Our animals are there for us. They understand exactly what issues are important to us at a particular stage in our lives and they help us to make them visible to ourselves. Animals often reflect our inner state. If we manage to focus on ourselves in such phases, listen to ourselves and interpret their clues, they open up opportunities for us to get to know ourselves better, change certain behavior and grow. I would like to tell you about a personal experience from the recent past.
Today I have set myself some goals. I want to take time to study for my further education and there are two new books I have found waiting to be read. I feel restless and decide to go out with my two dogs, Teo and Emilia, first. My restlessness is transferred to Teo, as evidenced by how long it takes me to put his collar on in peace. The usual situation then arises on the walk. Emilia always stays behind and takes her time sniffing, looking around, listening and I always have to call her to go on and stay with us. Teo, on the other hand, is always in front. He keeps his nose to the ground, always on the lookout for something new and with a certain inner restlessness. He often forgets that we are still there. When I call him, he usually reacts and if I insist, he comes back. But then he immediately goes off again to make further discoveries.
I feel anything but at peace with this situation. At the moment, Teo is stressing me out the most. I get really angry and feel helpless when he runs off and no longer listens to me or connects with me. It's a real and - as I'm beginning to understand - a serious inner conflict for me.
Then I have the following thoughts: my inner conflict arises from two sides of me that I have been struggling to reconcile lately. One side is constantly on the lookout for something new. It gets excited quickly and can hardly sit still. It hates having to wait and being held back. These are the two new books on my desk. The other side is the one who likes to take time to linger and delve deeper into what she already knows. It hates being disturbed and not having enough time to really learn something new in peace. It's studying as part of my further training.
And now I can see it clearly: my two dogs, Teo and Emilia, are showing me exactly this situation! Teo leads the way, always with his nose to the ground, looking for new smells. Sometimes he is like in a tunnel, hearing nothing, seeing nothing, restlessly on the move in search of the next interesting discovery. In contrast to Emilia, who is attracted by a smell and stops, taking her time to sniff and examine every blade of grass. This can take time and she is then completely in her own world and forgets her surroundings.
I love my dogs deeply and this love helps me to suddenly see the situation with different eyes. It's wonderful to watch how happy Teo is when he can go exploring and let his curiosity run wild. That's how I feel when I throw myself into the adventure of reading a new book, for example! And I love watching Emilia's calmness and concentration and admiring her dedication to detail. That's how I feel when I can immerse myself in a subject and forget everything around me. And suddenly I feel that I am looking at myself with different eyes: I can lovingly perceive both sides of myself and that alone causes an inner calm and peace to begin to spread within me. The nervousness, the feelings of anger and helplessness are blown away and I begin to feel at ease in the middle of Teo and Emilia.
From now on, every walk with Teo and Emilia becomes a wonderful opportunity for me to lovingly deal with the issue of my inner conflict. The impressive thing is: since the decisive moment when I became aware of the connection between my inner conflict and the behavior of my dogs on the walks, they have been behaving differently. Now they alternate in their behavior. Sometimes Emilia is in front, sometimes Teo stays put - it's all become much more relaxed, as if they know that their person has understood the lesson and it's no longer necessary to remind him every day.
THANK YOU EMILIA, THANK YOU TEO !!!
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