How Our Pets Assist Us

After all these years, I continue to be in awe of the positive impact animals can have in our lives. I have always believed animals come into our lives to help us to learn and grow but each time I witness it, I am no less astounded by it, no less humbled by it.  

In my work with animals and their guardians, I continue to see evidence that our animals know what type of assistance we need . . . and then they give us the opportunities to learn and grow in those areas. 

Sometimes the lesson comes by an animal experiencing medical issues as a way for us to learn something that will help us in our own personal growth. My dog Lucky can be single-handedly (pawedly) credited with just about everything I learned about holistic medicine, alternative healing methods, the mind/body connection, etc. She is the reason I explored all those areas - not because she was able to say "Hey mom, check these things out!" I studied all those areas of healing because I was determined to help her recover from some deep emotional wounds that were showing up as medical and behavioral issues. Given all that I learned through our journey together - eventually it morphed into a new line of work for me - as an energy healer and an animal communicator. 

I have had clients who learned to give themselves permission to take time out to be still and stop "doing" all the time . . . a notion they were able to embrace after they realized their animal wasn't healing from an injury or recovering from a surgery because their animal couldn't stay still either. 

There was another client who didn't believe in herself or have much confidence . . .  she ending up adopting a horse that had confidence issues. Through the implementation of various training methods and fun/learning activities, she managed to help him develop a lot more confidence in himself. It was after she accomplished that it was easier for her to see the ways she wasn't very confident either. Fortunately, she wasn't deterred because she already had worked with her horse on gaining confidence so the path was more clear regarding the steps she could take to empower herself more.

Sometimes, the guardian may not be very good at setting boundaries and they end up adopting a pet that pushes the limits a LOT. The animal will act like they need clear boundaries that are consistently monitored. Once the guardian has "practiced" setting and maintain boundaries with their pet and experienced positive results, it is far easier for them to set boundaries with the people in their lives.

Sometimes that opportunity arrives in what appears to be a "behavioral issue" with the animal. They are even willing to look like the "bad guy" for a while, for the sole purpose of helping us learn something or seeing something in ourselves. As an example, my own boy Kino had an issue of barking at dogs, people and anything else that moved when we were out in the car. It unnerved me to the point of not wanting to take him out in the car (which was one of his most favorite activities) because nothing I did training wise was making a difference in the behavior. Then one day it dawned on me . . . he was just showing me how I acted in the car. I didn't behave very well either.  LOL! I was easily frustrated by other drivers and could be quite vocal about my feelings (whether it was cars not using their turn signals, cars riding on my bumper or cars making unsafe lane changes in front of me that forced me to slam on my brakes, etc). I vowed that day to behave better when I was out for a drive. The great news is that once I improved MY behavior while behind the wheel, Kino's behavior improved as well and our car rides became a lot more fun. While it may have been difficult while we were going through it, in the end both of us were much happier. 

Whenever a new client calls me about a problem they are having with their animal, the first thing that comes into my mind is "I wonder how the animal is trying to help their guardian grow." Since they are often trying to help us, I always stay open to that possibility.  

I think I will always be in awe of animals - for the selfless way they set out to help us be better versions of ourselves. Do you think your animal is trying to teach you something or show you something about yourself? What is the first thing that comes to mind that you've noticed about your pet? Do you see any way they might be mirroring things that could assist you as well? 

Lucky For Me - Interview #2

Steve Whiteford and I had so much fun doing our first video podcast / interview last month that we decided to do another one. When we did our first one, out here in California we were in the midst of rather overwhelming weather challenges but even with the flooding, mudslides, power / internet / cell phone outages, we managed to pull it off.  

We set out to do our second one and wouldn't you know it, Steve (who lives in Texas) was the one who was in the midst of rather overwhelming weather challenges. Once again, regardless of the number of downed trees and power outages, etc. that were going on around him, we were able to connect to create our second interview.

We are taking it as a sign that if we are still able to do these with all that chaos going on around us, then what we are attempting to do must be supported by the Universe.  LOL 

Here is the description that we included with our second video podcast so you can get a feel for what we cover.  It is about 35 minutes long.  

In this second installment of Lucky for Me, Maureen and Steve discuss the new career path that emerged as an outcome of her journey with Lucky - that of an Animal Communicator and Energy Practitioner. During this segment, we delve into how she works, how her intuitive abilities play a big role in her practice and what someone might expect if they have a session with her. Steve also shares his own experiences of having a session with Maureen and his beloved Corgi, Jenny so folks can get a first-hand account of what it is like to have a session with Maureen.

Lucky For Me - Interview #2

I hope you enjoy hearing some more about the journey I went on with Lucky. Not only how it led me to create a new business but also more about what the animals have taught me regarding their purpose in our lives and the myriad of ways they are here to support and assist us if we are open to what they have to offer.

There are often many causes

One of the things I am more sure of now than ever, is that when we or our animals don't feel well, there usually isn't just one cause.  I believe we have a far better chance of feeling better if we look at all the possibilities . . . not just the medical causes, but the potential nutritional causes, the potential emotional causes and the potential environmental causes.  I have learned that if we just look in one place, without exploring the other potential causes, we often never get all the way to feeling well.  Often the solution lies in understanding how interconnected all the potential causes are and how they play off each other.

