Did you know meditating with your pets can have a profound influence on their health and overall well-being?
Cultivating a daily meditation practice with your animal family is a precious and potent gift that allows them to flourish in all aspects of their lives—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually- which ultimately keeps them healthier and happier.
Here are 7 ways a daily meditation practice with your pets helps them heal:
If your pet doesn’t feel safe, then it’s hard for them to trust you. And if your pet doesn’t feel safe or trust you, then they can’t experience your unconditional love. Many times, we don’t recognize when our pets feel unsafe. Therefore, it’s essential to create a safe environment so your pets can feel secure.
2. Pets Mirror Our Energetic States
Whether you realize it or not, your thoughts influence both your’s and your pet’s health and overall well-being. Our thoughts and feelings are energy that flows outward from our physical bodies into the environment where our pets live. As your feelings of anger, anxiety, and fear reverberate, it can create stress, anxiety, and fear in your pet.
Animals make great teachers because they mirror our energetic states of being and respond to it, whether it’s loving or unkind. That’s why it’s important we work on being calm, open-hearted, and balanced because it helps everyone feel more relaxed and joyful, which is healing and nurturing.
3. Meditating with your pet promotes healing and overall wellness.
When my dog Bodhi Bear was riddled with terminal stomach cancer in his last days, I was anxious, scared, and worried. I noticed that my anxiety and fear were adding to Bodhi Bear’s pain and discomfort. When I shifted my focus and awareness to my heart center through meditation, I found that not only did I settle down, but it allowed Bodhi to relax.
4. Pet-Led Meditation Bolsters Oxytocin
No one can open our hearts better than our animal companions. When we are heart-connected with our pets and feel their unconditional love, oxytocin flows freely. Oxytocin is a hormone and a neurotransmitter associated with empathy, trust, and relationship-building, which is crucial for developing a strong, loving bond with your pet.
Daily meditation practice with your pet bolsters loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and awe because it increases oxytocin. What could be better?
5. Develops Mutual Understanding and Deep Listening
Meditation deepens your listening skills and telepathic connection between you and your pet. Clear communication is the basis of all healthy and balanced relationships. In the silence of meditation, you will learn to listen from your heart center, which builds a spiritual bridge of mutual understanding where your pets can share their thoughts, viewpoints, and heart with you.
A fun and easy way to hear your pet at a heart level is to simply feel all the unconditional love you have for them. Then visualize radiating your love outward from your heart center like the rays of the sun. Then remain open and receptive to whatever your pet wants to communicate with you in the moment. It’s okay if you don’t receive any messages since the goal is to simply share your hearts together as one. However, this will open the door for your pet to share their heart with you.
6. Pets Flourish with a Daily Meditation Practice
A daily routine of spending at least 5 minutes a day (of course, the longer, the better) being quietly present while sharing your heart with your pet can go a long way to helping them feel safe, secure, and loved. Pets do exceptionally well when we establish a daily meditation routine. It helps them in all aspects of their life.
Once I recognized that being quietly present with my cats or walking in Nature with my dog was actually meditating with them, it transformed the way I viewed meditation and my relationship with my pets.
Every day, I meditate with my cats first thing in the morning. It’s a perfect time for Mona to sit in my lap or Elvis to drape himself across my chest for at least 10 minutes (if it was up to Mona and Elvis, I’d never move!). Our goal is to be quietly present, so we can share our hearts together.
I also enjoy experiencing my daily walking meditation with my puppy, Yogi Bear. We enjoy being quietly present together as we feel our heart connection while mindful of our natural surroundings.
7. Meditating with Your Pet Shows Them That You Love and Value Them
When you meditate with your pet, it supports and improves your relationship. Our pets give us unconditional love daily and deserve nothing less than our loving presence in return. It also tells your pet that you cherish them.
The more you take the time to meditate with your pet, the more connected you will feel. Doing so will foster spiritual growth, health, wellness, and transformation, which will benefit you and your animal family!
Want to learn more about and experience how you can affect the wellness and happiness of your pet through meditation?
You’re invited to my upcoming PETtalk on Meditation with Pets sponsored by the Connecticut Humane Society on Thursday, September 30.