Telling, Very Telling – Dog Massage

There is a significant difference of communication styles and opportunities in human and animal massage.

People can tell you what the injury is, where and how it hurts, how much pressure to exert, and what angulations to use to move to comfort.

Horses cannot tell you. They cannot share their relevant information about how or when or where they sustained injuries. They don’t have the words to describe where in their bodies they feel numbness, tightness or discomfort. You have observe how they move and the signals they give about how they are reacting and responding to your massage.

Dogs may be able to lead you to the well where Timmy fell, but they cannot tell you where they were hurt and when it happened. Dogs cannot tell you the circumstances of their perceived unjust treatment. You have to observe them closely. Watch their gait and movements when standing and sitting. Notice how they adjust their distance from people and other dogs. Notice how they are reacting and responding to your massage. To truly understand them enough to help them, you have to be open to listening to their stories.

Telling, Very Telling – Dog Massage

Cats don’t have the vocabulary to tell you, either. Or, it’s more likely that they just don’t want to share that much. Very private, cats

Gant: Equine Massage – PetMassage Energy work

On a very cold morning, in 1996, I got a call from the owners of the barn where I was boarding my horse, Gant [short for “Elegant”]. Gant was a beautiful, high-strung, flashy Arab gelding, bay with black mane and tail, and 4 white socks. He had foundered and they wanted to know what I thought they should do. They had already tried several vets and all were too busy to come out to the barn. I said, “Just keep him moving and I’ll be there, ASAP.”

Forty-five minutes of slippery, frantic driving later, I pulled into their driveway. When I entered the barn, I saw Gant, propped up against the wall in his stall with two small, tired women holding him up. He was covered with dust and straw. His eyes were dull. His head looked heavy. He was in a funk. I looked at him and felt a wave of nausea flow over me. My tongue and throat were sticky-thick and my stomach churned in empathy.

We pulled him out into the center of the aisle and the two women held him steady. The barn was unheated. It was a long 60-stall building with 30 stalls on each side of a wide cement aisle. Bare light bulbs suspended from the ceiling beams every 20 or so feet, created a diminishing pattern of alternating light and shadow down the length of the aisle. We could hear the sounds of the other horses in the aisle moving about in their stalls quietly slurping water and munching hay.

I sensed that Gant was in so much discomfort that any actual pressure to his body would be more annoying than helpful. So, I scanned his body with both hands, following the contours of his body 3 to 6 inches off the surface. At a point around his stomach, I sensed a distortion in his energy field. I breathed into this point propelling connectivity through my palms. Having connected with my hands I slowly backed away feeling for the edge of his affected layer of energetic armoring. I stepped back and back and back. At over 30 yards away from him I felt the shell of his swollen, distended chakra. It felt like a knobby soap bubble but with no moisture. I held the “bubble,” and waited for it to shift.

Gant: Equine Massage – PetMassage Energy work

All of a sudden we all noticed that the horses on both sides of the aisle had stopped moving about in their stalls. The birds in the rafters were still. The barn was absolutely silent. The row of bare lights overhead flickered. We all felt a surge of electricity crackled the air. The “bubble” I was holding softened and just like that–vanished.

Gant raised his head, moved his weight forward onto his forelegs, arched his tail up and let go a mighty fart. He shook and the sawdust sprayed from his head, neck and shoulders. He began prancing about on the cement. His color was back, his eyes were bright, and his attitude was back. Gant was back.

One of the witnesses was a true skeptic, an OR nurse, who had never seen energetic healing work before. She kept repeating, “If I hadn’t seen it, I never would have believed it.”

1 Art and Essence of Canine Massage: PetMassage_TM for Dogs – Book – http://petmassage.com/?product=art-and-essence-of-canine-massage-petmassagetm-for-dogs

2 PetMassage_TM Energy Work with Dogs – Book and 5 Audio CD set http://petmassage.com/?product=petmassagetm-energy-work-with-dogs-book

3 Watch for the announcement of the release of the newly edited, expanded version of Transitions as an Ebook.

The elements that I needed to know were coming together. From my dad, I’d learned that it was possible to become an open receiver for psychic transmissions. Healing Touch taught me that auras and chakras, and zones of energy exist. I learned to sense the textural qualities of the chakras and auras, of energy, and how their patterns relate to health and wellness. This energy work became the core of my human and equine massage.

Then on July 11^th, 1997, while demonstrating massage for a television show called “Pampered Pets,” I had the most powerful insight yet. 

I had been invited to give a demonstration of equine massage for the television station, WTOL, Toledo, OH. Within minutes, the horse that I was massaging relaxed into a deep stillness, which was not especially interesting to video, as there were no visible reactions to observe. My interviewer noticed an old yellow farm dog resting in the shadows of the barn door and called him over, saying, “Dogs get stiff necks, too. Jonathan works on dogs, too. Let’s see what he can do.”

I supported the dog’s large heavy head in my hands. I was observing his eyes rolling back into their sockets in ecstasy. Drops of saliva were dripping from his tongue. His soft dusty ears flopped over my thumbs and my awareness spontaneously broadened. Opened. It was as if a curtain was opened or a fog lifted. The experience lasted only a moment. And in that millisecond, I saw –and knew- the value and potential of PetMassage_TM for pets and their people.

This was an awe-inspiring experience. I was a witness to glimpse the depth and breadth of the Akasha. The term “Akashic records ” or “Akashic library” refers to an ethereal compendium of all knowledge and history. It is the wealth of information that clairvoyants like Edgar Cayce accessed. It is my understanding that the Akasha is the repository of everything and all their possible permutations. It’s the ancient version of 21^st Century quantum theory. 

