dance to teach the groom and the bride, so he was DJing weddings and so our lives just met. For it was so fortunate, fortunate. So that was it, you know, love at first sight and we just then Haley was there. Hailey was my husband's dog, and she changed my life because I you know, she accepted me as part of the family. She could smell the veterinarian. It took her a few a little minute here to welcome me in, but then she trusted me, and we spent what twelve years together, And the time came. She was an old lady and we had to help her pass. So she you know, she needed help and she was suffering. So luckily I was able to bring the euthanasia medication at home. She had trouble breathing, so it was really really good that we did not have to move her, that I was the veterinarian able to bring the medication home, and we helped her pass at home, and you know, I really thought my life was ending. I mean I didn't know what to do. I was so devastated. And after she passed, the you know, weirdest moment happened where well people started calling me out of nowhere, like a friend of a friend saying, hey, would you be able to come help me help my own animal go to heaven from home. I don't want to go to the hospital, and so I had experienced this,

9:35 you know, just with Haley, and I really felt like Haley was pushing me from the other side to help others, just like I had helped her. And I was trying to blow that thought away. You know, my heart was saying, oh no, this is crazy, She's not there's nobody on the other side. I'm not going to do this. I'm afraid. And I was really trying to resist that. But everything in my life kept, like the signs and the synchronicities and all the everything was coming back for me to do this, and I finally had to surrender to Haley. I just like, Okay, you know what, if you're there really and I'm supposed to do this, please help me make this go out, Like I really want to do good job. I want to help these families. I want to be able to help these animals pass peacefully. And just now today it's twelve years later and I have helped you know, a lot of animals, and oh my god, she really pushed me out of my comfort zone and that dog I had to take the leap of faith, you know.

10:28 I had to say, oh my god, I'm just I don't know what's going to happen here. But luckily, yeah, luckily it works out. And this is you know, it gave me some momentum to take either bigger leap of faith and you know it's truly the right answer. When you have a gut feeling you have to go for it. That's so beautiful. A couple of things I want to peel back there if we can. One is I think if I read this right somewhere it's either in your book or on your website that since your family, you've helped over a ten thousand families find pass enclosure with their pets, illnesses and passing. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, and again it doesn't feel like that. I mean it just I enjoyed myself, you know, helping others make me feel so good that yes, it went by in a blink of an eye. It's amazing. I don't know how you have time to talk to me right now. This is crazy. You're in such demands. It's wonderful, and I want to thank Hailey for the role that she had in helping you really discover your even deeper calling. Because one of the things that I share with my listeners is that those experiences in life that really call something deep from us can be sources of discovering our purpose, maybe as it was for you. Right, And so I mean now today, what do you call your your So it's Hailey's Angels Veterinary Services, right, yep. Yeah, And I'm grateful to Haley as well. You know, God, I miss her, but I really feel like, yeah, she's there, she's she's making sure that I don't get

11:58 bored down here, that I do some good work and help others. So I'm grateful for her. Yeah, being in service like that is tremendous. And the community that you've built. So you said people began calling you. Did you tell anybody that you had helped Haley pass or they just somehow knew to call you. It started with just one, well, one veterinary technician, one coworker who came to help me. She was my closest friend and she helped me with Haley because I didn't feel like I had this strain to do this on my own. And so it was started with one of her friends. And then just word of mouth. It just went crazy. And it's more than word of mouth. It was like an energy, you know, some interaction, really some blessing from the other side that made it snowball so quickly, and I was trying to resist it and stop it until I'm like, Okay, well this is not stopping, so let me jump in and yeah, let's do this. You know, animals need help. I mean, they need the help so well. And again I said, like I said, so many people are so beautifully connected to their animals, like you, like you have been with Haley and others had I don't have animals today, but when I was growing up in elementary school, I had one horse named Sugarfoot and exactly sixteen cats that all had their own names and made them their own houses. They were precious to me. So you know, how we're connected to animals is really important. And then later, of course, we're going to talk about what they can teach us to become better human beings. But before we get there, there's one other important part of you that I really want to call out for our listeners, and I know it's

