Today being Christmas I wanted to sit down and wish everyone a blessed time. I recognize that not everyone is Christian and not everyone is celebrating on this exact day. My hope though, is that each of you has a higher Being you turn to for guidance. Call him Jesus Christ or Jehovah or God or Allah or Budda or Yeweh or Bhagwan or perhaps you don’t yet know him by name as you are currently guided only by a “feeling” or “intuition”. It is my belief that that those “feelings” are your Divine leader steering your heart.

At my recent Tony Robbins workshop he mentioned that the number one thing people long for in life is happiness. Some call it “peace” or being “grounded” or finding “a joy of life.” Over the past week I have met so many people that have proudly declared “I hate Christmas.” Christmas is a season of love and gratitude. If you have feelings of hatred perhaps you need to find out how to turn that around for yourself and know you can made that happen in the blink of an eye. As Tony says the best way to change anything is immersion, to surround yourself by people who possess the qualities you desire. Com’on over and join those of us that love the magic of Christmas. I still get just as excited as I did as a kid and it has more to do with presence then presents.

Surrounded by loved ones at a recent family wedding.Tony also mentioned this rather profound statement that “you can’t help someone who you are judging.” This is such a critical piece of information for all of us who interact with others routinely in our lives. However, taking this one step further, the path to true happiness is to stop judging yourself so harshly (and those you live with) and spend each day being grateful for everything you have.

Tony lives by the belief that nothing in life happens TO us, rather it happens FOR us. It is that divine leader acting on our behalf. Sometimes he gives us a nudge; such as when he helped me to make the decision to spend six days improving the quality of my life with Tony rather than going to yet another agility trial. Other times he uses a sledge hammer; as we witnessed during the wee hours of day three when Mr. Robbins asked the question “who in the room has constantly thought of suicide?” It was the real or perceived events of the lives of the 12  broken souls that caused them to stand up that night. Of the 1500 of us in the room, those 12  didn’t account for the ones who where feeling life was so hopeless there was no sense in standing.  The reality of the situation brought me to tears and if you know me, you know I don’t cry easily.

Suffering comes from separation says Tony.  Separation, ultimately, from the person you are deep inside or from your Divine leader. The internal conflicts cause so much pain that happiness is elusive and for some, suicide is the only way to end the pain. Once you address your own inner conflicts (which is what a seminar with Tony is all about) your spirit soars.

All of this may be too deep for some of your that read my blog only for dog training suggestions, but just as I wrote about in the Journey, our life with our dogs really has little to do with dog training at all does it? Isn’t our “dog life” really just a vessel for each of us to learn our lessons. A place where God gives us our nudges or sometimes our sledge hammer hits. Please don’t take this the wrong way but, imagine if one of the reasons I have won so much, and the reason you value my input into your dog training, was only to have you end up here reading this blog today?

 

Today on Christmas, I am grateful for all of the love I feel from the people in my life and my gratitude spills over for each of you that visit this blog and allow me to share my experiences with you. I extend my sincere wishes to each of you for an outrageously happy holiday season.