Presence Lessons from Your Pets

Have you ever wondered if what you are doing or how you are connecting with your animal family members are you being present with them like they are with you? What does it mean to be that present?

During many of my summer visit assignments your pets have been teaching me what presence means in their language, culture, and way of being. In one experience, both dogs and cats were very focused on their lessons every moment presence was the theme.  In most cases we have requested that they learn our language and way of being, but this is your opportunity to learn their language and presence is the absolute key.

With this first crew, literally every moment and especially the moments I fell out of alignment with that level of presence they would ask for me to return to it. Some physical elements of what that looks like, if I picked up a pen to jot some notes or answered a text or turned on a radio to have some background music (and do not even think about the computer, tv remote, or a video game controller which are not a go to at a pet visit or other times for me) – all of these they saw as a distractor of presence. What I learned is that there was a time to do that during the hours I focused to handle business oriented tasks or creativity outside my overnights with this crew and the others which I had already limited the outside activities several years earlier due to a level of this I had noticed previously – this told me they were upleveling the amount of presence not only for themselves, but that which they recognized we needed for our own selves.

With another group of felines, they were open to their favorite music options with me as long as I was fully present which often was through a form of meditation with some sitting nearby or on my lap – and some extending our time together whenever possible as they shared with me, they were helping me scratch the surface on things hidden underneath the top layers within my life. The gifts in the hidden layer require presence to be the key.

This theme continued as I was tested and offered support for my practice. Some asked for activities, games, or options that kept me focused on our interactions.

In addition, they shared where I became challenged and would fall out of my own power…the exact situations that threw me off my own path or what I knew to be healthy for me was shoved out of alignment by someone manipulating the dynamic. What that often looked like is me giving everyone in the household some one-on-one and others in the household wanting my full attention, they would attempt to play to my weaknesses…like kids that want your attention as soon as you make or answer a phone call. Pets play this game as well – and as soon as you answer or comment to them in some way, you are playing their version of the game. They really don’t want to have a one-on-one with you, they just want your attention off the other kid, pet sibling, person, or situation. This happens in other manipulation-style relationships. The first step is to be aware, but most often you need to be present for that level of awareness to be enacted.

Through their lessons in presence, they helped me dig deeper to understand the lifelong obstacles and in what ways I was pulled unknowingly out of self-alignment by people playing their own version of a manipulation style game. This is huge as it is a relationship theme, I have been working to release over the past three years and it is one that played out with various ancestors both first-hand and from afar. I will share more of the lessons and styles of teaching in the weeks to come on your pets’ version of learning presence.