I saw the faces of thousands of dogs. I knew each of their stories and how PetMassage_TM had helped them. I saw millions of people and knew how their lives had been enhanced when they PetMassaged their dogs at home. Children learned to interact safely and respectfully with their dogs practicing PetMassage_TM. Adults, who had been the victims of dog-bites as children, used PetMassage_TM as a way to work through their feelings of fear and powerlessness with dogs. 

I saw vets, vet techs, groomers, and handlers giving PetMassage to dogs in vet offices. I saw the covers of books and videos; knew their contents and how they’d been used. I saw the schools all over the world teaching PetMassage_TM. The road did not yet exist; yet it was well paved. It was already there.

I saw it all at once. Everything was clear; as each element was alone and separate, and was the only image I was focusing on. The vision lasted, as I said, but a moment; and I was back to our flattened semi-opaque 3-dimensional world. What a profound insight—an epiphany. PetMassage_TM would help dogs and their people. I’d somehow dipped my wicket into a level of awareness greater than I had ever imaged! Maybe this was a glimpse of Heaven! It certainly was not of this world. My takeaway was that I had witnessed something real that had tremendous value.

I realized simultaneously I had spent my entire life preparing for this moment. I had the knowledge, the experience and the creative desire to get people all over the world to use PetMassage to nurture dogs.

The PetMassage form would be different from other techniques for canine massage. It would be focused on tracking the subtle shifts of energy within the dog and then, supporting the movement of the shifts with a very intentional massage to magnify dog’s natural healing abilities.

This was the vision that began PetMassage for dogs.

The skills essential for working with animals are all based in energy awareness. 

My focus immediately pivoted from nursing and massage for humans and horses to PetMassage for dogs. Here was a teachable way for us to know what the dog is thinking, or feeling! Now we can tell if a dog is grieving, or confused, or carrying an emotional burden. Now we can help dogs attain peace of mind, peace of body and peace of spirit!

I soon learned how to share dogs’ thought experiences, as I had with my dad that Christmas Eve. There is an example of this in the December, 2014 Helpful Hint: “Endorphins are forever,” http://petmassage.com/?p=3037

In PetMassage_TM workshops you learn the skills of what it means to be open, how to listen and what you are listening for, and what you are feeling. Dogs (we focus on canine work) are eager to share their stories with you. You just have to set your inner receiver to their frequencies. They are all there, like the dozens of invisible radio signals. You know about AM and FM. Now you have PM, PetMassage_TM.

When I hold dogs during PetMassage_TM, our awareness opens and we share the gift of presence. We experience and share the random memories that surface. The dogs with me; mine with them. Each experience, as with my dad’s is a hologram of the dog’s entire life.

I am not as interested in the details of the story as I am in how the dog’s body is bearing the weight of the stories. For example, when I sense a unique quality in a dog’s throat chakra, I have more contextual information of the dog’s overall quality of life. Now, I have a better idea of what his needs are, while we share PetMassage_TM.

Validation? Dogs often indicate that they enjoy the presence of a “witness.” They express it with their body language, their respiration, the lay of their coats, nasal sinus drainage. I describe to their owners whatever memories and perceptions I pick up. When the descriptions resonate as true, the owners respond with pheromone-producing, emotions which the dogs can smell and interpret.  

PetMassage_TM combines the skills of energy awareness, listening, and empathy with hands-on massage manipulations. Of course, we work on canine anatomy physically, based on the knowledge sets of Kinesiology, physiology, psychology and body language. And with all that, what are we truly addressing in PetMassage_TM? We address, and support, and listen to, and empathize with surfacing memories.  

The stories are often in the form of short video clips. There is always some sort of emotional hook. The moment was enjoyable. It was painful. We are sniffing and peeing on the weeds at the base of one randomly selected fence post in a long bare split-rail fence along a country road. It was one pearl in a strand. Without that singular pearl, the strand would fall apart.

Think of it as a lot like talk therapy. You do not have to offer a solution. You don’t even have to know precisely what the dog is saying, thinking, or processing. You just have to know that the processing is happening. Stay present. Your roles are to create an ambience that is comfortable for the dog and their people, to know and apply the correct techniques to open their energetic armoring, and then, bear witness for them and to their people by describing what you sense as they release their memories.

What a powerful sense of grace and love to bring to the PetMassage_TM table! This is soul therapy for dogs.

It sounds like I have special powers. I don’t. If I could move beyond all my belief and training limitations, and learn to embrace these awareness skills, anyone can. Everyone can learn them. You can learn them. I can teach you. That’s the reason we have the PetMassage_TM School.

The psychic experience shifted the direction of my life. My life would never be the same. Psychic experiences do happen! And, hey: I had one. We can do it.

Then the questions arose. Was this some random event? Was the experience repeatable? Could I recreate the conditions necessary to access information like this? And, what were the conditions? Did I have special psychic abilities that I could develop? Could I experience the Akashic Record like Edgar Cayce? How could I learn to open my psychic antennae? Could I learn to receive at will?
 
These questions stumped me for several years. All the information, the media and apparatus were all obviously there, ready and waiting to be accessed. They had all been beautifully and evocatively described by the Hay House stable of authors such as Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, James Redfield, and of course, Louise Hay.
 
