Lessons from DOG
I am so grateful for my dog. He shows me everyday and in every way how to “be”.
We can learn so much from our animals. You hear people say this but until you really experience it, it is difficult to understand.
They show us unconditional love, loyalty and all sorts of other things as well.
They show us not to care about what others think. They show us how easy it is to just be ourselves. They show us how to look for fun in every moment. They show us how to enjoy nature. They show us how to delight in our senses – hearing, smelling and tasting!
Dogs love exploring their senses. Something we could do more of, I think.
He was a little bit cheeky when he was younger, but he's less so now. He's not “naughty” as in consciously naughty but he's a dog, and he behaves like a dog. One of things that he does, which is quite unpleasant from my point of view, is roll around in dead, decaying animals. We live in the countryside and even from far away – he can smell them and he just heads straight for them. You can't stop him. Before you know it, he is rolling around in dead animal matter and he stinks to high heaven and is covered in flies.
It can take a few baths to actually get rid of that smell. And he usually has to have a new collar because how ever many times you wash it, it is never enough to take the smell away.
He doesn't do it as much as he used to but he has been taking me on a learning curve journey with his behaviour. A journey of learning to deal with triggers.
So yes, him rolling in dead and decaying animals triggered me. I could be floating high in my own world breathing in the beautiful sights, sounds and smells of nature, full of being in my happy place – some might say in a higher frequency 5D state of Being. Then him rolling in a dead animal would bring me straight back down into 3rd dimensional anger, bitterness, despair and shouting at him completely bringing my vibration down and reacting from a lower level of consciousness.
But, of course, that's my choice. I am trying to control something outside of me. I am trying to control my dog. I am in resistance. I am not loving what is. Not seeing mud and gold with the same eyes. (Great analogy in this case!!) I am not loving him unconditionally. I want to change him. Stop him being a dog!!
So here's the lesson. We can't control the things outside of us but we can rise above them within us. We can choose to see things from a different perspective. We can master our thoughts. We can master our emotions and we can master ourselves.
When you understand that there is only you, and everything outside of you is a reflection of a part of you, then you realise that it is the anger already within you that has actually created the scenario in the first place and not the dog. Taking responsibility for this is a massive step. Understanding that you are creating your reality through the frequency that you are and taking responsibility for all of your creations, including the ones you don't like, is life-changing.
All of this was going through my mind the other week while I was up in the Pyrenees in a beautiful village called Tregura. I was walking down the mountain to a little bridge that is known to have very high frequency energy. People have found it easy to connect with the Higher Realms there and I certainly did too. So as I was walking down this path, it seemed to me that there were a few obstacles I had to go through which I thought was quite symbollic of life's path.
One of those obstacles was my dog rolling around in the decaying, dead body of what I assume, by the remaining antlers, was a dead deer. I immediately felt my vibration lower and I reacted with anger, annoyance and despair and started shouting at him. The sudden drop in vibration was very obvious to me. So I started thinking about how I could have dealt with this situation from a higher level of consciousness. After all, my dog was just being a dog. And not only that, but he was a dog in joy!
Very soon afterwards, there was another dead animal on the path and he was making a bee line for it. I had the opportunity straight away to change the way I thought about it. I was being given an opportunity to deal with it in a better way. In a more conscious way. I immediately chose to take a breath, relax my phyiscal body and respond from a higher level of consciousness. I loved how I was being given this opportunity straight away. It was like I hadn't done well in a test at school and I was immediately being told, go on you can do better and I was given another chance to do things differently.
We are all being given such glorious opportunities like this, especially since 2020. It's like a fast track to ascension. A fast track to grow, evolve. A fast track to enlightenment. Whatever word you want to use. A fast track to doing things better.
So there I was with another opportunity to express unconditional love – to myself as well as my dog!
It was a bit easier because he was already filthy so adding to it was less of a big deal but either way, I responded to him with love. I did still call him, but I did so in a loving tone. He didn't come and I just walked on. Not reacting. I didn't express anger. I consciously opened my heart. I do this a lot. You can try this with family members, friends, colleagues and anyone that triggers you.
I had a conversation between my Higher Self and my Human (I strongly recommend this practice) :
OK, said my Higher Self, this is a part of your dog that you actually don't find very pleasant but, do you want to change him? I mean change him for another dog? I mean look at all the parts that you love about him.
You love the other 99% of him. Changing him for another dog may give you less than 99% of “good” dog!!