13:28 very important to you, and that is that you are a vegan and you were on a mission to inspire all animals and humans to live in balance as one with the web of life, as you'd like to say, So situate for us this key philosophy of yours. And you know, I became vegan kind of overnight at the same time when Haley died my life, I felt like I stepped out of my own body to take a look at the world from a different angle, like from a spirit angle where Haley was, and I was just petrified all of a sudden to see what I was participating in, but just the way, you know, what is going on with this world. So I've made a vow to myself of not being a part of any destruction on this beautiful planet and taking care of Mother Earth. So I kind of became vegan overnight of doing no harm. So with what I eat, you know, I don't want to eat my animal friends, so no more animal meat, no more dairy products. But also with the products that I use, you know, beauty products and anything around the house, you know, making sure it has not been tested on animals and it's eco friendly, so friendly for the earth. So I can leave only positive footprints during my journey on Earth. That is really really beautiful, and you know it does take taking a stand right to be able to do that, and really, in a lot of ways, you're part of a movement and it's important.

14:58 Yeah, each life count and when you look at it this way, Oh my god. I don't kill any insects. When I find a spider in the house, I pick it up, take it outside, and you saving one life like this, you know, It's just makes my day. Every time I find an insect. I'm like, oh, I'm about to feel so good right now because I'm saving a life and it's just a beautiful thing. Yes, I agree. I can't kill insects either. I don't kill bugs. I don't kill I take them outside. My daughter is, you know, horrified by the whole thing. She just wants me to smash it, but I can't, So I'm with you. Good. All right, Well, let's grab our first break. I'm your host, Alise Cortez. We've been on the air with doctor Joanne Lefevre. She's a veterinarian promoting intuitive medicine, and she joined today from Florida. We've been talking a bit about how she got into her career, why it's a calling, and just really what she does to make the world a better place. Stay with us, we'll be right back. Alice Cortez is a speaker and engagement and developed catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to your organization. She will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance and retention. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elisecortes dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with elease Cortes. To reach our

16:34 program today, send an email to a lease Alise at Aleasecortes dot com. Now back to working on purpose. Thanks Christine with us, and welcome back to working on purpose if you're just joining us. My girst is doctor Joann Lafeb. She is a veterinarian promoting intuitive medicine and she guides families in tuning in with their pets, themselves, nature, in the universe to make better medical decisions. Doctor Joanne is the author of Animal Teachings from Haley's Angels Methods. I'm your host at Lice Cortes. So for this next segment, Doctor Joanne, I want to I want to help our listeners understand your your key learnings and philosophies. And in your book, there's there's quite a bit in there about what you've learned in your life and through your own experience and through your own your inquiry, and they come out in the way of philosophies.

17:22 So first you write that animals or pets come into our lives to teach us specific lessons. That is so beautiful and that really quick. That takes me back to how you met your husband. I mean, you know, when I think about that, I'm very much attuned to vibrations and energy too, and I mean obviously that that was supposed to happen. But now tell us about this whole notion about our pets teaching of something specific. That's fascinating. I've never did anybody say that before. So you know, it's the same beautiful law of attraction of when you are not resisting and you're following the flow, you will encounter the perfect match, whether it's a human or an animal.

18:03 And sometimes, you know, it can come across as a difficult relationship, but the purpose is always to grow. And so when I ask people, how did you find your animal or how did you choose your animals. Most people, ninety nine percent of them will tell me, oh, I did not choose this one. He chose me. And for example, you know, you're just walking down the streets and this kiddy starts following you home, and it's like, okay, I'm here, come on the new daddy. You know, let's go home. And so I'm always grateful when people say, well, okay, I guess yeah, you chose me. Let's do this, Let's make this work, and people embrace the teachings that these animals have for us. And when they go to a shelter, let's say, or they have an idea of well, I'm going to adopt this kind of dog, this breed, but then they go to the shelter and this different, completely different animal, different personality, different breed, different age, just looks at them in the eye and it's like there's a bond that forms right away. And so this is truly the best part of finding the right teacher for you, because I really feel like, you know, there is a right connection to grow together. You know, I definitely have acquired animals over my life as well. And when I acquired that my horse, Sugarfoot, I didn't pick him. He just sort of but we fell in love with each other. It took us some time, but we absolutely fell in love with each other and fell into an energy, a cadence, a way of understanding each other that was really beautiful. Still today, all these years

19:36 later, I can remember that absolutely and it's embracing. Of course, they put you out of your comfort zone. There is a pig living with us right now, and I don't still don't know how this happened. He showed up two years ago at our gate and he's like, Okay, I'm home, let me in. And my husband and I were like, oh my god, seriously, like we don't know anything about pigs. There's no pig rescue that we can take him to. So we let him in. And yeah, it was a little bit of a steep learning curve. He outsmarted us many times. But now we embrace We embrace his teachings. He walks on a leash on the harness, he loves to go for rides. We take him to the beach and he's on his own journey truly of making the world a better place. So we're really happy right now. That is so brilliant. It's just beautiful. All right, well, what kind of similar along the same line of lessons here. Another thing that you talk about is you suggest that in order to improve the care of people and animals worldwide, we all need to be actively involved in our own healing and in the healing of our pet. Of course, that makes sense to me, and that the diagnosis you say is an opportunity to grow. I think that's fascinating.

