Nicola Walker Catalyst

Training, Coaching & Investigations

My Old Dog Taught Me Some New Tricks!

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Spotting A Pattern

I was having a quiet moment of contemplation the other day about my dog who recently passed away. During his long illness, I nursed him diligently, adapting his diet, exercise, and staying with him almost constantly. This was different to how I usually reacted to illness. As a consequence of my meditative moment, I would like publicly to thank my beloved furry friend for helping me finally to learn patience and compassion when ill health strikes.

Subconsciously Repeating A Pattern

For years, I have been repeating old patterns of belief and behaviour installed, unknowingly, by my parents – namely that being unwell is annoying.

I can see clearly now I look back, that feeling ill when I was a child, would often be met with suspicion that I was pretending, or scepticism that I was as ill as I said, impatience, and a feeling that I was deliberately causing trouble for my parents. Don’t get me wrong, they loved me and wanted the best for me. I was never mistreated. But I do remember three separate occasions, when I was very young and had tonsillitis, when I contracted pneumonia, and when I was a teenager and became severely anaemic, when my mum took me to the doctors to prove there was nothing wrong with me!
I have come to realise that as an adult, I often treated illness in others in the family unit the same way.

Breaking A Pattern

That is until Dave. Wise little one that he was, and star meditator with a nose for energy, he allowed me to change the way I felt and acted in his final year with us. I learned patience in abundance with our slow walks, taking time to actually be together, to experience nature in all her glory too, to adapt what we did and vary our routines to suit him. I learned compassion in caring for him, nursing him, clearing up all his accidents, without any sense of ‘trouble’, only love.

The way I feel about the ill-health of those I love and care for has changed, and I’m beginning to change the way I feel about my body too. I am so grateful for the opportunity to still be learning and changing for my highest good and the highest good of all. My dog taught me some new tricks!
For what are you grateful? Are you still learning? What patterns could do with a reset?
Try Meditation Room every week online and in group, or coaching if you notice any patterns that are no longer serving you well.

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