I recently took two of my dogs to the vet. One was sick, the other was for a follow-up. I noticed that my mind was pretty activated with concerning thoughts leading up to the visit. My mind created worries like: “What if there are other dogs in the waiting room and I cannot control my dogs?” “What if we have to wait a long time and my dogs get anxious?”

I’m practicing noticing my thoughts and giving them space to float by. I’m experimenting with suspending my certainty that things will be a particular way, and staying open to them being just as they are.

I’m also practicing bringing a soft, calm body into any spaces that I enter. I learned in Resmaa Menakem’s book My Grandmother’s Hands that sometimes the most impactful thing that we can do when entering into a tense space is to be a soft calm body. A soft calm body has the ability to settle other bodies, simply by being soft and calm.

So, I navigated the veterinarian’s waiting room with a soft (mostly calm) body. And I waited in the waiting room with my soft, calm body. And I observed my dogs.

Know what? They weren’t anxious. My soft calm body helped to create a state of soft calm within their bodies. The photos you see were taken from the veterinarian’s office. With all the smells, sounds, and energy that a veterinarian’s office contains.

How did I achieve a soft calm body? I breathed a little slower, moved a little slower, and invited my overactive worried mind to see what else might be true.

In case you’re wondering, going to the veterinarian’s office with more than one dog is generally a challenging task for me. But not this day. Thanks to my soft calm body.

I have just a couple spots left for this week’s channeling group. You can register for that here.