20:47 So I'm really interested in the idea if you could talk more about, how are our diagnosis as people is an opportunity to grow? What do you mean by that? So I want to tell everybody you know, when you receive a diagnosis, don't feel so defeated or like it's going to stick with you forever and it's a like a death sentence, you know. We it's a it's an apportuity to put an opportunity to grow in this sense that there is a reason why you got sick. Where there is where we get out of balance, and that's truly the main reason why our body gets out of balance too, and then we end up with different diseases. So it's a good time to reflect on your life and say, well, what can I do better here? How can I become a better person, more balanced. Is it something in my food and my diet that I'm that's hurting my body?

21:34 Is there any strong emotions that I haven't dealt with, you know, chronic sadness, anger, resentment, guilt, any anything that is negative that you know, when you think about it just makes your heart sink. You know, it's it lowers your energy level. So there is a way to fix that. Looking at your lifestyle, are you sleeping enough? Are you thriving where you are? You know, some people thrive more by the beach, the ocean. Some people need to be in the mountains, some people need to be in the desert. So it's really a good apportunity to reassess our life and do better and get rid of the diagnosis. You know, heal our diseases, because most of them, we can heal them. I know of so many people who have turned their diagnosis into something frankly miraculous. I mean, just one example. I had a woman named Gwen rich on my radio show last fall, I think it was. She has been surviving terminal breast cancer now for the last eight years, and now she's learned how to eat in an incredibly healthy way, and she's gone on to start a couple of nonprofits, and she's written a book, and I mean, she's done so much since her diagnosis and learned so much about breast cancer and everything.

22:49 It's just unbelievable. So a testament to what you're saying. For sure, absolutely, I'm so grateful that she did not feel defeated. She decided to embrace the lesson and really learn. And that is amazing. It is, and it's incredibly inspiring me. Instead of falling down and saying, oh my gosh, you know I've been diagnosed, what's the point, she was like, well, I got work to do until until the time happens. Yeah, wow, I know, right, I know. Okay. So the next thing I want to talk about again another thing that I've never heard anybody talk about here, doctor Joan, And as you say in your book, that knowing your pets life mission helps you grow. First, I didn't even know that pets could have a life mission. So how do we discover our pets life mission? That's the first question. So it's easy pick one word that describes your pet the best. When you look at your pet and you know him, his behavior and his passions, if you allow him to really show you his true colors, what does he live for, what does he stand for? So it could be as easy as you're walking. You're walking your dog on the on the street, and your dog just wants to go say hello to everybody. He's the social butter fly, and a lot of people would be annoyed. I'll just like yank on de lesi and say no, no, no no, we're walking, like let's go. But maybe you've got a little therapy dog on your hand who just brings joy to everyone's life. And if you embrace this and maybe bring your dog to nursing homes or hospitals or schools, even to be around children. So many dogs now

24:21 are learned teaching students children to read. So if you dare following your pets path wherever your pet wants to take you, it's it's it's going to be it's gonna be beneficial for sure. You got is so beautiful. I just met a friend who's got a really, really clever dog. His name is Nelson, and he's really got all the personality of the town if you will, you know, piled into his small little body, and he really could be like the mayor yes, there you go. I mean, Wilbur the pig is a complete little vegan activist. And I did not realize this, but when I take him to the beach, now I'm aware, But first few times I didn't know the rockets we're going to create, because everybody, of course, just sees a pig on the beach and they come running.

