Another Step

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the dogs admin podcast. I am glad you're here. This is the show where you learn to let your dog lead. Lead you back to love. A you're back, you're back. I'm back. You're back. Everybody's back. How's it going today? Or this morning, or tonight? I am so stoked, so stoked, so stoked. So where are you at? Where are you at today? Where are you at physically? Where are you at emotionally? How much love do you have in your life? Are you ready to take one more step? Take another step in the direction that you want to go. Let's do that. Let's do that. So what does this look like for you? This step can be anything, I recommend you use your dog. Okay, this is highly important, incredibly important. We're going to take all this up a notch from what we've done so far. Like I mentioned in the last episode, this all comes from book I wrote, letting your dog lead. And there's ways to get a free copy. I think last time I said just email me which you can still do. Michael at dogs and men.com. You can also go to www dogs and men.com. And it takes you to a link tree. And there's a whole bunch of stuff on there. There's free copies of this book and free digital copy, I'm sorry, a PDF copy of another book that I co authored and tons of podcasts that I've been on and shows that kind of thing. So hopefully, there's some resources in there, that'll help you out. So let's get back to this. So the next step, we want to be working on compassion. And this is such a hard one for guys, right? We have this macho tough guy shit built in, that we've been trained by society, culture, even our own families to portray that we have to show up a certain way. Or we're going to change that shit. So this is one that I want you to listen to, with your dog. Right? Because we're going to do some stuff. All right, you ready? Get set? All right, where's your dog? Okay, just kidding. So, when you look at your dog, think of what that dog really, really gives you on a deep level, right? What are they doing for you? The days when you're happy the days when you're sad? This dog is holding this compassionate space for you. At any given time. All right, they love celebrating with you. They also love being there and supporting you in this completely other way. So there's this level of compassion that we normally don't assign to other creatures as we see them and maybe other people in our lives. Now the dog is trying to help you see that the compassion you extend to them can also be extended to yourself. Right, you can be a little more compassionate and gentle with yourself as a skill to learn that you can also begin to use with other people in your life. This is going to be a tough one because we've not trained in this. We've not practiced this. But your dog is there to help I swear to God, it's the truth. So how can we begin? This is so simple. Let's just begin with sitting with your dog. And I want you to pet your dog. So slowly, right, just gently run your head from your head, not your head, your head, gently rubbed, run your hand from their head, slowly down their back down to where their tail is some may not like that. So you stop wherever they don't want. They don't want you to touch it. And then you do it again and go a little slower. Right. And you may begin to notice some sensations in your hand. Let's say maybe it's just the texture of their coat. You can feel the muscles underneath the skin. This is this is where it all begins right We begin to notice a little more. You know, and sometimes we may find something that that is worrisome, and concerning. And then oh, I wouldn't have noticed this, you know, if I hadn't been doing this exercise, maybe your dog needs to go to the vet, whatever it is, but this is about noticing. Okay? So just run that hand. So lay down their body, and maybe change locations, maybe it's down their chest and onto their stomach, down a leg. So what does that feel like? In your hand? Do you notice any sensation right? Do you notice any energy? Maybe? It's like a soft buzzing. For some people. It's like a tingling sensation. But just begin to notice that because this is you waking up to the energy potential that your dog experiences all the time. We think we're so damn smart. We think we have all this shit figured out. You know, guys, we don't know shit. And our dogs are here to teach us so much. So tune in. Right? They are so in tune with nature. We are not. So go back to it. Start again. Run your hand. What do you notice? As you do this, what do you hear? Can you tune into your dog's breath? Can you tune into other sounds, maybe in the room, maybe outside. Continuing to gently pet or stroke this dog. So slowly. See if you can slow it down a little more. And see what you can hear. Okay, do this for a few more seconds. All right, now continue the petting or stroking. And see if you can smell something. Hopefully it's not your dogs. But let's see if you can smell that the scent from their fur. Maybe you can smell their paws their breath. Maybe you smell yourself because you need a shower. Whatever it is just gently stroke this dog, see if you can feel that energy and see what you can smell. Now close your eyes and see if that helps a little bit. Because Energy flows where attention goes. So pet that dog. Place your attention on this other sense. Let's see what you get. Okay. Now, open your eyes, we're going to change this again. As you slowly pet that dog. Pick one point across the room can be a piece of furniture, you know, a doorknob, whatever it is. And just look at it. Right? Just soften your gaze if that makes sense. Let your eyelids close a tiny bit so that you're not just you know, giving it this like aggressive stare. And just see if you can slow your breathing a tiny bit while you're staring at this object and petting your dog. And we're just going to do this for about a minute. Soft gaze slow pet. Slow pretty thing. Yeah. So what are you noticing? Now? Don't think about what you noticed before? What are you noticing now? Is there a heightened sensation in your touch? Right maybe you're more sensitive to what you're feeling on your dog. Maybe your hand feels denser tight? How's it feel to be breathing slower? Do you feel more relaxed? This is amazing. So this is an exercise that you can do anytime with your dog. You know, maybe I don't know walk in you just stop for a minute