It is puppy time! My husband, Pat, and I welcomed Ruby Sunshine into our home on March 13. She is a Labrador puppy. Wow, the learning curve for me has been steep! As I have mentioned before, I have not had the experience of babies or pets in my adult life. I was quite content having my own time and own routines, or no routines. However, Pat’s and my collective guidance was that it was time for us to add this bundle of joy to our home. Ruby is joyful, fun and cute. I believe she will be a wonderful companion for us. She is however, a real live being with needs, fears and her own personality. She has her own will and her own teeth!
As I mentioned in last month’s blog entry, I knew I would need to stop judging myself that I would mess up Ruby’s life. Well, I guess I had not totally crossed that off my to-do list when we picked her up at the breeder. I am grateful that Pat has had experience with pets as the first couple of days found me second guessing everything I was doing, or feeling bad about it, even when I was doing what the books on puppy behavior recommend.
At a particularly low point for me, Pat told me that the only way we could truly mess Ruby up would be to abuse her, which is not in our nature. I was meditating on the topic a day or so later trying to clear through my reluctance to follow the recommendations for Ruby. I heard from my own guidance that Pat was right, but in addition, the other way to mess up Ruby would be to not train her. That was my “ah-ha” moment.
Instead of looking at the actions to modify behavior as “discipline,” I was be guided to look at the actions as training. For me, this is a very important distinction. If I look at what I am doing and what all the books say to do as training for Ruby, then it is no different from how I would look at raising a child to eat with a fork or learn the alphabet. What a disservice it would be to allow a child to be lawless and uneducated. That would ruin the child’s life. The same would be for not training Ruby to be a well behaved Labrador.
I also heard from my guidance and these behavior books that I needed to not anthropomorphize animals. I need to honor them for who they are but remember that they are part of Source and not a victim to the whims of a feckless deity who made them be animals. Being an animal is just another great experience here on earth. Ruby is a pack animal and needs to be trained and loved the way a pack animal needs to be handled. Treating her as a human is not fair to the essence of who she is. Treating her as a human is not fair to who she truly is. Thus, training is on the agenda!
Fortunately, I can couple the physical training with the energy work and resonances which are part of my service to my clients and to humanity, as well. I am seeking guidance as to how to balance Ruby’s needs individually with the needs of the family unit, as well. I continue to work with the feeling states of Harmony, Cooperation, Unity and Oneness for Ruby, Pat and me. This is how Pat and I will attempt to raise a conscious puppy.
Where in your life would you benefit from looking at a situation as needing training v. discipline? We might look at our exercise regime and think we need more discipline. Or we might look at our meditation practice and think we need more discipline. But, doesn’t the idea of more discipline sound daunting? Sometimes the idea of more discipline makes me think I am being punished. What if I changed the way I look at the situation from discipline and punishment to training and the rewards of that training? The rewards of more exercise might be that I feel better and I am able to fend off colds and viruses more effectively. The rewards of increased meditation time might be that I feel more at peace even in the midst of the chaos that I see all around me.
The energy of training allows me to see the benefit of the end state. The energy of discipline sometimes feels like it is the avoidance of unwanted characteristics. It is the difference of looking at something as the carrot vs. the stick. Let’s say that thirty more minutes of meditation is the goal. If I look at the thirty minutes as training to make myself better, I will go into the training with a positive attitude and a higher energy frequency. If I look at the thirty minutes as discipline, it is possible I will have a lower energy frequency and resent the time. The time will still be spent, but the intention and the attitude of one will give much better results than the other.
Ask yourself to evaluate in your life where you would benefit from looking at the energy of more training vs. the energy of more discipline. Allow yourself to focus on the end state and the benefits of not believing yourself to be a victim of the circumstances around you. Instead, view yourself as training yourself to be the best version of yourself you can be. Let the training begin!