25:17 And Wilbur is quite quite the character. So he sits for food and I'll always bring treats and so people can feed him. And he sits and he looks. He looks like he's yeah, he's the king. So people look at him and they melt, and then the first thing that comes out of their mouth is, oh my god, I will never eat bacon or ham again. And I was like, wow, not see this coming. Wilbur, you do it, my friend. This is awesome. He can do it better than I can. They wouldn't believe or listen to me, but to him, like, oh my god, they will never eat vacan or him after they meet Wilburg. It's that so fantastic. Oh my gosh, you too need to travel more often together. I know, I know, we do. We need to set around now country. If you get him on a plane. Let me know, could be I want to be I want to see that, and I will make a stop in Texas for sure, please. Okay. Well, the second part of that question, then, is if you're talking about being able to help discover your your pet's life mission, then how does knowing that help us grow as humans? Because we're embracing the unknown and it's a very scary thing for all of us. You know, we like to have it all figured out and stick to the plan of living. But I will tell you that all the most amazing things that have happened in my life happened. They were not planned. They were not planned by me, and I had to surrender. And just like what Wilbur's doing to me, and now he's making me think about, okay, how can we touch more lives? You know, he's taking me on this journey that I have no clue where we're going, but I want to go with

26:47 them because he's so inspiring. And so when your pet is taking you on a journey again that you did not plan, embrace those amazing teachings that are coming your way because you will be put out of your comfort zone, but you will grow, You will learn things that you never wanted to learn, that you didn't think about even and then you're going to look back and say, wow, look at me. You know, I've come such a long way. And now you take your pet. Two, Yeah, nursing homes and next thing you know, you're building a course for these people are surrounded, you know, around your dog and the teachings of your dog, and you see how what this dog is doing to these people, and your dog is prolonging these people's lives because of the joy he's bringing. And then it's taking you to a whole other life chapter that you're going to write a book about it. You know, it's snowballing and you feel so good about yourself and you're being more fulfilled. It feeds your soul. And you didn't even know anything about this, but your pet took you there, and you they are going with your pets so beautiful. I can truly appreciate that stepping into the unknown from myself and so now adding another component of the pet coming along as well, that's a whole other level love that. Okay, one other questions I think we have time for before the break maybe two. I found complete resonance in my own work with logo therapy, existential health and crisis and my research and consulting and meeting and purpose with your statement that you say boredom, lack of stimulation, and lack of fulfillment are also common causes of illness

28:19 among people and animals. I know how that shows up in the psychic space, But how say more from your vantage point. I see a lot of indoor cats, for example. You know that we don't let them go outside for safety reason. You know, we don't want them to get heard outside. But they are so bored to death literally that they will develop diseases. They are not fulfilled. Their body shuts down, just like their mind. So that's the biggest example. You know, it's a balance, and we need to find ways to feed the animals souls one way or another, it varies. Each animal is very unique and what's going to make them feel good. I have a cat who loves music, and I have a cat who need to go outside, And if he doesn't spend time outside hearing the birds and feeling the grass onder his speed, he's miserable and you can tell he's really grumpy, and that's not good. And in the course, in the human space and the work that I do. That all that that boredom and lack of simulation shows up in the existential vacuum, right, and that's where we see all this depression and people doing create you numbing out with alcohol and drugs, and it's it's that's how it shows up there. So that that statement, that part of your book just really sprung out to me. That's just so important to talk about and help our listeners who have animals to understand, Yes, safety might might be nice, but is it really helping you your animal? Yeah, okay, one more thing before we go on break our next break here, you also went on another thing that that grabbed me.

29:48 As you say, see you, if you are not on a path of fulfilling your life mission, you will eventually receive a wake up call and hopefully you'll you will recognize it. So I think all of our listeners, especially though seeking their purpose, might find this hopeful but also concerning if they somehow miss this. So for me, my own wake up call was my divorce. I mean, I was not being true to myself, doctor Joanne, and I knew it at the time. I knew I was not living to my full potential. And I hated myself for it. So that was my wake up call. And I think my ex husband so much for making the call because it was the right call. But tell us more about about this path of fulfilling on your life mission that you're talking about. Like you said, you won't miss your your call or your wake up call if you stay in your heart, if you stay true to yourself. So when anything feels wrong, don't dismiss that feeling inside. And that's mainly what it is.

30:42 You know, we tend to let our brain make the call when our heart says, oh no, this is not good for me, this is toxic for me, even and so and then you know, I don't believe in coincidences. Things happen, signs of guidance, synchronicities, things happen in life. And it starts being subtle, but then it can get bigger, like an illness or like you lose your job, and just pick up on those things and instead of again, don't feel defeated, look at it as what's the blessing here? What's the lesson? And I how can I move on with this and really turn it into my advantage because it will it's worth listening to and you know you'll achieve a better situation. I see life as a book like a series of chapters, and chapters will end. So recognize that when the end, when you know the universe somehow is pushing you to move into a different state. Or don't resist and don't resist and don't dismiss, and you'll be aware of your designs are there if you just pay attention.

