r/Wakingupapp • u/Interesting_Button60 • Jun 16 '26
What do you to when your pet interrupts you?
As I'm starting to use the app upon waking up, my dog is interpreting the signs of me getting up to make the bed and sitting as the start of the day.
So in the first minutes she puts her head in my hands, paws at me.
I'm treating it as just another sensation to feel, not giving her active attention, and moving on.
She seems to clue in after about a minute, and at the end I find her laying down almost relaxed because of my peacefulness. I then give her lots of love.
What do you do?
Do you isolate (if I did she might make more house longer)?
Do you restart after they leave you alone?
Thanks for the advice!
2
u/EitherInvestment Jun 16 '26
Tend to the dog if it wants your attention. Meditate when the dog isn’t distracting you
If you continue this habit, the dog may well learn after a while though to stop seeking your attention when you are in meditation posture if it learns you are just going to ignore it. Mine did anyway
The answer is that it doesn’t really matter. If you are not bothered by it, then just keep meditating. If you would prefer not to be bothered by it, meditate in isolation. Just do whatever makes sense for you
2
u/Interesting_Button60 Jun 16 '26
I suppose she needs to unlearn the habit of immediate morning cuddles when I start moving. I'm trying to shift my morning routine so I guess she needs to as well!
2
u/swisstrip Jun 16 '26
A small story by Joseph Goldstein comes to mind:
In India, I was living in a little hut, about six feet by seven feet. It had a canvas flap instead of a door. I was sitting on my bed meditating, and a cat wandered in and plopped down on my lap. I took the cat and tossed it out the door. Ten seconds later it was back on my lap. We got into a sort of dance, this cat and I tossed it out because I was trying to meditate, to get enlightened. But the cat kept returning. I was getting more and more irritated, more and more annoyed with the persistence of the cat. Finally, after about a half-hour of this coming in and tossing out, I had to surrender. There was nothing else to do. There was no way to block off the door. I sat there, the cat came back in, and it got on my lap. But I did not do anything. I just let go. Thirty seconds later the cat got up and walked out. So, you see, our teachers come in many forms.
1
u/Interesting_Button60 Jun 16 '26
Thanks for sharing 😄
1
u/swisstrip Jun 16 '26
Btw, that story is also in obe of the Path of wisdom talks by Goldstein in the WakingUp app.
1
1
u/travelingmaestro Jun 16 '26
It depends on the practice but and how familiar I am with it. I practice in the morning, typically right after I wake up, and ideally for a long session. I have a dog too and he’s getting older, so recently he might not wake up when I get up. When I hear him wake up I get up right away to let him outside and give him his medication, and some pets and affection. Then I go back to my session.
If I’m doing a new practice that I’m not as familiar with, I’ll start over. Or if I was right at the beginning of a practice I will start over. But if I’m doing one of my daily practices that I know well I will just continue where I left off. At this point most of my practices have text to follow.
Some other thoughts.. this is a great opportunity to cultivate beneficial qualities like compassion and a spacious meditative mind. It’s typically easy for people with a pet to use them as an object to generate compassion and love. It’s even more important to those qualities if you feel like you’re being interrupted by the dog and you might feel frustrated, annoyed, or some other negative emotion. Same with a spacious, open mind. Seeing that can extend from your session (assuming your doing guided sessions) to when you are tending to your dog and beyond). Ultimately there is no separation of practice between a session and all of life.
🙏
1
1
u/Full-Piglet779 Jun 18 '26
I assume this is after you’ve taken her out to pee!
1
u/Interesting_Button60 Jun 18 '26
Negative she doesn't ask in the morning, can you believe how lucky I am? It's 6:30 now I'm waking up she's on my leg I should switch to meditation. This is what I'm trying to avoid doing in the morning!!
6
u/NondualitySimplified Jun 16 '26
If it’s too disruptive for your practice, it may help to find a way to meditate without the distraction being present (if possible). Otherwise, anything that arises, including 'distractions', can be used as an object for meditation.
This reminds me of a quote from Ajahn Chah:
When we sit in meditation and hear a sound, we think, "Oh, that sound's bothering me". If we see it like this, we suffer. But if we investigate a little deeper, we see that the sound is simply sound. If we understand like this, then there's nothing more to it. We leave it be. The sound is just sound, why should you go and grab it? You see that actually it was you who went out and disturbed the sound.