The answers were elusive, though. I knew the channels were there. I just had no clue how to tune my receiver to receive the stations. I didn’t even know where my psychic dials were! I had a fear that I might be inundated with images. What if I couldn’t handle the information?
 
Whenever I attempted to focus on receiving, I got in my own way. I tried too hard. I was sure access was possible; just didn’t know how to do it.
 
I’d like to interject here that the unfolding of my talents was not planned. It was not something that I set out to accomplish. It is only in retrospect that I can see how one event opened me to another, and another, and another; until, here I am, sharing this, now, with you.
 
A few years after the mind-reading experience with my dad, I decided to change career fields and enrolled in the nursing school at Harry S. Truman College in Chicago. One morning in the final semester before graduation, I woke up with a stiff neck. It was so distractingly painful that I couldn’t think coherently. I met with one of my instructors complaining (nursing term) that I was unable to look down or turn my head. I was especially concerned because I was scheduled to take the City Colleges of Chicago HESI exit exam that afternoon. It was an important test. If I didn’t do well, I would not be permitted to sit for the RN exam. My instructor asked if he could try something that might provide some relief and placed the palm of his hand on the side of my neck.
 
And, he held it there. There was no special heat. No pressure. No rubbing. No vibration. No movement. He just had his hand on my neck; his other hand hung loosely at his side. I had no idea what he was doing. I’d just spent two years learning about medical care – from the American perspective; and this wasn’t in any of my textbooks. This was absurd.
 
After a few uncomfortably confusing minutes, he withdrew his hand. I turned my head toward him to ask, “What was that?” and noticed to my amazement, before I could get the words out, that the muscle tightness was gone. I moved my head from side to side, up and down, and around in circles. Stiff neck, gone. Tightness, gone. Pain, gone. Just like that! What was that?”
 
My nursing instructor, who had a Masters in Critical Care Nursing, told me that he used this Healing Touch every day in the ER. That immediately gave the technique credibility. It was used in hospitals right along with the bright lights, the meds and the shiny machines. Voodoo in the medical care system! Who knew? This was my introduction to Healing Touch.
 
Healing Touch was a way of using “magic” to heal people. I was hooked! I had to learn what my instructor was doing and how to do what he did.
 
The very next day, I learned about a Healing Touch class in Evanston offered by members of the Holistic Nurses Association. More credibility. I began attending their weekly lessons. The initial goal was to somehow “read” and “adjust” people’s energy zones. Energy? Zones? What were these? I was in way over my head.
 
During guided meditations we were instructed to “ground” ourselves. Grounding? What a curious term! I had a really difficult time visualizing “grounding.” We were told to feel our roots sink deep into the earth. But we were on an upper floor of an office building! I was confused. What a strange and foreign culture!
 
There had to be something there. How could I possibly know what I was supposed to feel? All the other trainees were saying they were feeling something.
 
One evening during one these Healing Touch training sessions, I felt a movement. I didn’t feel it in my hands. It was a different type of palpation. I felt something “shift” in my body. It wasn’t muscular; it was somewhere vaguely in the back of my chest, behind my heart. Was that the movement I’d been waiting for? I held my hand over the same area of my partner’s body and grinned. I felt it again. It was repeatable.
 
Now that I knew what I was looking for, I could practice with other students. I began to get more and more adept. Soon I was able to recognize all sorts of non-physical movements. I could sense the invisible. I could sense the immeasurable. Patients that I practiced on validated that what I felt was consistent with their medical evaluations. I began experiencing not only temperature variations and movement, form and function, but also contextual shapes and their relationships within their sequences of chakras. “Chakras?!”
 
This was an extraordinary education. My right – brained – artistic/intuitive – work balanced the logical/linear left-brained nursing skills.
 
I soon took additional training to become a massage therapist and discovered Tai Chi. Tai Chi was another practice that resonated with me. I learned to observe the internal movements of Chi energy. There were variations within Chi yin – yang balance. The symbol of the yin – yang represents the goal to achieve balance. It represents movement toward balance. It represents intention toward balance. It represents homeostasis. Tai Chi taught me to feel my own energy and balance. I was learning to listen; not so much with my ears, but with my whole body.
 
If you would like to begin or continue your journey of learning these PetMassage_TM “animal communication” and energy interactive techniques the following list is the recommended PetMassage_TM books in the order to study them.
 
1 TRANSITIONS: PetMassage_TM For the Aging & Dying Dog – Book – http://petmassage.com/?product=transitions-petmassagetm-for-the-aging-dying-dog
2 Art and Essence of Canine Massage: PetMassage_TM for Dogs – Book – http://petmassage.com/?product=art-and-essence-of-canine-massage-petmassagetm-for-dogs
3 PetMassage_TM Energy Work with Dogs – Book and 5 Audio CD set http://petmassage.com/?product=petmassagetm-energy-work-with-dogs-book
 
Then, I invite you to attend hands-on workshops, in Toledo, where I can teach you in person, at the PetMassage_TM school.

On Christmas 2014, I found myself rereading the pages of the book Transitions, PetMassage Energy Work for the Aging and Dying Dog. It has been over ten years since I poured my heart into its writing. The process at the time was cathartic; an exercise that I was compelled to do. The response that I have gotten from the people who have read it is truly heartwarming. I’m so pleased that I am able to help others through the process of their dogs’ transitions.

Now, that I that have some distance, I thought that reediting it to an eBook format would be easy. And then, I started wondering where I got the skills I describe in the book. How did I get to the point where I realized I had the wherewithal to help dogs and their people?