31:44 And it's really simple. And again they'll get bigger for you, so they'll become more obvious. Just look at them straight in the face and don't be scared. Just think about me. And Elie has gone through a lot. I mean it's tough. It's tough, but it's worth it. And you are worthy. You know, you have to choose your own life and say, okay, I'm worth fighting for my happiness here. And absolutely it was a very worthwhile journey. I'm so grateful, so grateful. All right with that, let's take our last break. I'm Elise Cortez, your host with her on the ear of doctor Joanne Lefevre. She's a veterinarian promoting intuitive medicine and she joined today from Florida. After the break, we're going to get into what we can learn from animals to become better individuals and collective humans. Stay with us, We'll be right back. Alis Cortes is a speaker and engagement and development catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to your organization. She will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance and retention.

32:50 To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elisecortes dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with Elise Cortes. To reach our program today, send an email to a lease Alise at Aleascortes dot com. Now back to working on purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working on purpose. If you're just tuning in, my guess is doctor Juan Lefebre. She has a veterinarian promoting intuitive medicine and she guides families in tuning in with their pets, themselves, nature in the universe to make better medical decisions. Doctor Joanne is the author of animal teachings from Haley's Angels Methods. I'm your host, Alis Cortes, So for this last section here, I really want to talk about the kinds of lessons that we can learn from animals become better people. And the very first thing I want to talk about is there's a lot I've heard some people say, just emphatically and definitively, that animals don't have emotions. I always believe that they do, especially having pats of my own. So how might you persuade someone who really does not believe this that is so? And how do you know that they have emotions? You know all the animals that I have been around, so I'll give you examples. One of our cats is definitely in tune with us emotionally. So when we're having a bad day, he'll just

34:21 come be with us, next to us, and he'll just extend his foot and put it on our hands and just like, hey, I'm here, don't worry, I'll make the better for you. The amount of grieve that I see from animals when they lose a loved one, whether it's a human or an animal, they will grieve, you know, they get really distraught, They get really sad when they lose a good friend. They will visit their grave if they have the opportunity. Some animals like cows, you know, will grieve. We'll go to the grave like for a couple of weeks if they have the opportunity. There's so many stories along those lines that I have seen. I went to help two dogs at the same home two different times, and they have a little bunny. They are named Teter Todd and Teter Todd. Both times was sitting next to the dying one, and he never got afraid of me. He was there to bring his moral support.

35:19 I mean, it was just amazing to see the connection. They understand what's going on. They do well. I'll tell you just briefly. When I lived in Rio di Jenira, Brazil from ninety one to ninety three, and I had several animals down there. One of them was a Siamese cat and I called it Dondoca, which means pretty lady. And I got these two little kittens, new kittens, and she was so jealous, Doctor Joanne. She wanted a hunger strike. And I took Rid at the bed and he said, has someone been beating this animal? I said no, most certainly not. And he said, are there new pets, new animals in the home. I said, yes, of course, I've got these two new little cats. He goes, well, yes, heartbreak, definite heartbreak. Yeah, she just soulk around the house. I had to. I had to show her again that I loved her, and then she was fine.

36:05 Yes, I see that often. Absolutely, And if you want to see happy dogs come to my house. When I say the word ride, who wants to go for a ride? You will see the happiest dogs on earth. My god, we cannot say that word unless we have the keys in our hands ready to get out the door, because these dogs are going to go completely nuts, right with Wilburt running right behind them, for sure. Yes, just honking away and just yeah, let's do it. Bark bark and spinning around the house. And oh they they're full of life and emotions. There's no doubt there. Yeah. So to that, and further, there's a couple more things I want to I want to dig on that. You say that animals are the best teachers. Why they have never failed me or disappointed me? Since I was young, I always had the why questions?

