Hi,
I'm Cheryl B.
Englehart,
And I would love to do a meditation with you.
And your pup.
So please join me and my special guest today,
Enzo.
As we do a calming.
.
.
Nervous system regulation,
Interactive meditation with your pup.
So we're going to start by doing a somatic reset for both us and our pups and what that looks like is a little bit of light squeezing from the extremities in towards the heart.
So you can start on yourself.
Start by being still.
If you have an active dog,
Mine is clearly chilling.
We're recording at the end of the day here.
But if you have an active dog,
Just let them walk around you,
Sniff what you're doing.
They'll start to see that you are calm and a safe space.
And they'll be like,
I kind of want some of that.
You can grab your feet and come all the way up the leg.
You can rub your head.
But no matter where you start on your body,
Make sure you bring the energy,
Bring the blood flow to your heart.
So take a minute and go ahead.
And do a little squeezing.
Somatic.
Heart centering.
You can start with the low belly and kind of come up into the chest area and start with your low back.
I had already done my arms while I was talking.
Bring that all the way.
Into your chest.
I'll give you another few seconds to.
.
.
Finish this somatic.
Just getting in our bodies.
Then we're going to do it on the pup.
Go ahead and take a deep breath in through your nose and out.
If you have a willing pup.
.
.
The first thing we can do,
You're so floppy.
First thing we do,
Just in the torso,
No matter what their energy is,
You're so floppy.
You just put each hand on either side of your pup.
And by the way,
I'm not a vet.
These are techniques I've learned over the years.
So definitely check with your veterinary before doing anything that you're unsure of with your pup.
That's my disclaimer.
All right,
Here we go.
So we're going to have either hand.
You're just going to go to sleep.
Either hand on the torso of your pup.
And you're just going to do a really,
Really gentle wiggle.
Just going to get them in their body.
If you have an active pup,
This will actually help them calm down a little bit.
It's something I do,
Especially if there's fireworks or a storm and they feel a little hyper,
We're going to start to just get that energy out.
Just a nice little torso back and forth.
They might sit or lie down.
As you can see,
Enzo is not letting me do it because he is just already in chill mode.
He's like,
Mom,
Stop.
So the next thing we're going to do with our squiggly pups,
If they allow you to touch their paws,
You are lucky.
And we're going to do the same thing that we did for ourselves,
But on our pups.
If they don't let you touch their paws,
You can start above the paw or maybe mid-leg.
But we're going to gently massage.
The paw,
Up the leg and then end up in their heart region.
Nice little massage.
Ending right in the center of their chest,
Just above their belly.
This really will start to calm them down if they were a little energetic.
This one will probably just fall straight asleep.
We'll do the back legs too.
Can I get this paw?
Thank you so much.
Nice little boop boop boop all the way up.
Oh yeah,
You like that.
And then we'll get the other one.
If you need to pause this video so you can get your pup in place.
The last somatic thing we're gonna do,
By the way,
This is all very beneficial for our nervous system.
We are releasing some oxytocin and serotonin and all those really beautiful hormones and chemicals into our body that are the calming and the happy chemicals.
It's been proven over and over again that when you pet your dog,
Those are released.
So the last thing we're gonna do is we're gonna go from the tip of the nose up in between the ears.
And let's just get you a little closer so that everyone can see what that looks like.
So from the tip,
Yes,
From the tip of the nose,
Up between the eyes,
And you're just going to drag one finger back.
Between the ears.
If they let you.
He was doing it great lying down.
Yeah.
Oh,
You want to do it yourself?
Okay.
This one I'm telling you.
All right.
Say hi to everybody,
Enzo.
All right.
Now we're going to start the meditation part of this video.
Get into a comfortable position where you have a lot of contact with your dog.
So maybe that's if your dog is small enough to be on your lap.
Maybe if that's them just lying next to you.
You And having as much contact as possible,
Body to body.
If you want to lie down and snuggle,
You can do that as well.
There's no right or wrong way to do this.
If you want to give some little scratches or belly rubs,
You absolutely can.
Hopefully the energy has gone down a little bit.
And we've got some calm vibes happening.
If they do let you hold their paws,
You can start the meditation just holding their front paws and maybe a little rub on that big pad there.
They really love that.
