PetMassage Paw Prints

Jonathan and friend

One of the most obvious differences between PetMassage™ and standard veterinary interventions is the prolonged duration of time, attention and the awareness that is allowed during a session. A complete session usually lasts between 20 and 40 minutes. This would be alien to the usual medical, time-efficient, cost effective procedure. PetMassage™, although it does address the dog’s acute, present-time physical condition, its focus is on the long-term continuum of life condition, and quality of all aspects of the animal’s life. It takes time and patience to allow the strata of intuitive connections to layer one upon another, giving them the time and space they need to develop, percolate, and emote. As we stay alert and aware during each phase of the PetMassage™, we can soften our notice and take in more of the subtle cues that we are continuously receiving from our bodies, which we so often ignore. The more time we allow to actually experience our physiological responses, the better and more in-depth the feedback experience, so necessary for an effective session.

As we observe how our bodies are feeling and responding to the dog’s reactions to our touch and presence, we get a glimpse into the inner conversation we are having with our animals. We maintain a running intuitive level conversation with the intuitive language and understanding of the animals in our hands. We respond, observe, process, reorient and reconnoiter, and touch again, each time with more information, more direction, more intention. Each session has its unique dialogue. Each dialogue deepens as it evolves, progresses.

PetMassage™ elicits emotional, memorable, and physical responses from animals by combining various techniques and qualities of touch, with varying depths of pressure, rates of movement, and stroke direction. How can we claim this? Their nervous systems react to whatever they feel and to the referred areas of whatever is stimulated. The response is memories and experiencing the emotions and body patterns of learned behaviors. Animals may not know reflexology charts or Five Element Theory. They do know that their bodies feel pressure, temperature variations, and the presence that the Sympathetic NS interpolation that would indicate caring and supportive, destructive or angry, or dispassionate and distant. Dogs react spontaneously and consistently. They react to threats with their general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system, priming them for fighting or fleeing. This response, the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome regulates stress responses among vertebrates and other organisms. There is a range of responses. The more obvious ones are eye, ear and tail movement, raising of the hackles, and adjusting stance. More subtle, are the internal signaling that particular hormones need to be increased in the blood stream, to protect against a real or imaged threat, or to support a feeling of safety and affection.

Dogs read our moment to moment variations in our aromas just as they do when they interact with each other. Each variation in the endocrine balance shifts the quality and quantity of chemical discharge through sweat and anal glands.

Our responses to real or perceived dangers spontaneously softens or tightens our skin, fascia and muscles. They alter our pulse, respiration rates, blood pressure, and levels of pheromones and sweat. We humans may not have the abilities to smell what dogs smell. We can, with practice at being present, learn to observe our bodies.

As we are connecting with our PetMassage™ clients, we may notice a sensation of light headedness, a shift from centeredness in our bodies to feeling slightly out of alignment. We might feel gassy, burpy, crampy, worried, tired, lethargic. We might feel happy, giddy, excited. Our tummies might rumble and gurgle. The term for this is borborygmi, which sounds a bit like the sound you hear. A message that is sent to your stomach and intestines triggers muscle contractions and the release of acids and other digestive fluids — which causes the rumbling, grumbling sounds you hear — as your body prepares for you to eat. The thought, sight or smell of food also can trigger this response. (www.mayoclinic.com/health/stomach-noise/NU00189).

These are some of the changes and shifts that you may notice in your body. They are the indicators of the types of conversations that your intuitive, subconscious self is having with the animal. Maintaining a vigilant presence with yourself will support the inner healing and balancing work your dog is doing. The intensity and purity of your presence, or lack of same, makes or breaks your intuitive connections.

Even if you are unaware or have a block to being aware of your bodily functions, as it were, your presence still has a powerful influence on whatever is happening in your dog’s body. One of the parts of quantum theory that is becoming more and more accepted is that the act of simply observing a reaction influences the reaction. Being observant at whatever level, that is, being present, as a witness supports the PetMassage™ healing, resting, softening and/or comforting process.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 10:01 am and is filed under Pet Lovers, PetMassage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.