What dogs may think about during PetMassage

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.