Okay,
Once we've settled in.
Yes,
You've got my finger,
Yes I see that.
Go ahead and take a breath in through the nose.
And close your eyes if you feel comfortable closing your eyes.
This is such a textile.
Meditation because we are feeling something so soft and precious.
We're feeling another life that trusts us and loves us.
And it's such a beautiful relationship,
The relationship with your pet.
There's so much trust.
So let's start feeling.
Gratitude.
That is the feeling we're going for here.
Just absolute gratitude for this creature lying,
Ideally lying next to you.
Being vulnerable with you.
Who sees you.
The best version of yourself.
Let your heart fill with gratitude.
If your eyes are open and you're looking at your pet,
You can say,
I am so grateful for you.
I love you.
When you're in this state of calm.
And you're co-calming.
You're both calm.
Saying phrases like,
I love you.
Can actually bring you and your pet back to this moment.
When you say it in the future.
So if you're trying to recreate this moment,
Come up with some phrases.
You can even teach your dog that it's time to meditate before you start.
Come meditate.
Good meditation.
Good meditation.
We like to associate.
Our bodies love associating.
And this is called anchoring.
So we're anchoring with our dog.
We're anchoring the experience of calm,
Of a regulated nervous system.
Of a pleasant somatic experience.
If you're not yet,
Go ahead and just stroke your pets.
Head,
Neck,
Back,
Whatever is available to you.
Really gentle long slow I want you to notice what does this feel like for you,
On your hand specifically.
But also in your heart.
Is your dog really floofy like mine?
Or do you have a short wiry hair dog?
Or is it curly hair?
Is it tough?
Is it light?
It's soft.
What does it feel like?
Just want to get really intentional with how present we are.
With the experience of being with this creature Keep taking those lovely deep breaths in through your nose.
You might even experience a magical moment when your dog will sigh with you and breathe in with you.
If your dog is relaxed and is comfortable,
You can give a little light,
Soft massage around the jaw.
Dogs' jaws do a lot of work.
They're super strong muscles.
And just being able to let go of this.
This worker muscle for a minute is really pleasant for your dog.
So we're giving the dog a somatic experience.
If they let you,
They'll tell you.
Flinched a little and said oh you know I'm okay with that.
Go back to the pets,
Mom.
You got to read them a little bit.
You can always come back and try these different exercises,
These different partner.
Processes at another time.
And just do the ones that are working for you.
There's no right or wrong way to connect with your pet.
So you can continue with the long pets if your pet wants that.
If you want to go back to holding or massaging their paws.
Pet's choice here.
Whatever has them feel most content.
Go ahead and do that.
And then we'll come back to you.
So once you get into your.
.
.
Your routine here.
We'll come back to focusing on what this feels like in our hands.
And also what this feels like in our hearts.
I'm just listening to her heart.
What's it saying?
This is so nice I'm so lucky I have this little creature.
Sometimes they drive me nuts.
We learn lessons of unconditional love from our dogs.
Beautiful thing to be able to look at how we can apply.
This kind of love to others in our lives,
Including ourselves.
We know we have the capacity.
Because we're doing it right now.
This is our evidence that we absolutely are able to be this sweet.
This patient.
This loving.
With others.
That's a great beautiful.
Thing to know about yourself.
Look what I can do.
Look what I can give.
And look what I get in return.
We'll take a few more deep breaths through the nose.
By now your pet may or may not be getting a little bored.
Or maybe they fell asleep.
Mine has decided to sit directly behind me and look out the window.
So that's fine.
So a couple more breaths together.
We never want to startle our pet.
With our departure.
So as you open your eyes.
Go ahead and give just a slightly faster pet before if you were doing the whole long stroke along the body.
You can just go from the head to the neck.
They'll figure out,
Oh,
Something's changing,
But it won't be jarring for them,
Right?
We're not going to cause any trauma.
By moving into the next part of our day You can thank your pet for joining you in this meditation today.
Enzo and I thank you very much for being here.
I hope you come back many times and watch this.
Let me know what you think.
If you want me to do more of these with Enzo.
Maybe we will.
And my name is Cheryl B.
Englehart.
Thank you again for following,
Watching,
And being here with me.
And Enzo.
Have a great rest of your day.