Christmas is an especially reverential time for me. We live in a culture that gives huge amounts of energy to winter holidays. A lot happens at Christmas-Solstice  time. People get engaged. Couples break up. Babies are born. It seems that a lot of people die around Christmas. It was on a Christmas Eve in 1985 that my dad died.

The death of a parent has a profound influence on each of our lives. Death affects each of us, of course, in our own way. I was lucky to have a dad who was my friend. He was a role model. He quietly embodied personal and professional integrity. He demonstrated through his actions, for me, how to love.

I had given him plenty of opportunities over the years, to hone his practice of unconditional love. Supportive and encouraging always, even though he might not have understood all the career or philosophical or religious paths I chose to embark on and compulsively follow.

I have a story that I carry of his death. The experience that I shared with him as he died triggered the insights that I needed to eventually develop my canine massage practice. The gifts that I received in the story are part of the core curriculum in the PetMassageTM School.

What happened to me that night will give you insight about the dynamics of PetMassageTM for dogs.

The time, the place, the scene. In the 1980’s I owned and operated art/picture framing galleries in Chicago. One of them was right on Chicago Avenue, close to Wabash, just about a hundred yards from Michigan Avenue. It was the On Chicago Gallery. It was closing time on Christmas Eve. It had been a busy holiday season. The last of the artwork and custom framing orders had been picked up. I locked the front door and retired to my workshop where I could relax and enjoy a quiet glass of wine.  I sat on my metal stool at my dimly lit work table, noting that everything I needed to do had been completed. All of the manic rush-rush hurry-hurry of the season was over. It was calm and quiet as I reflected on the customers with whom I had interacted during the past few days.

As I sipped, I was suddenly aware of a new set of scents and textures. I tasted a clear fresh frosty breath and sensed the presence of other aromas. I was re-experiencing an event from another, earlier, time and place. I had never experienced anything like this before. I was remembering, in vivid detail, an experience that I had with my dad. It was a moment that I spent with him during a morning one Sunday when I was a child. This was truly extraordinary!

The time, the place, the scene. It was a freezing cold early-early Sunday morning. I was delivering my morning paper route, except because of the sub-zero cold, my dad was driving me. Stacks of thick newspapers were piled on the front seat of his new Chrysler. I felt a twinge of guilt when I saw the dark rectangle of newspaper ink on the new upholstery. But he didn’t seem to mind. He was okay with that. As I ran back and forth from car to front doors delivering papers, I ran through the frost cloud of my breath. I tried to keep my mouth away from that cold wet spot on my scarf. I weighed so little that when I stepped on the icy surface of the snow, I left scarcely a footprint. I thought that was pretty special. I opened the car door and grabbed an armful of papers.

The inside of the car was warm. I noticed the contrasts between the cold clean fresh and the interior smells of Mennen aftershave talc, newspapers, cigarette smoke and that new car smell. I was the invisible man who walks but leaving no footprints, I told him. I’d close the door and he’d pull a couple of houses further down the street where I’d return for more papers. We were a team working together. Afterwards we would drive to the White Tower diner for wheat cakes.

That was it. While I was pouring myself a second glass, wondering why I was thinking about this pleasant, inconsequential scene, the phone rang. It was Mom. She told me that Dad had died just a few moments ago. I wasn’t even aware that he was in hospital. She said that she understood that I was busy with my holiday rush and she didn’t want to distract me.

Of course. She and Dad had owned stores and worked in retail most of their lives. She believed that when you have a business your priorities are to take care of your customers.  I was carrying on the family legacy of entrepreneurship. Dad was very proud my art gallery and picture framing business. He was thrilled with the professional life I had created.

“Just before he stopped breathing,” she mused, “he had the sweetest smile on his face.”

I knew in an instant exactly what had happened.

He had somehow connected with me, spirit to spirit, to share this simple, ordinary, memory. It wasn’t one of our big memories, like the time we’d attended a major league baseball game in Detroit. I was in little league; played shortstop. It was 1961, the year that Roger Maris and Mickey Mantel were in a media-crazed duel to break the world home run record of 60. The Tigers were playing the New York Yankees. Both Maris and Mantel hit homers. It was incredible. The Yankees won, but the Detroit crowd went wild anyway. We did, too. But that wasn’t the memory he shared.

Somehow this particular random Sunday morning memory had been the one to bubble up to the surface for review. It was simple, and clean, and beautiful, and profound. It somehow described our entire relationship. He was always there for me, as a source of strength and stability when times were good and when they were not. We had always been mutually respectful friends, even when I was a ten year old. He simply helped me do my job.

My job, of course, was to be the best me I could become. It was this farewell gift to me that changed my perspective on life and death. It gave me an appreciation of the memories, the quantity of them, and the significance of each of them.

The layers within this experience provided a “course correction” to my perceptions of what life is all about. What I realized that night is that our lives are made up a lots and lots of little times. Some are of happy times and some are of sad times. Some are crazy vivid, like the baseball game between the Tigers and the Yankees in which … well, you know. Most of our memories are ordinary and not especially memorable.

All of them are meaningful. All of our experiences are encoded in our minds. Every soda you’ve opened, every person you’ve met, every walk you’ve taken, every crack in the sidewalk you’ve noticed, every billboard, every fencepost along a country road, every TV show, every unusual cloud formation. Each of them. All of them. A string of pearls.

