Have you ever wondered: What is the greatest gift we can give to the animals? Things like providing them a safe home, healthy food and access to veterinary care come to mind. Those are all wonderful things. Now imagine if you had a million dollars—you could give all that money to your favorite animal shelter or sanctuary (or even start your own).
Unfortunately, all of those things cost money. What is the greatest gift we can give to the animals that doesn’t cost a thing? (Aside from the obvious answer: love.)
The answer to that question came to me during my years of Reiki work with animals. And it is quite simple, really: to be in the moment. That really is the biggest gift we can give to the animals—to be present and with an open heart, right here and right now—without anger or worry or ego. And meditation can help bring us to this peaceful place.
Meditation helps you find that space where the animals can reach out to you and connect with you.
This isn’t always so easy to do, but luckily, animals will really help us. A lot of my students come to me and say, “Oh no, it’s a meditation with your animal? But I hate doing meditation. I can’t meditate. My mind won’t quiet.”
And I say, “Well, do you meditate by yourself?”
“Well, yes.”
“OK. Instead, try meditating with your animal. Ask your animal to help you meditate. Ask your cat. Ask your dog. Ask your guinea pig. Ask your rabbit. Go out in the pasture and ask your horse or your cow or your goat or your sheep. Ask your bird. Ask your lizard. Ask your fish.”
When you share a meditative space with an animal, it is much easier to let go of that monkey mind because animals’ minds are much quieter than ours. So when we open up and share an energetic space, they teach us how to let go and just be. They do that already very easily.
A wonderful meditation to use is the Joshin Kokyu Ho meditation, which involves Hara (lower belly) breathing. With this meditation, we breathe in through the nose and connect with the Hara, and then breath out and expand. Inhale and connect, exhale and expand. This meditation is a traditional Japanese technique, and it helps us to get in touch with the Hara—our center, grounding and stability.
This is why I encourage my students to meditate as often as possible. Meditation helps you find that space where the animals can reach out to you and connect with you. Meditation helps us quiet our minds and go inward—and that truly is the greatest gift we can give to the animals. Of course, depending on how you look at it, that is also one of the greatest gifts the animals can give to us.
Excerpted from How to Help Animals With Reiki by Kathleen Prasad