dogs

Ultimate Happy to See You

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I’ve had animal companions all my life, and it has always brought a deeper sense of joy into my world. After the loss of my beloved collie at the age of 10, I never wanted to make that leap and get a dog again. I’ve had wonderful cats and precious parrots but no dog.

A little over a year ago, we welcomed a mix breed rescue into our lives, and our world hasn’t been the same. What a great gift!

The thing about dogs is that they love you unconditionally and to the maximum level allowed anywhere short of Heaven. Of course, other animals can extend that same degree of love, but few are so demonstrative of it. Our dog teaches us daily how to love. She never holds back. She shares without reservation under all sorts of conditions.

One of the most striking things about her love is the complete happiness she reveals each time she greets us anew. Whether we’ve been gone to the post office for 10 minutes or have been out for much of the day, the same amount of love is lavished on us, and the joy she shows is undeniable and immense. She jumps into our arms (whether we’re ready or not) and offers as many kisses and hugs as we will tolerate.

When I mentioned this to someone, the person suggested it might be because dogs live so much shorter a life span than we humans, and every minute seems like forever to them as a result. I expect there is some truth to this. But what I know for sure is that she simply wants to be in our presence, constantly streaming her love to us. That love is almost more than she seems able to contain, and it must be expressed and emitted.

What if we loved like that? What if we greeted each other with so much joy from our hearts at meeting our kindred? What if we could hardly contain the love we held and felt we might burst if we didn’t share it?

What a way to live that would be. If we felt and shared half as much love and joy as a dog, we could make the world a place of wonder and grace for everyone and everything. So I decided I’m going to try that. Tonight when my husband comes home from his conference, I’m going to greet him as if he were the most important person in my life. I’m going to kiss him and hug him and tell him I love him. I’d love to make him feel as welcomed home as our pup does.

Will I succeed? Well, I’m not as unconditionally loving as our dog, but I do have a great deal of love in my heart, so why not let it flow?

Will you join me in working toward sending joy and love to those dear to you? I suspect it will change our lives and the lives of those we touch, and maybe, just maybe, it will ripple out into the world in an ongoing flood of love enough to fill the planet.

Here’s to living as lovingly as a dog and to the ultimate happy to see you!

Empath to the Max

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I continue to learn from our dog. After over five decades without a canine companion, I’m remembering how marvelous they are in so many ways. What I see above all is their ability as empaths. They don’t shy away from being empathic. They lean into it. They give everything without a thought for holding back.

Our precious Honey cherishes us. It’s that simple. She follows me around the house seeking always to be of assistance. She’s my little four-legged spirit guide who happens to have a body. And she reminds me to Love with a capital L, that love is the most important thing in all the world, that giving love is itself a reward (and may lead to treats).

So many of us born as empaths look at our abilities as a sort of affliction. I’ve heard some friends call it a curse. But here’s the truth: If we were empaths in the same way animals are, we might acknowledge this ability as a great gift. You see, they recognize and feel our needs, feelings, and issues and simply love us through them. Dogs don’t pity us, which would attach said issue to them. Instead, they exude love and hold space for us to move through whatever the problem is. Yes, they want to help. But their innate means of doing so is always the same across the board no matter the challenge we face: love, love, love, love, love (and, of course, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick).

As humans, feeling someone else’s distress may lead us to embody that energy because we either (1) mistakenly identify it as our own or (2) we pity the person and allow the energy to attach to us. So far as I can discern, dogs don’t do this. They sense our distress and, rather than taking it on, emit tons of love in response, which we can choose to either receive or block given our feelings in the moment. When we receive that love a dog so freely offers, it acts like a salve to soothe the senses. While it may not solve our problems, that love can ease our feelings, not because the dog ingested them the way so many empaths do but because we allowed the love to nurture us and help us to heal.

This is a huge lesson for someone like me. I spent much of my life pitying those who were feeling sad. Pitying them only reinforces those feelings. I know this from being on the receiving end of that situation. But pouring out love costs absolutely nothing and can only serve to aid. It never depletes energy as pity can do on both sides of the equation (for the pitied and the pitier). Love always offers the hope, the prayer, the intention, and the energy for the person to rise above self-pity or sorrow.

I also spent a large portion of my life ingesting people’s hurts by claiming them as my own. I’m grateful to our dog for showing me a better way. She innately understands the feelings of others do not belong to her. She can sense them without embracing them. She recognizes from whence they come because dogs are extremely aware energetically. But empaths are as well if we focus on that inner awareness rather than hiding from it. Leaning into our empathy means being aware of what we’re sensing, pinpointing its source, and recognizing that we can honor the gift of being aware and still avoid imbibing and claiming the feelings ourselves. We do that by loving—just loving that person (the source of those emotions) so completely that nothing else can infiltrate our hearts or minds.

