🦮Dream About Walking a Dog

You and the dog. Walking together. The leash connecting you. The pace negotiated between two kinds of awareness — your conscious mind and the dog's instinctive one.

Walking a dog is managing the relationship between your rational self and your instinctive self. The leash is the connection. The walk is daily life. And who is leading whom tells you everything.

If you led the dog calmly, you are in healthy control of your instincts. The primal energy is present but guided. You set the direction. The dog follows willingly.

If the dog pulled ahead, your instincts are leading you. You are being dragged by impulses — desire, anger, excitement — that are moving faster than your rational mind.

If the dog would not walk, your instincts have shut down. The primal energy is refusing to move. Depression, apathy, emotional numbness — the dog that should be eager to explore is lying down and will not budge.

If the leash broke, the connection between your rational and instinctive self has snapped. The dog is running free. The instincts are uncontrolled. What happens next depends on what kind of dog it is.

If you walked without a leash, the trust is complete. Your instincts do not need restraint because they are aligned with your conscious will. This is the ideal — primal energy and rational mind walking in the same direction without force.

The daily walk is the practice of being human: managing the animal and the thinker inside you at the same time.