So do you want to do a trade? No, of course, not. Do you want to get rid of him? No. Do you really want to change your dog when he is just being a dog? Why not change you?
Why not change the way you react to him when he does this? Why not take a breath and respond from a different perspective. From a more loving perspective.
Why not look at the situation from a higher level of consciousness? Your dog is teaching you about unconditional love. He's a dog being a dog.
I found it easier to accept this time. My vibration didn't plummet like before. My tone was still soft and loving and most importantly, I felt love in my heart. Love for my dog being a dog and love for myself. Love yourself enough not to lower your frequency.
So back to today. He did it again. He gave me another opportunity to “Love what is” and to love him unconditionally.
Today he rolled around in mud. Today it was not a decaying, dead animal. There were no flies all over him. He didn't stink to high heaven. I was already in a state of gratitude!!
He ran into the orange groves and didn't come when called which usually means he's rolling in something. He didn't come because he was experiencing one of his greatest joys in life. And nothing should stop us when we are experiencing our greatest joys in life. Even if those around us don't get it.
He finally came out of the orange groves and I saw the colour of him and I had a choice.
I could choose to go into reaction and scold him (for being a dog)
Or I could choose to take a breath and just love my dog! I chose to love all of him even this part of him. So I made that choice and the first thing to do when you make that choice in life, whoever you are triggered by, is to take a breath – long and slow. Understand that you have created the whole situation for your own benefit. You have created it in order to grow. It's a game and you are learning the rules of it. You are like a teenager wanting to be tested for their exam. You have created another opportunity to practice your response. To show yourself that you have mastered yourself in some way. That you can rise above such dramas.
When you understand this, it makes it all much easier to do because you don't have resistance to it. That way you work with the situation instead of pushing against it. You work with these triggering events in your life and you do so within for it has nothing to do with the person, thing or situation triggering you. You are the creator of your own reality. The frequency you are, is the frequency you create in your world. Raising your frequency and changing your perception is everything.
Instead of wishing these triggering events weren't there, you start welcoming them because you can see how they are helping to grow. You can see how they are helping you master your thoughts, emotions and yourself.
Every time you make progress with dealing with your triggers in this way, the subsequent events lessen. Today was a perfect example. Today was just mud and not a dead animal.
So once you have opened your heart to unconditional love you can start with the gratitude. Today I was grateful it was just mud and nothing too smelly. Gratitude will expand you into higher levels of Being. I expressed gratitude for my dog and how he enriches my life. I had gratitude that I wasn't in a hurry so I had time to bath him when I got home. I was grateful that I have a garden which I could shut him out in so he didn't take the mud indoors while I prepared the bucket of water. Grateful that I have warm water and soap. Grateful that I'm in old clothes so getting wet and dirty is not an issue. Grateful that I have a washing machine. Once you start with gratitude – it's really catchy, you can keep on going...so many blessings can be found when get into that energy. I was grateful for my dog and I was certainly grateful for the love and lessons he gives me!
So where's the big deal about my dog rolling in dirt? There isn't one. I get to bath my dog. And that can be fun. We can play tug of war with his towel afterwards. He always enjoys that. I'm so grateful that he allows me to bath him easily. I'm so grateful that he has his own towel so he doesn't rip up the good ones!! I'm so grateful it's so warm today – he can dry quickly in the sun. See? Gratitude gets addictive!!
The gratitude I felt was limitless as was the unconditonal love I felt for my dog.
So it's true what Wayne Dyer said,
“If you don't like what you see, change the way you look at it.”
With Byron Katie's work, she suggests you welcome the trigger into your life again. Why would you do that? So you can practice rising above these things. So you can practice unconditional love. So you can practice seeing mud and gold with the same eyes.
The point isn't to avoid negative experiences, it's to see the good and bad in the same light. This way there are no negative experiences because when you have done the inner work and transmuted the lower frequency emotions into love like this, you are no longer triggered by anything. This is how we can rise above drama. This is how we transmute lower frequency emotions into love.
Once you are no longer triggered by such events and have had all the practice in this that you need, you will no longer have such experiences. You won't have the lower frequency emotions within you being reflected back to you in this way. You will be creating your reality from the new, higher frequency of unconditional love. A triggerless reality!!
How does that sound?
Here's a link to my video on Understanding Triggers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG-Jhcdy3Ow&t=2s
Link to video on Mastering Thoughts and Emotions:
