Conscious Awareness with Your Pets
In my experience in visiting and observing your animal family members, there are several things that increase their level of joy. Over the next weeks, I will share some of these with you. One of the biggest is conscious attention and connection. What does that mean exactly? It means being present with them. What does that mean? Putting the phone down or in airplane mode. Why? If it dings, rings, or vibrates, they know that you have been trained well to come to the sound.
The exercise below is building level one of a deeper and higher level of connection with your pets. This is where it starts. This is one I work on regularly with each crew and they must come in with this one in their puppy or kitten toolbelt as each at a very young age do not tend to like gadgets. The only thing that is often accepted – and that depends greatly on the crew I am visiting is instrumental music.
EXERCISE: In the 1st 30 minutes after you get home from work or for those that work from home, are off. Place your phone on an entryway or dining table or a kitchen island. Then consciously connect with your pets. Know that that 30 minutes may be the hardest minutes of the day at first. For those that have pets that take matters into their own paws, ask yourself at what point do they start trying to get your attention? When do they start asking for treats? When do they bring a toy over? Or jump in your lap or on the desk? Then take notice of how long you have been sitting or yes even standing at your desk without a break, a sip of water, or yes, 15 minutes of play? And not the one-sided play which involves us staying seated yet throwing the ball which is more about distracting versus engaging. Take notice of how your pet(s), or even your kid(s) respond to this time.
What I will tell you is it is not about who is alpha. I have been learning how to communicate and pick up on everything occurring in the immediate environment as well as beyond like they do. They know when a text is coming in for me fifteen minutes before it occurs and will begin trying to get a message to me through their behaviors. They also know before that text or call comes in what will happen if I choose to accept the request. That level of presence and connection is the path I am working towards in many ways.
For me it is about learning their language or gaining a higher intuitive connection. To do so, we need to reduce the screen time and the external noise. Often it has been going on for so long we do not recognize these as distractions, however the pets do.
Why does this bring them Joy? We are choosing to speak on his or her terms using an aspect of their language. We are giving back to them in the way they give to us by being fully present.
You might ask if this is the first level, what are the other levels of this teaching…I can tell you what some others are:
· If you have dogs, it is putting your phone in airplane mode while you take them out for a conscious walk…however long that is.
· If you have cats, it is connecting with them in a form of meditation. They can be sitting on your lap or nearby. You can have meditative or instrumental music on or just silence and be present with them. This can be for 30 minutes or longer.
Yes, our animal friends love to find ways to help us be more present and are open to introduce us to their world when we are ready.
