|
Heart to heart, mind to mind. Time spent meditating with a good dog |
QUINNTON IS BREATHING:
Since I have my eyes closed, I cannot see whether Quinnton is closing his eyes or whether he is watching for the black squirrel that taunts him from the window. Inhaling slowly, I try to think of nothing. Silently, I count slowly as I inhale; count slowly as I hold my breath; then count slowly as I exhale that one long breath. I try hard to send away thoughts as I focus on counting my seconds of inhaling and exhaling.
Most of us feel so overwhelmed with dispatching the duties of our lives that we can barely sit long enough to read about meditation practices, let alone imagine we have the time to sit silent, counting our breaths. I was feeling similarly incredulous when I first read about learning to slow life down through meditation with your dog.
A copy of the book "How to Meditate With Your Dog" (Maui Media; dogmeditation.com) by James Jacobson and Kristine Medera came my way a few months ago. For weeks I began each workday by picking up the book and reading a few paragraphs at random. A voice inside my head scoffed at the idea of having the time and concentration to undertake meditation. Another voice in my head would argue, "Saying you don't have time means you need to slow down and take time."
Gradually, the allure of meditation chipped away at my resistance to learning to meditate with my dog. The morning came when I could no longer resist the urge to sit down and take on one more aspect of dog companionship.
Jacobson promises you can meditate in your bathrobe, with your dog on your lap, or gently placed beside you if your dog is too big for your lap. Where the dog sits or lies should allow you to touch him and both of you to feel each other's breathing.
Be aware that since dogs usually take more breaths per minute than humans do, you should not try to force yourself to breathe every time the dog breathes. The resulting hyperventilation could make you lightheaded. Your dog probably takes between 10 and 30 breaths per minute. Humans take 15 to 20 breaths per minute.
Once your quiet sitting-breathing exercise begins to produce relaxation and calm, you will probably notice that the two of you adapt your pace of breathing and settle into rhythmic, synchronized breathing. When your breathing "syncs up," you are approaching meditation bliss.
"How to Meditate With Your Dog" brims with reasons for and benefits derived from meditating with our dogs. Jacobson asserts that dogs take great pleasure from rituals. Every dog I have ever owned has taught me this is true. I have yet to meet a dog who does not know when it is time to prepare his breakfast and dinner.
My own three dogs come to my desk and stare raptly at me every afternoon around 4:20--dinnertime. They sit mesmerized while I pour the dry dog food into the bowls. They know that a cooking song is part of the ritual, and wag their tails in time to badly rhyming melodies that come to me as I stir in the hot water and the green beans. Meal production is a glorious ritual at our house.
Jacobson promises that if you begin a daily, regular meditation with your dog, you will find the dog looks forward to the attention. The dog may let you know that it is time to meditate. He may go and sit at his meditation place and stare at you. You know; the "Are you coming?" look.
"Meditation is great for dogs," Jacobson testifies. "Not only does it improve a dog's health and well-being, but excitable dogs become calmer; aggressive dogs become more loving; and dogs that once whined and howled for attention become quieter and more content. Meditation is great for you, too. It relieves stress and sharpens your mental focus."
Before we began our attempt at meditation, I wondered if Quinnton would sit still long enough to meditate. I had similar misgivings about my own ability to sit still. Could I learn to focus, to clear my mind of endless musings and just breathe?
Quinnton and I began trying to sit quietly in meditation for five minutes. With rhythmic meditation music playing in the background (Krishna Das is my favorite), Quinnton hopped right into the meditation pose in the dog bed without call for a second invitation. The fact that he understands and will perform a long "down-stay" was no doubt a helpful prerequisite to his ready understanding of stillness.
During our quiet meditation efforts, I felt myself become calm and strangely more alert, rather than sleepy or distracted as I had anticipated. Undivided calm attention and "mama time" was enjoyable for Quinnton, who is now the oldest dog at our house and who does not go out and cavort in the wide world as much as he did in his younger years. Meditation time feels like a way to stretch the hours of time left with my elderly dog.
When I ask other dog owners about meditation experiences with dogs, few called the ways they commune with their dogs "meditation." One friend mentioned that daily time spent brushing a long-haired dog felt to her like a form of meditation.
In "How to Meditate With Your Dog," Jacobson addresses "open-eyed" conscious meditation techniques and teaches readers to "meditate" while taking the dog for a daily walk.
Dr. Jordan Kocen, who practices holistic medicine and acupuncture at SouthPaws Veterinary Center (southpaws.com), told me: "Many pet owners, particularly cat owners, report that pets appear to be drawn to them while they meditate. Frequently, meditating pet owners open their eyes at the end of their meditation session and find the family pet relaxing nearby, observing them intently."
Yoga teacher Elena Prokos of Stafford County told me that she did not meditate with her elderly dog, Otis, but she does have a cat who appears to volunteer to be a part of her meditation and yoga efforts. Prokos laughed and admitted: "My cat is jealous of meditation and yoga time. He will purr and rub against you as you try and go 'within.'" Prokos explains: "There is a yoga pose called 'downward facing dog.' My cat obviously votes to change the name of that pose to 'downward facing cat.' This posture is an inverted pose, and when in it, I always find I am 'facing' the cat because he has sneaked in underneath my body and sits looking straight into my face!"
Cat owners and anyone who loves wisdom combined with breathtaking animal photography will enjoy the lovely book "Where Cats Meditate" by David Bard (Barrons). This book proves what many cat owners realize, that cats are focused, mindful and able to sit for hours in a warm, still lap.
Worry not that you will appear to be lazing on the floor shirking work and responsibility when you and your pet take up meditation. If anyone chastises or ridicules your meditation practice, I invite you to share these wise words of Victor Hugo: "One is not idle because one is absorbed. There is both visible and invisible labor. To contemplate is to toil. To think is to do. The eyes upturned to Heaven are an act of creation."
Give meditation with your dog a try. Feel too busy to sit still and rub your dog? Perchance meditation is what both of you really need. Any activity that invites us to hang out in our bathrobe with our dog in our lap must be an activity to explore and master.
SARAH A. FERRELL of Spotsylvania County runs Dogs Manners and Obedience. Contact her by mail at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va., 22401; by fax at 373-8455; or
Email: gwoolf@freelancestar.com.
