Studies have shown how having pets improves depression, loneliness, cardiovascular health,lowers blood pressure and our well-being in general. But as a psychotherapist enjoy digging deeper, I wanted to take a step further and as I was listening to Ekhart Tolle I came across this which satisfied my curiosity: Consciousness is the formless dimension, our essence beyond the body. For example who is reading this right now? is it your eyes?your mind? No because our cells renew every so often. It is your consciousness.
We think we fall in love with the cute eyes of a dog and take great pleasure in touching the soft fur but is this all love amounts to? It is the pet’s essence, consciousness which really warms our heart. When we look at the dog, we can sense the essence of ‘beingness’ in the other (the dog). This is easier with animals than with humans because humans are full of thoughts, ego and projections but looking into the eyes of our pet is a spiritual experience. We also get in touch with our own ‘beingness’ when we perceive from the heart, and then we sense the ‘beingness'(the dog) of the other.