Transcendental meditation and the art of dog walking in Melbourne
To anyone with more than a passing familiarity of the human condition, they (or you) will know that when you are enjoying doing something 'time flies'. Time of course is going at the same rate that it always was, but being 'in the zone' has you 'lose track of time'. When you are in a very scary or serious situation, you will also know that time 'slows down' as we really take in every millisecond that we can and store it into memory as some kind of future safeguard mechanism.
The reason that this dog walking article is about transcendental meditation is two fold
1 When you are really enjoying a dog walk (regardless of the weather or other external factors) you will find yourself running short of time. Time does seem to speed up and you dont want the walk to end.
This of course is not the experience of many people who walk dogs in the park, as they do it out of duty or ncessitiy and they are clock watching to make sure that they get to work or the next appointment. They have their headphones on or are talking on their mobile and hardly know that they are in the park.
Unfortunately this is a massively wasted opportunity for the owner to get in touch with nature and bond with their dog. Their 'multi tasking' is profoundly diminishing the enjoyment of the dog, just as it would if they ignored their children like this in the park - as many people do. Focussing on the task at hand has its own rewards.
2 To properly walk your dog you need to be stress free, anxiety free, in a state of just being present. Exactly the same state that transcendental meditation tries to achieve. The reason that you want to do this, is that you want to be the pack leader of your dog, and you dont want to pass your anxieties about the park or their potential encounters because then you will manifest bad encounters, potentially. Your dog will pick up on your bad 'vibes' and become unsettled, causing other dogs to be unsettled around them. Yes an obvious ripple effect, my butterfly winged friend.
If you have every tried to regularly do meditation, you will know how hard 'doing nothing' actually is, its about stilling the mind, which for busy people in the information age can be a very hard task for many.
And that is why dog walking can be so brilliant for so many people's health. Like a dog, its not always so much about the exercise. Its about the state of mind of the dog and the owner. Being clear, dispassionate, worry free is the state you want to bring to the park, and the state that walking in the park can achieve.
There are very few walking activities (including golf) that can be as relaxing as walking a dog, and good for your mind, when done 'right'.