Every moment holds within it opportunities for choices. Each of these momentary experiences is an opportunity to do our best, be our best. Of course, there are variations to every theme. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve had errors in judgment. We’ve done some brilliant things. We’ve done stupid things. That’s how we learn (I’m told). Taken altogether, we are creating a general theme, a trend, a way of life. We are creating our own stories, our own paths. We are controlling the evolution of our own life journey. A string of pearls. That was one layer.

I had studied the works of Edgar Cayce. I had immersed myself in the soul traveling exploits of Paul Twitchell’s Eckankar. I had read all about the Buddhist monks who could astro-project from one mountain top to another. I had absorbed the stories of Richard Bach’ reluctant messiah and believed that I could swim in dirt, too. I was fascinated with the possibilities of ESP. But, until that moment, I was still HIGHLY skeptical about claims of psychic powers. Woo-woo, I can read your mind!

I had dreamed that it was possible. Now, here was an actual experience that demonstrated beyond a doubt, that someone could sense someone else’s thoughts. Thoughts are things. Thoughts could be transmitted. These abilities, or powers, or gifts to receive thoughts, do exist. More than that, I realized that each episode of the memory is layered and interwoven with an enormous amount of content. A lifetime’s worth.

The entire ensemble of sounds and images, smells and sensations, context and emotions, references to previous memories, projections of future events, are all present. This is the substrate, or subtext, supporting the whole of the expression. I was experiencing the multi-sensory video of someone else’s moment it time. Pretty cool. Eh?

I’d received the thought from Dad, who was in a coma 300 miles away, and shared it with him. I shared the nonverbal experience of my dad’s memory. I shared the life force of the moment; its quiet unassuming ease, its comfort, its love. I observed the whole thing — consciously. I could remember it. I was able to describe what I was experiencing in intricate detail, just as I have done here. It was as if it were happening for real, in real time. I was not seeing symbolic images or metaphoric random pictures that I had to interpret. It wasn’t patterns in the snow, or images that emerge from tea leaves. I was experiencing an actual scenario by someone else, as it was experienced the first time, through their eyes and filters.

The awareness that such ability even exists shifted the direction of my life. Paranormal does exist. It could be done. I could do it. And, hey: it happened to me. I did, do it.

The questions then arose. Was this some random event? Was the experience repeatable? Could I recreate the conditions necessary to access information like this? And, what were the conditions? Did I have special psychic abilities that I could develop? Could I experience the Akashic Record like Edgar Cayce? How could I learn to open my psychic antennae? Could I learn to receive at will?

What dogs may think about during PetMassage 

I attended a Winter Solstice celebration last week. The Winter Solstice is an event that has been followed since the earliest people on Earth became aware of the seasons and the stars. They knew that the sun’s path across the sky, the length of daylight, and the location of the sunrise and sunset all shifted in a regular way throughout the year. They built monuments to follow the sun’s yearly progress in places like Stonehenge in England, Machu Picchu in Peru and the Temple of Karnak in Egypt. Today, we know that the solstice is an astronomical event, caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis, and its motion in orbit around the sun.

This 2014 Winter Solstice celebration was an opportunity to join with like-intentioned people in a beautiful soulful meditation on the rebirth of teh Earth’s resources. The meditation was a performance of Middle Eastern bells, Tibetan singing bowls, crystal bowls and wooden flutes. The large room, a conference center by day at the Toledo Botanical Garden, was dark, with only the soft lights surrounding and illuminating the musicians. Attendees were lying on yoga mats around the circle of players; still and quiet in the darkness. The ceremony began by slowly chanting “Om” three times. And the sound-poetry began.

For the first 5 minutes I needed to know what was happening. What did everything look like? What were the musicians wearing? How were the sounds being made? Which bowls were where? I raised my head and looked around. There were three musicians, seated amongst their instruments; the singing bowls were in front, the crystal bowls were in the middle and a rack of beautifully carved wooden flutes were behind. Observing the physical dynamics of the program gave me a feeling of safety and control.

The crystal bowl player began the program by sounding the crystals that resonated with the chakras of the third eye and the heart. I watched. She touched the side of each bowl gently with her padded mallet and slowly moved it around the side of the bowl, just as you would rub a moist finger around the lip of a wine glass. The tones were pure, deep, and penetrating. I tried to help the process focusing on where the chakras were in my body and imagining that these particular vortices were being stimulated and aligned. I closed my eyes. My body-mind shifted. As I stopped working so hard, I began to simply experience the vibrations as they flowed over and through me. Each sound would emerge, diminish and be replaced with another. I was unable to hold onto the memory of one sound vibration when another took over. All I had to do was stay present. It was an exercise in continuing random spontaneity.

In this experience, my thoughts knew no limits. There was no structure to what they were, where they arose from or to whence they flowed. My body-mind flowed with the sounds. Sometimes I was moved by the soft gong of a bell. Other times it was the slow vibrato of intense resonances. Sometimes it was the combinations of bowls. Sometimes it was the combined notes of the three instruments. Sometimes it was the harmonics giving depth and color to the sounds. Sometimes it was the randomly inspired sounds of the bowls behind the meandering meditations of the flute. Often, it was the silence within the pauses when my body-mind paused. I experienced the vibrations, the intentions, and simply the experience of being present-as spirit.

What dogs may think about during PetMassage 

I realized afterwards that this may be the way dogs experience their PetMassage. At the beginning, the dogs are curious about all the sights, the sounds, the scents, the air conditioning, and the energy flowing around in the room. The dogs think about their position on the PetMassage table; of where the table is in relation to the front door and the rest of the room. They follow what my hands are doing. They need to know that they are safe; that everything around them is under control. Then, just as I did in the Winter Solstice program, they let go of the need to maintain their vigilant awareness of the process and allow themselves to “become” the experience. With PetMassage, dogs get to “be” the holding, “be” the feeling, “be” the movement, “be” the healer, and “be” the healed.

