The Power of Perception: Changing How You See Your Dog #29

Grab your FREE video training! https://www.marydebono.com/lovedog 💥

In this mini episode of "Easier Movement, Happier Dogs," Mary Debono delves into the fascinating world of habits—not your usual habits like smoking or overeating, but the habits of perception. 

These are the unconscious ways we notice and interpret the world around us, and they significantly impact our interactions with our dogs. 

Mary explains how these perceptual habits shape our reality, often creating blind spots, and offers simple techniques to shift our focus and enhance our awareness. 

By questioning and adjusting these habits, we can open up new possibilities for a more joyful and connected life with our dogs. 

Resources:

Grab your FREE video training! https://www.marydebono.com/lovedog 💥

Join our free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DogHealthAndVitality

Get Mary’s bestselling, award-winning book, “Grow Young with Your Dog,” for a super low price at: https://tinyurl.com/growyoungwithyourdog. Demonstration videos are included at no extra cost. ⬅️⬅️⬅️

All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and doesn't constitute medical or veterinary advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider if you or your dog are unwell or injured. 

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello. Today I want to talk to you about your habits. And I'm not talking about habits like smoking, picking up your smartphone too often, you know, over drinking, overeating, you know, hanging out on the couch too much. I'm not talking about those habits at all. Instead, I'd like to talk to you about the habits you have around how you think, what you notice, your habits of perception, and how they affect your dog.

So in case we're meeting for the first time, my name is Mary Debono, and this is the easier movement, Happier Dogs podcast. And yeah, people talk a lot about their physical habits, but they often fail to realize that we have habits around our perception, what we notice, what we ruminate on, what we think about. So you might walk into a room, and there's going to be specific things you notice, like specific ways that you direct your attention.

You may see a dog walking down the street. There's going to be specific ways you look at that dog, things you notice about that dog that maybe the friend who's standing next to you doesn't notice, but maybe she notices something else. So, for example, because I've devoted virtually my entire life to noticing how dogs move, and humans and horses and other animals as well, but noticing how, you know, animals move and, you know, interact in the world, that's what I notice.

So I can see a dog walking down the street with their person, and I can't help but notice, like, oh, wow, that dog is doing like a pacey walk. Like, I'm noticing that the back is a bit stiff, or that dog seems to have trouble with the left shoulder. And this might be just a momentary glance, I see the dog. But because I've trained my brain to look for that, that's become a habit of my perception.

Not saying it's good or it's bad, it just is. And we all fall into this. Now, there are some that's really useful. Like, we have habits that are really useful, but then we have other ones that really limit us. They kind of block out other possibilities that we might be seeing and perceiving. So I find it's really helpful to take a moment and ask yourself, is that what you really want to be looking at?

And maybe just ask yourself other questions so that when you walk into a room, for example, can you take a breath, like use maybe the doorway of a room as like a, like a reminder of, oh, I'm going to do something different. Instead of just, you know, automatically going into like your default mode, can you just stop, take a breath, and think, is there something else I could look at?

And the same thing is with your dog. You know, we have habits of how we perceive our own dogs. We have narratives that we've made up that we've strengthened over the years, and it often creates a lot of blind spots that we don't see other things. So ask yourself, like. Like, is there another way of looking at this? Whatever the situation with your dog is or, you know, can I notice more about my dog's movement, for example, or notice something different about their behavior or how we're interacting together, can I sense more of my own body?

Because that will help also to develop your awareness. So, this is just a real quickie episode today, but I just wanted. You know, we can go. We'll take a deeper dive into this in subsequent episodes. Episodes. But I just wanted to give you that little nudge, if you will, to think about your habits of perception. You know, what you notice, what you think about how that shapes your reality, and that can often blind you to many other possibilities.

And maybe those other possibilities are more joyful, healthier for you. So start to question what you're doing. They often say that the quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our questions. And starting to wonder, to ask yourself, can I see something different? And maybe be really specific about it? What do you want to notice? And then just start playing with that. And so what happens is that gets the attention of your nervous system in a positive way, and your nervous system then can start to filter things differently and allow you to see more and experience more possibilities.

So, thank you so much for joining me. And again, we'll take a deeper dive into this, but just wanted to plant that little seed, and I look forward to talking to you again soon. I want to say I really appreciate you subscribing, listening, and sharing this podcast. I love sharing this work with you. Thank you so much. And I look forward to talking to you again real soon.

Bye for now.