Light in the Spine
Do you use your energy skills and power of imagination for your animals?
We humans have the ability to work with consciousness and the substance of light, we do it all the time. If you are like me, there are distractions, things pulling on my attention all the time. The barrier to using my skills for my dog Mango is remembering that I can.
There is a really simple thing I do for her sometimes. This morning I am nudged to share it with you in case you haven’t remembered or realized you can do this too. You can! Even if you don’t think you are good at this, give it a try. I’ll share two examples.
Support for an achey aging body
Mango is about 15 now. There is something so dear about her aging process. She wants to be closer these days, and I need to be more gentle with her. She let me know how much more sensitive everything is for her. She is doing so well, has so much spunk and still loves to sniff and take energetic walks. And she’s stiff and slow for some walks. She seems confused at times.
My feelings for her are heightened, the awareness of love I have for her fills my everything. At night when she’s pacing, I’ll catch her good eye and gently lead her to her ramp so she can climb into bed. I just have to help her remember, to get her moving in the right direction, unstuck.
In the morning if she approaches her bowl and retreats again and again I’ll join her on the floor, scoop some food up with my fingers and offer it to her. She’ll take a little at first, and then we get into a rhythm.
As she found her way to breakfast this morning, I bent down to gently pet and encourage her. The idea to offer her light dropped in, so I did that.
I call what I do for her “light in the spine”. The first time I remember doing this specifically was at the Lisbon airport. Now I use it to help with her everyday.
Urgent, acute situations
Disclaimer: I’m not a veterinarian. This suggestion is not a substitute for going to the vet. Recently I had a situation where Mango couldn’t walk and this didn’t work or didn’t work as fast as I expected, and I reached out to Mango’s vet for help. That situation did resolve on its own, I didn’t need to take her to the vet at that time, but I would have if it hadn’t resolved.
The first time I discovered the power of what I call light in the spine we were in Lisbon, Portugal. Mango and I had checked into our flight from Lisbon to D.C. Boarding was in less than one hour. She had been fine all morning. We navigated per usual to the ticket counter but we hadn’t yet gone through security. We went to get a coffee and out of nowhere, she loses her legs. She was lilting to the side, couldn’t walk. She was looking at me distressed. Sat down, layed herself down. Nothing jarring happened to cause this, nothing obvious, and she wasn’t shrieking in pain.
We were heading home early as I’d gotten really sick, so I wasn’t thinking or functioning at top speed myself. We needed to go home, but was it safe for her to fly? Did I need to take her to the ER? It felt scary and it wasn’t obvious what to do. If it was safe for her to fly, I could take her to the vet once we were home. But I was scared since I didn’t know what was going on if it was safe for her to fly or if they would even let us on the flight given her condition. If you’ve traveled internationally with your animal, may know that in some countries you need a vet letter to fly issued within a few days of travel. We had done that. Mango seemed totally fine up until that moment.
I sat and calmed myself, accessed my greater consciousness, opened a session for Mango and implored for help. We went outside the walking path in front of the airport. Of course I had our carry on luggage —a backpack and a big tote bag with her underseat travel carrier, food, and other things (it was a little heavy and bulky) plus Mango who wasn’t able to walk. I opened a session for Mango, prayed for help and clarity.
That didn’t really help. Not at first. No change.
But then I had an idea. I called forth the light and imagined light filling Mango’s spine. I made the light very bright, I focused and imagined the light dissolving whatever was causing the problem, I imagined it clearing her spine.
Within about a minute after I figured this out, she could walk again. I could hardly believe it—meaning, could I trust it? We stayed outside a while longer. We walked slowly along the path. She seemed fine. When it was time to head in to get through security and the airport in time to board, I took a deep breath and in we went.
She was fine. On that whole trip and when we got home that issue did not recur.
I’ve used this from time to time since then in more acute situation, but mostly now I’m using a much gentler version of this—without the panic and intense focus—to support her with her aging process.
Give it a try, let me know how it goes for you if you do.
This is a picture of us earlier in our trip at the Lisbon train station, waiting to head up to Porto. It had been so hot in Lisbon while we were there that we couldn’t do much due to Mango’s limitations in the heat. We headed north for cooler weather.