No one knows for sure what dogs think about during a PetMassage. But when they close their eyes, drop into comfort, relax their breathing and relax the tail; when their jaws relax and the tongue rests slightly forward through an open mouth, and when a slight trickle of fluid drains from the nostrils, we know. They have moved from the ever vigilant watch dog to the dog that is accessing their third eye. Their body-mind is connected and flowing with their spirit.

Slowly I turn … step by step … inch by inch … 

Those of you who have taken the PetMassage_TM for Dogs Foundation Workshop know how valuable it is to be conscious of your body/energy mechanics. We spend quite a bit of time in our hands-on class, developing awareness of the skills of awareness. Without a thorough grounding in awareness of body/energy mechanics skills your canine massage will, simply put, be “less than.” Less efficient, less effective, less connected, less nurturing, and less safe. 

One of the awareness skills we emphasize is body awareness. One aspect of body awareness is being aware of where you bear your weight in your shoes. While standing in front of the dog, is your weight over the heels of your feet, your arches, or your toes? What do you think you might be expressing with a forward posture? Do you think it is plausible that a forward position, in relation to the dog, might indicate assertiveness or aggression? Could your weight balanced over your arches suggest neutrality of intention? If you were back in your heels, could you be signaling the withdrawal or withholding of willingness to commit? Could your body language be saying that you would prefer to hide in your protective castle and you’d feel safer when you do not send your energy out? 

Developing awareness takes practice. It takes lots of repetition to internalize the movements. It can become part of your muscle memory, as natural as breathing or drinking from a glass or riding a bike. Awareness is a skill. Awareness can be habitualized, too. 

As I was walking our two boxers Lola and Camille this morning, I found myself in the usual and disconcerting pattern of being tugged, jerked and dragged from tree to tree. There were squirrels, cats, rabbits, new mounds of curious dirt everywhere. However, I needed to protect my body so that I can continue to PetMassage_TM. I began to gently apply resistance to their pulling; it would be their choice to follow me. I don’t do battles. 

I paused, and waited until they stopped pulling and turned around to look at me. Yea. I was finally more interesting to them than whatever else was holding their attention. I took a step and they lurched off again. So, I paused. They immediately stopped, turned and waited for me to give them the clue to what I was going to do next. I stepped and stopped, stepped and stopped. Stepped and stopped. My pace was slow. I became aware that I was doing the intentional walking meditation that we practice in the PetMassage_TM for Dogs Foundation workshop. I noted that I was more aware of how and where I stepped and what I was avoiding stepping in. I was aware of my thoughts, my weight and my balance. 

As I stepped, I recalled my old ice skating days, learning figure skating and ice dancing in Chicago, at the McFetridge ice rink. Ice skating is all about maintaining balance; developing your ability to keep your body within its “body box.” On the ice it is essential to have control over how you place your blade and which part of it is used. Pressure over the inside edge causes you to turn toward the inside. Weight on the outside edge, bends the arc of your movement off in that direction. Too far forward, you trip forward over the toepicks; too far back, and you topple backwards onto your keister. And, he says from experience, when your legs fly up into the air in front sometimes it’s the back of your head that hits the ice first. Ouch. Can you say “stars?” 

I stepped again. The gait of cats has a rolling quality. Cats place the lateral edge of the outside pad down first and then roll their weight medially, across, from outside in. I began stepping with my foot rolling from outside in, my weight rolling inward. Awareness of my environment and everything in it flashed inward, toward my core. I was inhaling the world. I was moving with the assurance of a majestic predator, the mighty feline. I thought about how, when one pushes off into an ice skating glide, the power comes from pushing from the inside edge of the blade. 

That’s how the cat charges. She pushes off from the inside edge of her paw. In PetMassage_TM, the way you change the attitude of your hands is by shifting the weight distribution in your feet. Sometimes disparate facts come together to support each other. Who’d have thought? 

I inhale, and with my inhalation buoying up my chest, straighten my standing leg, and swing my now non-weight-bearing/empty leg forward. Heel of empty leg to ankle of full leg. The empty foot extends and hovers over where it could set down as I decide where I want to put my weight. If it is on the inside edge, I turn one way; on the outside edge, I’m heading off the other way. With my exhalation, I slowly transfer my weight down and into its center. I have chosen to move straight forward. The grounded leg is now full. It supports my weight. 

Lifting the now empty leg, whose knee is bent, I bring its heel to my ankle. With the next inhalation buoying up my chest, my spine lengthens, straightening both the “full” leg that bears my weight and the empty leg which doesn’t. The empty leg is drawn forward, heel to ankle, extends, hovers, and with my breath, lowers, becoming the full leg. 

Breath moves in and breath moves out, Up moves to down. Open moves to closed. And full moves to empty. Okay, and yin moves to yang. This is the PetMassage_TM walking meditation. It is a variation on the traditional walking t’ai ch’i. 

Every movement is executed with awareness. Breath controls movement and each movement of the body is rooted in balance. 

Lola and Camille respect my intentional walking and stay within their 6 foot comfort range on loose leash. Slowly I turned … step by step … inch by inch … and the dogs, who are used to this rate, entertain themselves exploring the bounty of scents calling out for their enthusiastic investigation. They are happy. I am safe and into my practice of meditation. 

