My discovery.
I consider myself to be a pretty spiritual guy. I like to meditate daily, I read books to expand my awareness of life with a desire to explain the question of ‘what’s it all about’. I do healing work with people and consider myself to be living a life of service. I even eat all the right foods for my body, exercise, socialize and play regularly. It has taken me years to balance these parts of my life out to a point where it was and act of routine rather than a Herculean effort for change.
Along with all of this effort to achieve a healthy balance in myself, I’ve also been working to manifest a more lucrative, stable and fulfilling career as well as a great partner to share all of this with. While success in these various aspects of my life has been slow and at times painful, I have seen progress. I am much happier with myself than I once was. For a time, when I saw a positive shift, I thought that life was just giving me a break. Then one day I realized that I actually had something to do with my improving life. Eureka! I was no longer a victim of circumstance. That was an empowering moment! It’s a moment that has given me the courage to get out and try different things with my newfound secret about how life works. Things like getting a dog!
Enter dog.
Not long ago I adopted a rescue dog. She’s a beautiful, eleven month old, white, Husky mix with two different colored eyes. She’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. She nuzzled right up to me and I fell in love with her right away. With her pretty white coat and sweet demeanor, I couldn’t help but name her Angel. While she’s got all of these amazing qualities about her, she also comes with her quirks. She didn’t suddenly learn her new name as soon as she jumped into my arms. The first thing she did when she entered my home was jump on my bed and pee. She occasionally sits, won’t stay, sometimes comes but usually doesn’t. Then there is the granddaddy quirk…she has separation anxiety. I can’t leave her alone for 10 minutes without her crying loudly and raising the concerns of the neighbors. In short, I realized that I’ve got got a lot of work to do. More importantly, I figured out that I have a lot of learning to go through in order to raise my Angel in the right way.
A good poop.
So it began. I started getting up an hour and half earlier so I could walk my sweet Angel. I started reading everything I could online. I began talking to other dog owners. I bought books to read. I watched videos online, consulting experts. You name it, I did it. I began working with her daily, loving her daily, nurturing her and monitoring her behaviors daily. Every day I made mistakes. Every day I leaned something new. Then it happened, she pooped for the first time on our morning walk…on leash and everything! I was so excited! As I was bagging up my prize, (Small accomplishments add up to big changes and this was big to me!) I realized that this event was a total reflection of life itself. The stinky little pile in front of me had given me the insight into what lead to my self empowering discovery a few years back.
Steady repetition.
The success of Angel’s little offering had required me to make a lot of changes in my life. I changed my sleeping patterns, I had to learn a lot of new things and I had to engage myself in a new way. Why? Because I know that if I don’t, I will end up with a dog that eats my furniture and does her business on my friend’s floor. Mind you, this isn’t about what I don’t want. It’s about wanting things to be easy. However, it takes a loving effort on the front end in order to accomplish this. Life is really the same way. Things show up or disappear based upon what we choose to focus our energy on. Just like Angel, I know that life always gives us what we put our attention on. To get her to respond to my requests, I have had to first identify what I wanted to change and focus on the positive outcome. Then I ask that of her consistently and with steady repetition.
Love conquers all!
Most importantly the quality of that focus has to be right. Just like when I’m trying to manifest something in life, I have to be patient when training Angel. When I fall out of patience, I fall out of love. Angel, and life itself, certainly don’t give me what I want when I’m frustrated or afraid. However, when I’m loving and patient, things flow. Did you know that our emotions are magnetic? It’s true. That’s why we always manifest things in a way that is consistent with how we are feeling. When I’m irritated, Angel is the devil and she wants nothing to do with the tyrant behind these eyes. Life responds in the same way. It’s a fascinating parallel that’s SO simple it’s easy to miss.
Tying it all together.
The best part of it all is that I get to choose how I show up. I get to choose what I am going to manifest and how I am going to do it. You have the same options with your life too. We all do. With that in mind, I have a new take on life. I am training my life just like I am training my Angel. I get clear on what I want her to do, (WHAT do I want to manifest in my life?). I get clear on how I’m going to train this behavior into her, (HOW am I going to manifest this in my life?) I then consistently ask this of her, (Taking consistent ACTION to manifest what I want.). After that I love, love, love her up when she begins to respond, (CELEBRATE the small achievements.). Sometimes my approach doesn’t work with her. So I re-evaluate and change my strategy. I then do that consistently for a while, (Remain FLUID to find the most effective way.). I also know that training her takes time. So I remain patient. (PATIENCE with the timing for when life delivers what we want is crucial.)
Sometimes life still doesn’t respond the way I want it to. That’s all good. Sometimes Angel still puts her pretty paws up on the bed. That’s ok, I know I still have some work to do…but at least she stopped putting her pee on my bed!