An example of this that I experienced myself was several years ago when I was having ongoing stomach problems.  I saw a medical doctor that wanted me to take a prescription medication to feel better,  I saw a nutritionist who wanted me to make changes to my diet and take supplements, and another alternative practitioner who thought the problem was caused by stress.  After a long period of trial and error, my stomach problems were finally resolved.  

I am not much of a pill taker, so I opted to skip the prescription that was offered and tried the nutritional approach.  That helped some, but not completely, so I decided to address the circumstances that were causing me so much stress, ultimately learning to give myself permission to walk away from things that didn't bring me joy anymore.  In the end, I realized that because of the stress I was under, I developed a sensitivity to certain foods, so I needed to address the nutrition aspect as much as the emotional aspect.  Once the emotional aspect had finally been addressed, I was no longer sensitive to those foods and was able to reintroduce them into my diet. 

I share this story about myself because I often see the same thing occurring in animals that I am working with.  I have seen animals with stomach problems, skin allergies, behavioral issues, etc that don't get "all the way better" because we're not always looking at all the contributing factors and seeing the interconnections between those factors.  To me, the emotional piece is often the most important.  It is often the root cause that creates all the "symptoms" that we see and if we are just treating the symptoms, we often end up treating them forever, never getting to "all the way better."  

I worked with one animal recently that had an upset stomach and frequently threw up.  When I spoke to the animal, I found out what was upsetting him so much and we worked with him on an emotional level, helping to put his fears and concerns to rest.  His stomach instantly felt better and he hasn't thrown up in months.   

I worked with another animal who had stopped eating for nearly a week. Fearing the worst, the guardian was ready to pay for thousands of dollars worth of tests to find out what was going on. After talking to him for a while, I discovered that he and his wife had been fighting a lot and the day his dog stopped eating was the same day that his wife had threatened to walk out on their marriage.  Once he understood this, he explained to his dog that he and his wife had just been having a rough go of it lately and that they had been taking their stress out on each other instead of pulling together to help each other through it.  He assured the dog that he was going to do his part to get his marriage back on track and also assured him that he would always be loved by both of them. The dog ate that night for the first time in six days.  

Then there is the animal I worked with that suddenly started to do strange things like going to the bathroom in the middle of the family room when he could have gone to the yard through the backdoor that was wide opened, or pulling things off the table, like the woman's purse and ripping apart the contents, or jumping up on the table and eating the food she had just prepared for herself.  She was beside herself when she contacted me, because in the previous five years, her dog had never done ANY of these things.  We discovered that her dog was just desperate for her attention.  

She had recently started working outside her home and the dog wasn't used to being alone that much.  He was letting her know how he felt about being alone, and also letting her know how much he needed and wanted her attention.  She said, "What can I do - I can't quit my job!! I don't want to lock him in the backyard or lock up my purse when I come home!!" We started by acknowledging her dogs feelings, letting him know we understood what a big and difficult change this must have been for him. We explained how important it was for her to work and how she needed to do that so they could continue to live in their house together.  She told him that she would make sure she spent time with him every night, focused time where she wasn't trying to do anything else, and she also reassured him that they would have a lot of time together on the weekends.  Within a week, things were considerably better.  No more purposely peeing in the house to get her attention, no more pulling things off the table or rooting through her purse.  She did sense he was still lonely though, so she decided to find a dog walker who could come by mid day and take him out for a walk.  

Another animal I worked with was having terrible skin allergies.  After some conversation with the dog and her guardian, we identified a potential root cause.  The guardian's boyfriend had said repeatedly that when he moved in with the girlfriend, he wanted to get a dog of his own. The dog was stressed about the idea of her life changing that much . . . a new "dad", another dog in the house, less time with her "mom," etc.  There was also some worry that the boyfriend wanted to get "his own dog" because he didn't like the girlfriend's dog very much.  Long story short, the boyfriend agreed to take it one step at a time, moving in first and getting settled before making any other changes to their household.  After he was moved in, he began to develop more of a relationship with the girlfriend's dog and even began to refer to her as "his dog."  Amazingly, the dogs skin allergies started to improve and within a couple months, her skin was 75% better. Eventually, they went to see a holistic vet to see what else they could do and by switching her to a different food and adding more oils to her diet, her skin improved that last 25%.

By sharing these stories, I am NOT trying to make you feel bad about how much your personal relationships can affect the health of your animals . . . only so that you can be more aware of the impact that your animal's emotions can have on his or her health.   If we only treat issues from a pure medical standpoint or a pure training standpoint, we can miss out on an important root cause.  I am not suggesting that you stop seeing your veterinarian or your trainer.  I just want to point out that there can often be other contributing factors to what may seem to be a medical issue or a behavioral issue. 

There is a saying that goes something like . . . "if all you have is a hammer, everything is going to look like a nail."  I guess that's what I am trying to point out here.  If we only take one approach to helping our animals, we may miss out on key pieces of information or they may not end up being "all the way better."  And I think we all deserve to feel "all the way better!"