I know what it feels like to slip, slide and skid on the ice. I learned this walking technique so that I could walk safely across Chicagoland ice rinks in my street shoes. It works, when you do it. I also can attest that I have fallen when I was walking “on” the ice, rather than “in” the ice. It hurts. You could be pulled down due to an uneven surface, and/or your inattentiveness, and/or you are walking dogs who have their own ideas of what is fun to do on a walk. Scrapes and bruises can often take weeks to heal. 

If you will be walking your dogs this winter and your route takes you over slippery, icy places, I encourage you to learn the PetMassage_TM walking meditation method of walking … and practice it before the snows and ice accumulate. 

Please email me if you would like specific directions for the PetMassage_TM walking meditation. 

We wish you a safe and healthy winter.

Endorphins are forever 

Last week I sat with a Toledo Zen Buddhist group, Glass City Dharma, doing some self work. My goal was to quiet my mind. It was a 30 minute seated silent meditation. In my head it was a very busy half hour. An exercise in the intentional cur-tail-ment of tangent thought.

Oh look, Shiny. Okay. Am I thinking that?! Stop, regroup. Breathe, repeat. Oh look, Shiny.

As I was trying to make sense of why I’d even showed up for the meditation, one of the other sitters walked up to me, saying “I thought I recognized you. My name is Jason. You worked on my dog several years ago.” It took a few seconds and I soon recognized him in his now beardless manifestation. (I have to talk like that; I’d just meditated.) My memory of PetMassaging his old dog resurfaced and flooded my consciousness. “Yes, I remember. She was…wait a second…a whippet, right?” I grinned. Shiney.

“Yes,” he said, “she passed over 2 years ago. It’s been hard and I’m just about ready for another dog.”

A friend who was near enough to overhear our conversation looked at me as he was pulling on his overcoat. He asked “Do you remember all the dogs you massage?”

“I do, this dog. She was special. We shared a moment.”

“What was her name, again?”

Jason, her proud papa, eyes welling up a bit, intoned her name in reverence. As the sound “Chayla” echoed in my mind, I recalled one of our last PetMassages. She was lying on her side on my PetMassage table. Her back was toward me, her feet and face pointed away, toward Jason, seated on a sofa. I was resting my hands on her paws, both fore paws under one hand, both hind paws under the other. She’d had a rough week. She’d been unable to walk or stand without distress. Jason had devoted himself to her care; carrying her where she needed to go.

I breathed, centered, and waited for an inspiration for a direction for her session.

I collected her paws in my fingers and began moving her legs back and forth, out and in. As my hands separated, I inhaled. As my hands came together, I exhaled. In and out, out and in, faster and faster. We were soon emulating the motion of sight-hound, whippet running.

Her entire body responded. It contracted and stretched. It rolled with each movement. Her muscles opened and closed, flexed and relaxed. Her breathing became deeper. Her eyes half closed into a squint. Her ears pricked with excitement. This old whippet body was running again. Albeit, in a side stroke.

As I observed her, I experienced an open-eyed vision; a visceral experience of what she was thinking/feeling/processing, superimposed over what I was seeing in this dimension. I could tell that she was aware of me and my participation. We were both multitasking on a whole lot of levels!

We were bounding across a field. Gently undulating terrain. Warm, fresh sweet wind in our eyes, nostrils, and ears. Soft, fragrant, moist grass slippery beneath our paws. Dirt splatters and grass uproots with each quick turn. Gray weathered wooden fencing blurs against the still background of a black trunked forest. It is late Spring, early Summer. Possibly chasing a critter; but it doesn’t matter. We’re running. We are pure movement. Jason is nearby. He’s watching and enjoying the afternoon. We’re safe. We’re in perfect health. Perfect coordination. Perfect speed. Perfect activity. It’s a perfect moment in a perfect day. Everything is easy and we are in perfect harmony. Complete joy. Thank you.

I say “we” because, we were having this experience together. What Chayla was experiencing, I was experiencing. What she felt, I felt. The endorphin rush that she got, I got. It’s a perfect moment in a perfect PetMassage. Everything is easy and we are in perfect harmony. Complete joy. Thank you.

I needed to validate what was happening. So, I described the scene and the specifics of the landmarks I saw around the pasture. Jason recalled the place that matched my description. It was simply a pleasant memory she retained from their past. It was an ordinary, nothing special day. And, lucky me, I got to share it!

After her session, I assisted her to the floor and observed how she moved. I recall that at first she stood dazed and a bit wobbly. Her eyes glowed with happiness. Her coat shined from her recent exercise. All three of us felt joyful and exhilarated. Then, she walked unassisted to the door, into the parking lot and to the car.

Chayla passed on several months after that. She was 15.

This moment — the original event — would have occurred a long time ago. The moment was revived at least ten years later, or about two and a half years ago, through our PetMassage_TM reenactment, in which Chayla replicated the movement, the memory, the joy of rekindling the hormonal stimulation. That was what she shared with me.

I can still see her: running with her whole body, and mind, and spirit. Legs, spine, neck and head, belly and back, shoulders and hips, all moving, all breathing, all sprinting together in harmony. In slow motion, she looked up at me. She widened her eyes, flared her tiny nostrils, and pulled her mouth back into a huge smile, tongue tip glistening between her front teeth.

