As of recently, I have been seeking out a trainer for my dog’s aggression, which really stems from anxiety. One tool this trainer gave me to help with mental stimulation, which will decrease her anxiousness, is sniff walks. A sniff walk is where I let my dog, Shasta, sniff whatever she wants. I tried it the other night and what would normally take us 20 minutes, turned into a 40 minute walk because we slowed down. There was no more goal of mileage or getting to a certain area or finishing a loop. The walk turned into being about presence and being in tune with what my dog was wanting in the moment. This walk enabled me to turn what normally is goal oriented walking into meditative walking.
As she was sniffing every bush and plant we passed, I got to enjoy the simplicity around me: the leaves that were shimmering in the sun, the smell of the fresh crisp fall air, the new decor of a neighbor’s house, or the beautiful sunflower that is as big as my head that decided to bloom in the wild right next to the sidewalk. I slowed down.
When we slow down and are in the present, instead of a future goal mindset, our nervous systems calms down and we are reminded of truth. The truth that I am always reminded of when I slow down, is that the core of this universe is love. All these other things we come across like fear and anxiety are social constructs that are handed to us for us to believe. This walk connected me to other moments in time when life stood still, stopping everything, coming back to truth, inner wisdom, something greater than myself.
Recently I got to do that on a nature/vision quest that I supported and facilitated for a dear friend. We spent four days in the wilderness solo, although we communicated through passing of notes for safety. During this time, I got to meditate quite a bit and slow down.
And what kept coming to me was this,
“What if it is true? What if the core of our universe is love?”
Then this leads to further pondering. What does this mean for our lives? What does this mean for how we show up in our lives? What does that mean when we are going through something really hard and difficult? Or what does that mean when we are anxious? How can we navigate through those waters knowing that we are held in a universe of love? It makes the world of a difference seeing life through this framework. This is night and day from having a framework of fear: everything is up to me, I’m all alone, I can’t trust that something bigger than me actually cares about where my life is headed.
This is why these practices (slowing down, being in the present, meditating) are fundamental to so many religions because they are a doorway back to what is true. And what is true?
For me, truth is that this universe is love. The only force we can count on is love.
And if this is truth, how do we respond?