36:52 You know, my my mom, I did not know what to answer me. It's like, well, why is this? Why is that? And animals have always answered all my questions and still do today. When I look at society and you know, all the difficulties that the world is going through, and I look at the animals, I look at them act and behave, and it makes sense. They always have the answers and we should really listen to them. The world would be a better place. I completely agree. And I already introduced my pets from my elementary school year, Sugarfoot to my horse and my sixteen cats, and I just want to share that for me, those animals really enriched my life, and they taught me so much about the world that I lived in and helped me become more of who who I was and wanted to become. And they taught me about respect and relationship. I had to earn their relationship, earn their trust, earn them being with me, and that elicited something from me. And I know you understand that, doctor Joanne, but it really it was so enriching and so powerful. And then just the care, the ongoing care that it took to take care of them, that taught me something too about discipline, about you know, being of service and doing something for someone else. Absolutely, I'm so grateful that you have experienced that as well, because it's they make us so rich. You know, those experiences are worth billions of dollars. I mean, nothing will replace the bond with an animal. Yeah, I completely agree. And so just and to that end, one of the things that

38:24 I'm really fascinated and with regard to philosophy is one I am interested in the idea of Now I've just lost the term for it. I'll get to it a second, but it's the idea that we really can understand and embrace both genders. So whatever that term is, I'll get to in a second. The other one that I really want to get to for this conversation is this is if we can as humans to let go of this idea that humans are the center of the universe, right, that this anthropocentric perspective, And so part of that, I think is if we can start to recognize what we can learned from from animals and that they do have emotions, they and now to now you're teaching us that they even have a purpose and a path that they're they're they're they're navigating. That opens up a whole new space for so many people, myself included. So just a couple of lessons I wanted to dive into here. You say that animals teach us unconditional love? What else?

39:22 Tell us more about what can what we learn from animals? They have given me and I see how they give others what people fail at giving to one another, which is being present, unconditionally loving someone through thick and thin. You know, we all make mistakes, and we need to be supported and forgiven. You know, animals are always there supporting us and forgiving us and waiting, just being patient for us to figure things out. We are definitely not the center of the universe. I agree with you. I think animals might be. So we need to look up to them and be good students. Know, they don't judge us. They keep everything simple. They're so authentic and honest and just genuine. They're just they're just themselves, you know. They show their true colors, and they keep everything simple in life, and they make us play. They remind us to keep it fun.

40:17 You know, life should be fun. We should be silly. We should go play outside and laugh, you know, laugh a lot. We should look at the bright side. Of life always and be grateful, have a lot of gratitude for what is instead of complaining about what's not and this, and you know, we get really we bum each other out a lot humans, so animals will help us be more like, be more balanced like they are, and to slow down, take time to live and enjoy, enjoy life. One of the things I stumbled across as I was preparing for this conversation. And I don't know, I don't know what the research is behind this, but I do want to share it because it's fascinating and it goes back to again trying to get away from that anthropocentric viewpoint. But I read that dolphins call each other by name, and elephants comfort upset friends, which I believe I did understand, and primates use tools and other kinds of things to be able to navigate their world. And those sound remarkably like human sorts of things that people might be surprised at, do you know, Yeah, yeah, there's harder than we give them credit. I've heard that, Yeah, I've heard about all of those things. That the dolphins have so many sounds. They're one of the smartest animals. They have so many different sounds.

41:34 Like they have their own language. So yeah, yeah, we don't give them enough credits. They are amazing. One of the things I like about that, and again that one of my reasons for wanting to have you on the show is part of what I when I'm out working with executives and teams to be able to help them discover and for their develop their meaning, their passion, their inspiration, and their purposes. Is to get them more present to the magic of the world around us. That just opens a new space for them and it changed forces their mental models to change to accommodate that experience. So that's part of what I'm trying to do when I'm working with them. And so one of the things that you said that I think is quite interesting here is if we can start to really experience animals as the gifts and teachers that they are to us, that would certainly change our mental model absolutely. And it's easy. You know, when I tell adult, go back to being a child inside, and that's where animals are in their heart, and that's where children are in our hearts. You know, when you're young, you don't care about what other people are going to think, or you're afraid of being a certain way. No, you just you're so passionate about what's the potential that you have, what wants to come out of you, what you love, you know, and you go with that and yeah, that's really the way to be. Well. Another thing that you mentioned in one of our exchanges too, though, what we can also learn is just the honesty, authenticity, being genuine, just showing your true colors.