Here’s the part that I want to share with you. Sitting there talking to Jason, I relived the joy and sense of perfection of working with Chayla, as I am again now, writing about it. I’m pleased that I was able to add some grace to her quality of life. The experience certainly added grace to mine. I’ve got to tell you: happiness, joy, and perfect balance, and running about on four legs, really feels good.

We, as PetMassage_TM facilitators get to experience many of the endorphin jolts that our dogs feel. When we relive them with the kind of intensity that I’ve just described, we get to experience them again in all their full glorious digitally enhanced Technicolor beauty.

The memory, linked to a strong emotion, triggers the hormonal response. Endorphins, the feel good hormones, are forever. Extrapolating, dogs’ memories get triggered by PetMassage_TM. And then for the rest of their lives, with their memories of their PetMassage_TM, they can access these good feelings.

Oh yes, I remember this dog. We shared a moment. She was — make that, “is” — special.  

Origins of Massage to PetMassage

When we look back at the origins of massage, we see that massage, as a therapeutic medium and skill set, was primarily used to enable people to self-heal.

From the earliest times, humans recognized that the body could realign itself in the presence of a healer’s hands and intentions. Rituals employed dancing and stretching, soaking (taking the waters), applications of oils, herbs, and a little sumthin’ to drink. Most powerful were, and are, on the body hands-on work and off-the-body distance healing. We couldn’t realign the stars; but we could shift the relative positions and functionality of solar plexus systems within the body.We couldn’t change the patterns of tea leaves; but we could reinterpret them.

The aspect of massage that we now define as Energywork has a long heritage as a powerful means of assisting the imbalanced elements within the body to realign for wellness and function. Energywork helps reestablish homeostasis.

Homeostasis comes from two Greek words homeo, meaning “similar” and stasis, meaning “stable.” It is a key concept in understanding how the body works. It means “keeping things constant.” It is a state of equilibrium or a tendency to reach equilibrium, either metabolically within a cell or organism or socially and psychologically within an individual or group.

Much later, approximately 10,000 years ago, in Asia, we discovered systems that would help the body establish even more balance within itself. Scientists, philosophers, martial artists, and healers used these newly intuited holistic interpretations to define the world and the well-being of its inhabitants. We were striving to support with the health and well-being of the earth, its animals, plants, rivers, mountains, its weather, and its people.

The concept of a life force, chi, is at the core of this healing/wellness philosophy. Chi is more complicated than a just sense of general vitality. It is much more nuanced. It is pervasive. Chi is sub-categorized into various aspects; each of which has an influence on a person’s, an animal’s, or a plant’s quality of life. And combined, well, promotes homeostasis. Here are some of the applications of Chi.

There is air chi, which is air quality. The energy of the air. Fresh, clean air is more healthful to breathe than polluted air. Various fragrances in the air can have anticipated effects. Hello Aroma Therapy! Climate, and air temperature have various effects. The air in the mountains is thinner than in the valleys. Fast moving air, wind, can alter the shapes of landscapes, from blowing leaves to shifting sands to resurfacing mountains. The quality and composition of the air in your lungs is a result of, and can be altered with, exercise, massage, changes in life style and health.

There is water chi. Water is necessary for life. Most of ancient humanity lived near large bodies of water. Currently, about 40% of humanity lives within 100 meters of a coast. Fresh, clean water is a prized resource. It is more healthful to drink than dirty water. Cold water has a different effect on the body than tepid, hot water, or steam. Rainy weather, humidity, fog, ice and snow, all have pronounced affects on our physical and emotional states. We all (people, animals, plants) are affected by water availability, barometric pressure and changes in the weather. The movement of body water, blood, lymph, hydration of interstitial tissues, is affected by massage.

There is food chi. Food chi includes not only the freshness of the food and where it was grown; it also includes its physical temperature. It includes the effect it has on the body. Does the food create internal heat or cool? Habanera peppers or cucumbers? Does a food enhance digestion or restrain it? An apple a day keeps the PetMassager okay. How does a food or drink affect one’s mood? Consider chocolate, pizza, pecan cinnamon rolls, pumpkin pie. Mmmm. Tripe…Yuck. What happens when a food or a spice combined with other foods and seasonings? Some dishes in a meal compliment, support or diminish the meal’s healing and/or social effects. Were you aware that the intentions and emotional states of food preparers and servers have an effect on the quality of chi in your food? That’s the reason dogs do so well with the bones and raw food diet. It’s the reason why Mom’s or Dad’s home cooking tastes so good. And the reason processed foods taste bland and leave you with an empty feeling. The chi in these foods has been processed out.

There is the chi you were born with, and Shen, spiritual chi. These, as with the others, are enhanced or diminished with your lifestyle, the people and sounds you listen to, and your thoughts. And, of course, massage,

This awareness of the intentionality and the intuitive valuing of the ancients’ wisdom has become the hallmark of PetMassage_TM. PetMassage_TM is a discipline based on the appreciation and valuing of the creative application of a particular skill set of PetMassage_TM techniques. Of course, PetMassage_TM values and incorporates the most current Western medical understandings of anatomy, movement, pathology, of genetic propensities, and of nature and nurture.

Dogs are still hard wired to experience their world through the senses and perceptions of their ancestors. This was a time when dogs knew what and how the pack functioned. Dogs are bombarded, harboring and resonnating to all manner of stimuli. Could be external. Could be internal. Could be current. Could be from their past. Could be inherited. Dogs are often placed in situations which they may be ill equipped, mentally and emotionally, to handle.

PetMassage_TM provides the dog with opportunities for gentle course corrections to balance the energy of its life and times.