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Pet Meditation

Pet Meditation

How to Meditate with a Pet1

I hope the reader is helped by these instructions and comes to no harm engaging in this guidance.

I feel meditation at it’s core is about engagement, awareness, kindness, and presence. I’ve experienced benefit practicing with my cat this set of instructions.

This was once written with my cat in mind but any pet should work. The instructions assume both you and the pet are OK with touch.

I’d ask, If at any point, emotions come up which are difficult, please stop and ask someone else for help. This blog sees a wide audience and difficult emotions I feel should be helped via others, not on our own.

  1. Have a pet

  2. Pet the pet

    • Awareness & Sensations
      - While petting, focus on physical sensations (soft, cold, warm, tingly, etc.)
      - While petting, focus on emotions in the body (where they are, how they move and change, etc.)
      - While petting, focus on how the pet reacts to different types of pets
      - While petting, do thoughts arise?

      While doing this, it’s OK (and natural) for focus to move around onto different things, in that case, paying attention to why attention is shifting could be valuable.

    • Cultivation of Bright States
      - Really enjoy the wholesome feelings that come up (concentration, affection, attachment, engagement, etc).
      - Imagine the pet’s internal state (reading the emotions of other beings - attunement, empathy).

    • Presence
      - Feel into how to better pet the pet via awareness and cultivation (changing your method to fit the situation).

  3. If the pet wants to leave, let the pet leave (respect non-harm).

  4. It’s OK to call the pet back to you (cultivating connectedness).

  5. If your mind wanders, return to step 2 (cultivating awareness, presence, and bright states).

You can pet the pet however long you like, and whenever you like, so long at the pet is willing. This is why many people own pets.

redirect: sitwithariadne.com/pet-meditation
v1.5 - Last edit 19-Jan-2023
© 2023. This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

  1. This used to be titled “Kitty Meditation”, but I edited it to be pet agnostic. ↩︎