Let Me Breathe with You and Let Presence Fill This Quiet
How my animals taught me the healing power of meditation and tuning in
Have I been meditating for a while? Ha, you could say that! Yes, I’ve been a meditator for many years. My animals join me, too — though I should say we meditate together. They guide the process as much as I do, and their meditation techniques are creative and varied.
Jonah
The first memory that comes to mind is that of my dog Jonah. He was dying, and we meditated together in my backyard while we were waiting for our vet to arrive. It was a mild late September day, and it was sunny.
I did a ceremony with him and took off the harness that he wore during the last months of his life. With great care, I gently brushed Jonah’s body. It was an act of devotion for my beautiful dog.
He had stopped eating a while ago and accepted a piece of shredded chicken as his last meal. The chicken was a sacred offering, my Prasad to him. Then, both of us went into the sphere and meditated.
Silence. Jonah’s heartbeat. Timelessness. My sadness. All of it. We journeyed through this together until he took his last breath. He was connecting with peace.
Moopy
My cats are born meditators. They often seem to sleep, but they are journeying the astral plains.
If anything, cats could be Zen masters and teach humans how to meditate. I think they nailed this, at least the cats that graced my life; I’m so lucky.
My cats often place themselves on a part of my body that needs healing. When they do this, I pay attention and get quiet with them. They often gaze at me as if seeing right through to my essence.
My cat Moopy was especially attuned to me like no other cat. At the end of her life, she slept next to my head and breathed with me in unison until I fell asleep. On her last day on earth, she sat all day motionless in my backyard, facing East, until she let her body go at night. She was a true goddess.
Shiva
My dog Shiva was also a meditator. Every night, he would retreat into another room to be still for an hour or two while my cat Moopy watched over him on the window sill.
Then, he would meander back into the central area of the house. Every. Single. Night.
I’m convinced he was a temple guardian in one of his previous lives.
Pablo and Meelah
My current dogs and I have our meditation time late in the evening, and we tune out the world. I sit or lie down with them. Sometimes on the floor, sometimes on my bed or the sofa. I synchronize my breathing with theirs. Our heartbeats are merging. This can last a few minutes or up to an hour, and it’s our time outside of time. We’re breathing in eternity in these moments. Our shared sacred breath is making us whole.
Esme
My cat, Esme, is still young and active. Esme seems to have an internal clock, and when it’s getting close to midnight, she comes to me and drapes herself on my lap, insisting that I put my hand on the top of her head, on her crown chakra. Needless to say, I stop what I’m doing when she’s going into meditation mode. She’s making muffins on one of my arms as I’m typing this, by the way.
Esme also habitually sits near my head at night, watching me drift to sleep. She makes soft sounds like a lullaby, ushering me into Dreamtime as stillness weaves around me.
Meditation with my pets is integral to my life, and I cannot imagine living without it. It has enriched me beyond measure. My animals keep reminding me that stillness and joy are our natural states — when we listen to our breath and heartbeat.
There’s nowhere else to be but here.
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You can read more about my cats and dogs in these stories