So the endpoint of the lesson, which I’m still getting, is to love unconditionally. Doing that allows me to feel without holding any of the energy of the other person. We can give thanks for the knowing and then let go of the emotions that belong to others by tapping into the infinite stream of Divine love and letting so much of it fill us and flow through us that it washes away all traces of anything less than itself.

I believe dogs (and many other animals) maintain this as part of their natural empathic gift. They would likely never consider doing anything else. Someday I hope to be as true an empath as our precious dog, living daily in that stream of unconditional love.

Things I Learned from My Dog

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For the first time since childhood, I welcomed a wonderful dog into my life. Our precious collie Laddie died after being run over by a car when I was 10. When I saw the face of this beautiful dog who now shares our lives, I knew I had to save her. She was in a kill shelter just one day away from being put to sleep.

Training our dog has become a part of our lives each day, and, truth be told, it’s really more about changing ourselves. After three weeks of intensive training with a professional (Jason, a true “dog whisperer,” of Sgt. Rosco’s Boot Camp), our wonderful dog needed us to follow through with the approach she knew and embraced.

Although I knew a great deal about energy already, seeing how important it is to dog training and what a visible impact it makes is rather amazing to me. With dogs, it really is all about the energy and intention! Fellow Reiki practitioners, I know you understand what I mean. Here are a few of the things I’ve noticed in the process of dog training that relate to energy.

  1. Own the space around you. I’ve taught people about setting energetic boundaries and creating a field of protection for years, but oddly enough I never imagined I would be doing that with a dog. In order for our dog to feel safe in a strange environment or in the presence of unknown dogs or people, I have to create a safe space around us. I have to walk with calm confidence and a demeanor that relays that (shoulders down, chest up, grounded in stance). I also know well that dogs are able to pick up our telepathic images as well as our emotions, so I picture an orb of protective energy extending around us whenever we come into a challenging situation or energy. More than this, though, I have to claim the space. I must walk like I own whatever place I happen to be in, because in truth we have to hold our energy field—that space around us—as our own. In doing so, others are unable to encroach on our energy. This is not about being angry, territorial, or aggressive. It’s about being responsible for our own energetic welfare and realizing that we must maintain our sacred boundaries of personhood (and dog-hood). A pack leader is loving but always capable of creating and maintaining personal space.
  2. It’s not about shouting. The energy emanating from our beings does not have to be blaring in order to lead. There is a major difference between confidence and combativeness, between assertiveness and aggression. Shouting at a dog is entirely ineffective. We’re most likely to get barking in response. Dogs and people respond to self-assured, harmonious energy.
  3. Stay focused in the moment. We all know the mind can wander. But this is one of the most important things in the dog training process (and in life). If I take my attention away from the current environment, I am relinquishing my pack leader status, and the dog has to take the reins. When I pay attention and am focused where I am, we have a successful walk. In life, if we’re too busy giving our energy to the past or pondering the future, we give up the great gift of conscious co-creation with the Divine.
  4. Checking in is important. In order to successfully train a dog, we have to become self-aware. Are our energies remaining constant? Where are our thoughts and emotions? If I’m walking our dog and I start projecting my thoughts into the future—especially worrying about something—my entire demeanor changes. I start to slouch or raise my shoulders. The moment that happens, our dog starts pulling on her leash. She knows almost instantly when I’m not being pack leader and she quickly assumes the role. So I have to continue to check in on my inner self and maintain the composure I seek to create for her.
  5. Setting the stage allows for positive outcomes. Our trainer taught us that the success of our dog walk depends on our readiness before we step out the door. We don’t want to begin the walk in a state of overexcitement. We center ourselves, get grounded, make sure we’re feeling harmonious and confident; then we have our dog sit, make eye contact, and we set our intentions for a happy walk and project that to her. It’s interesting how much like preparing for a client session dog walking can be! What if we all did this before we went out into the world or began the workday? Getting centered and grounded, establishing our intentions, and checking in on our thoughts and emotions can go a long way toward having a successful workday.

No doubt I will continue to learn more about dog training as time passes and incorporate the wisdom of the dog world into my daily life. For now, I hope you enjoy these thoughts and benefit from them.

One last note to self: Barking never solves a problem.