Presence and Empathy are the keys to a deep, trusting, caring relationship with your pets – at both ends of the leash.
Presence and empathy have been key practices for me for the last 6 years or more, since the ruins of my second marriage left me shattered, and struggling with grief and PTSD. This kind of awareness has transformed my life, my health, healed my PTSD, and above all, has transformed my relationship with my animals, and all the animals I care for in my work.
I can’t stress enough how important presence is – being here, being now, bringing all of your awareness into and throughout your body, all of the time- or at least as often as you can. The more you do this simple practice, the more your presence grows and grows.
Empathy, your innate ability to feel, sense, and experience the consciousness of another being in your consciousness, your sensory awareness, in your body, naturally wakes up and becomes active the more you increase your presence. Presence and Empathy are the pathway to greater and greater connection.
How to grow your Presence and Empathy!
It’s pretty simple. All you need to do is continually bring all of your awareness into your body and then be present with everything that you are experiencing within your consciousness, your senses, and your feelings. No need to understand, fix, change, or make up stories about what you are experiencing. Simple self-witnessing and acceptance. Not always easy, but the more you practice this, the better you’ll get at it. And the more your pets will be magnetically attracted to you (and calmer, easier to work and live with!).
Presence and empathy are things not very much valued in our Western society. And they take serious commitment and work to build and grow. Presence comes first. The more you work with this, the more and more your empathic nature and sensitivity will grow over time. Suddenly you’ll look at or touch your pets and know in your body that they are feeling happy, or sad, or that they need a pee, or whatever.
Please be aware that the process of developing presence and empathy is non-linear. You have to practice and practice, a lot of the time, before you get a glimpse of empathic connection and awareness. And then you won’t know when the next glimpse will come. And then you might have a period with more awareness, followed by a period where nothing much seems to be happening. That’s normal.
I invite you to dig into presence practice. Set a timer that goes off several (or many) times each day -0 or hook into triggers like walking through a door, when you eat, etc, to remind you to bring all of your awareness into and throughout your body. Especially do this when you are with your pets – and if you are competing or training with your dogs, this practice will significantly increase your success!
Want more? Check out our most recent of this series of articles at this link.
And here’s where you can click through to watch this week’s video newsletter where I share what me, my pets, and my work are up to- and talk about these themes from a bit of a different angle.
If you want an online or in-person consultation with me, go to www.thehealingvet.com and book a free discovery call with me! We also offer a stack of awesome online training programs that empower you to find and heal your pet’s Silent Pain.
Pic of