Meet Melvin.
He’s our rescued Coonhound mix. We’ve had him for almost a year and a half now.
Melvin is SUCH a sweetheart. In fact, we got him because he is actually able to get along with my other dog, Jasmine, who is not too fond of other dogs (to put it mildly.)
But, he came to us as a dog with “issues.” I’ll tell you about them some day. But for now I just want to tell you about a little quirk Melvin developed.
You see, we didn’t understand him at first. We had no idea how traumatized he must have been in his former situation.
On the surface, he seemed pretty easy going in the shelter. But I’m pretty sure now he was really a major PTSD case. In fact, now that I understand him better I realize that it took him nearly a year to really start to relax and trust us.
Long story short, any correction to his behavior has to be done with incredible sensitivity, great love, and NO negative emotion at all. We’re talking, you can’t just not appear to be angry. You can’t even FEEL angry when you correct him. Or even just a little annoyed.
(Even when he’s chewing up your cell phone.)
But it took us a little while to figure that out. So in the meantime he developed a weird behavior in the kitchen.
You see, the kitchen was where he would get into the most mischief. We’re pretty sure he had been starved at one point, so it’s understandable, but annoying.
So, he’d get on the counter and someone would yell at him to get off.
And then escort him out the door.
Melvin REALLY doesn’t like to be excluded. (He’s a real love hound.) After a while, he’d start to hide in the corner whenever it was time to leave the kitchen – whether anyone was annoyed with him or not. So there he would be, cowering in his corner, and not even the juiciest treat could entice him out.
In his mind, he was STUCK! No way out. (Even though the way was not only clear, he was receiving all the encouragement most any dog could ask for!)
I did eventually figure out what worked. Put a leash on him, and he’d walk away without a fuss. I guess having the leash on made him feel secure, so he could trust that things would work out OK.
We know now that we need to radiate love to him 100% of the time, so don’t worry – Melvin is doing fine! (He still gets stuck in the corner once in a while, but it’s not too hard to get him out now. All you have to do is open your arms and invite him in for a hug. Singing a lullaby doesn’t hurt, either.)
But it struck me that we all do this to ourselves.
We get into these ways of thinking where we back ourselves into a corner.
We think we are stuck. No way out.
But in reality, the way is open. We just have to trust, and get out of our own way. Or more precisely, knock out the fear that is keeping us in the corner.
Keeping us from taking the actions we need to take in order to set ourselves free.
How?
First, you have to find the fear. You don’t necessarily even have to know what caused it, but you do have to figure out where it’s hiding out. Specifically, which chakras – energy centers in the body – are most affected by it.
I have found that Spirit Animals have an uncanny knack for tracking down fears and negative energies in the chakras- just like Melvin instinctively tracks anything that has ever crossed his path.
Just for fun, I’ve decided to open up my schedule and offer a few free Spirit Animal chakra readings next week to anyone who hasn’t yet had a free reading from me. If you’ve been feeling stuck in a corner lately and don’t know why, I encourage you to book a time here: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=11463586&appointmentType=705316
I don’t know how long I’m going to keep this open, so if you are interested be sure to sign up right away! 🙂