Is Your dog the key to your unconscious?
Is your dog the key to your unconscious? Does how your dog behaves tell you things about yourself ? Is your dog tuned into feelings that you are trying to tune out of?
Are you at the end of your tether with your dog? How does your dog make you feel?
The work I am involved in suggests that there is a connection.
Does he or she drive you to distraction? Do you worry about the next walk and how your dog will behave, making your heart sink when you see another dog on the horizon? Do you wish that your dog would just settle down and relax and stop bugging you? Do you have a persistent chewer? The behaviours that I'm talking about, that might make us uncomfortable, are specific to each of us. Life with our dogs isn't always a bunch of roses.
Carl Jung said
“Emotion is the chief source of all becoming conscious. There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion”
Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype
I’d like to pose a question for you to consider.
What if those behaviours actually have a purpose for you personally? The things that are getting your attention, the behaviours in your dog that you would like to change, what if the issues that you are experiencing with your dog are nature’s way of helping you become aware of who you truly are? Could they be pointing to things that you really want to change in yourself? What if the things that your dog is choosing to chew are telling you something about yourself? Maybe the reason your dog is annoying you at that particular time, when you’re trying to meet that deadline, is not 'just because he’s bored’ or he’s ‘wants a walk. Maybe its linked to how you are feeling?
The work I am involved in suggests that there is a connection. Do you agree? Would you like to share an example of such an experience you have had with your dog? If you have never considered it, how does the ideas make you feel? What comes up for you? And again, if you feel like sharing, please add a comment to this post.