42:59 Say more about that. How do we learn that from animals? You'll know you know this well. I see how animals are the best judge of characters. They will people tell me, oh, yeah, my dog, I should not I should have listened to him. He did not like my ex girlfriend or my ex boyfriend. You know, they are just simply telling us as is. And in the hospital the same thing. You know. I'm very very respectful of patients and I try to work with them. We're trying to have this dialogue of Okay, I need to help you, but it might hurt a little bit, and and I want them to tell me how they feel. And they always keep me abreast of what's going on, so I know always where I stand with an animal. There is an open communication with people. You don't know where you stand. You know, they'll tell you one thing, they'll think the other. So I I do. I do have more animal friends than people friends. For that reason, the trust is there. Yeah, I appreciate that you're making me think of something I want to ask you do you're doing, and that is do you do you believe or that different people have different abilities to connect with and understand animals more so than others. I think we were all born with intuition, let's call it that. You know, children are very intuitive again because they are in their heart. But then as we grow older, our brain takes over.

44:19 And that's what society is teaching us. You know, use your brain and you'll be smarter, you'll make better decision. But I really find that, no, we need our heart. Obviously we need our brain, but we need our heart to keep that connection because often our brain fails at making good decisions or we don't have enough knowledge for the brain to make a decision. So when we go back in our heart and feel our way through life and understand the animals or wildlife, you know, I've gotten a lot of messages from nature, from wildlife. When I'm about to make a bad decision with my brain, you know I came across a rattlesnake once in Arizona and he had a message for me. Believe me, he made me rethink a lot of things that we're going wrong in my brain at that time. So I stay in tune with all that you are, all that your body has to offer, and that includes the heart, so you can really feel your way and make better decisions. That is beautiful, doctor Joan, And I will say I completely echo this notion of the intuitive intelligence, and I think more and more people are starting to embrace how important and powerful that is. And it's certainly not something to just to sort of shooeshoo. But I know Steve Jobs talked about it in his career, and I do more and more see that being in tune with that is so critical. And the reason I asked the question about it, if you thought more people it could be connected with animals is my daughter of sixteen has never met an animal that doesn't just love her. I mean, she can walk into a room and they just find

45:51 her. They just they're on her. And I think part of it is she's just got this really beautiful, soft, appreciative energy about her. Yes, and it will shape her next next step in life or her career path also, I'm sure so that is wonderful. Yes, animals do pick up on who where we're at in our openness, let's say. And I like it when animals will pick on the people who hate animals. You know, this one cat will just relentlessly jump on this one person slab who does not care about animals. And I've seen it, you know, I laugh because I know that, Oh, give this a few weeks, few months, not even you know, a few days, and then this person is completely changed. It's like, oh my god, I can't live without this cat anymore. He's my cat. Yeah, he picked me. One of the other things too that I that I read that might also fit along with what you're up to, is I read that this what we can also learn from animals is to live lightly because animals live in tune with the planet and they can serve resources. What do you think about that? Absolutely, we don't need all this stuff. We're always you know, buying too much, and it makes me sad because sustainability is huge for me. I try to recycle and reduce, you know, what I buy. I try not to buy anything really, So when when you look at the animals and how little they need. I'm not even comfortable anymore, like in my own house being in

47:22 between four walls. You know, I'd rather sit outside in the grass. So I love it because it's healing. To science. Science science has proven that grounding, touching the earth is healing. It's actually really healing for the body. And some babies got healed from their colleges. And so I love to just go be outside with the bare minimum and do like the animals do, and that is truly the way to live. I agree. That's beautiful. Well, here we are at the end, just say in about fifteen twenty seconds, started to doing what would you like to leave our listeners with. There is only one person like you, so go for it. Do everything you want to do in your life. Lives each day like it's your first day here and also like it's your last day, and share your gifts with the world. You can do it. That's beautiful that, doctor Joanne.

48:15 I'm so glad we found each other. I so appreciate that you reached out and here we are. I got to share you with my listeners and listeners. If you do want to learn more about doctor Joanne, you can look at her website. It's hayleysanngels dot com. Let me spell that for you, It's h a Y l e y s angels dot com. Last week, if you missed the show live, you can always catch it via recorded podcast. We were on the air with resilience coach Karen Millsap and she shared her incredible story confronting a series of traumatic events in her late twenties that allowed her to dig deep in her soul to turn her life completely around, and now how she helps others to do the same. It was an amazing conversation. Next week, we'll be on the air with Crystal don Gorel.

48:55 Her superpower is to the preserver of precious memories, and she's helping people create compelling personal brands that align with their purposeful lives, especially as they emerge into a different space. See you there. Remember that work is at least a third of our life, So let's work on purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune in to Working on Purpose featuring your host Alis Cortes, each week on the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This week, find your life's purpose at work