Our pets are a wonderful doorway into meditation.
What do I mean by doorway?
Well,
When we tap into our deep love for our pets,
We can access a meditative state that is open-hearted,
At ease,
And full of acceptance.
So together in this meditation with yourself,
Your pet,
Will access this state full of joy,
Gratitude,
Wonder,
Play,
And more.
So to begin,
Of course I recommend to have your pet nearby.
Lay down next to them perhaps so that they can be close by for this practice.
To get started,
I want you to start to slowly tap into your breath.
Notice how you're breathing right now.
You might be breathing a little differently if you got on the ground to be next to them.
Or you might be breathing shallowly because you're coming into this meditation from another task.
However you're breathing,
Start to change it up a little bit by making each breath a little bit slower,
A little bit deeper,
All the while petting your cat or your dog or whatever pet you have,
Taking them in with loving eyes,
And just starting to drift and drop into the present moment with you and your beloved pet.
And as your breath gets slower and deeper,
Maybe place a hand on your pet's chest,
See if you can tap into how they're breathing.
Maybe you can see and notice the way their chest rises and falls.
Or a fun one that I like to do with my dog is I like to stick my ear right by his nose and just listen to how he's breathing and see when you get closer to your pet,
When you start to tap into how they're being,
How they're breathing,
Does anything change with you?
Does anything change with them?
Breathing here,
We'll inhale together,
Open mouth sigh exhale,
One more inhale,
Sigh to let it out.
One more time,
In and exhale all the way out.
And if it feels good,
You can invite a couple more sighs.
And notice as you're sighing,
Maybe your pet's copying you,
Sometimes mine does that.
It's like they know when we've fully relaxed and it's like an invitation for them to do so too.
So just nothing really to do here right now,
But just breathing,
Enjoying this relaxing cadence of breath with your pet.
Breathing into this little world that we're creating,
Just you and your pet.
A lot of times our pets are kind of in the background of our daily lives and it's rare that we have all of our attention,
All of it on our pet in such an intentional way.
So if you notice your pet is getting a little nervous,
Maybe they're not used to you looking at them for so long like this,
Just hanging out and breathing with them like this,
That's fine.
You can adjust accordingly.
The goal here is to sort of welcome into our little bubble,
Calmness,
Relaxation,
And just a feeling of ease.
Breathing here,
Inhale,
Exhale.
Good,
One more.
In and out.
You're doing amazing.
Trying to breathe like this,
Mindfully,
Slowly.
And what's great about this deeper,
Slower breath is that it's communicating to you that we can enter a more relaxed,
Parasympathetic state and it's also communicating to our pets that we're at ease,
They can be at ease,
It's all okay.
So observing this beautiful dance of interaction between you and your pet,
However subtle it is.
Now we'll start to move into the I love you part.
This is my favorite part.
It's speaking and feeling the sentiment of I love you to our pets.
So to begin,
Just say the words out loud softly to your pet,
I love you.
Notice how that made you feel,
Notice if they reacted in any way.
And go ahead,
Say it again,
I love you.
There are actually many different ways we can express and say I love you,
Right?
So start to play around with this.
I'll give you a couple moments with your pet and just repeat I love you with joy or I love you with appreciation or I love you in the spirit of play,
Right?
There are so many different emotions they can infuse into this beautiful phrase,
I love you.
And as you repeat I love you in the thousands of different ways to your pet,
Just tapping into each emotion,
Feeling it in your body.
Notice the way in which you're expressing it in your voice,
In your facial expressions,
In the way you're interacting with your pet,
Maybe through loving touches,
Stroking their fur,
Scratching their belly,
Just hugging them close,
Right?
Making sure all this time you're still breathing nicely and deeply.
And then also noticing as you're expressing each of these different I love yous,
If your pet is reacting to them,
Maybe for certain tones they are perking up and maybe for other ways in which you're saying I love you,
They're slowly,
Slowly drifting up into sleep,
Feeling safe,
Loved,
Relaxed.
I'd like you to put a hand on your heart and say I love you to your pet.
Say it again,
Infusing deep,
Deep love into your words,
Maybe feeling your heart soften,
Open up,
Feel warm,
Tapping into that heart space and communicating the deepest truth of our love for our pet.
Understanding what changes happens in your body,
In the body of your pet,
And just really enjoying this beautiful connection that we've established here.
Tapping into our gratitude for our pets,
Knowing that they also hold deep appreciation for us as well.
Thank you for meditating with me and your pet.
May you both be healthy,
Happy,
And well.
