ReVIBE

Gidget the Wonderdog

Our dogs. We love them. So very much. We tend to realize how much we love them even more when the realization “the end” is coming.

This week I received an note from my very good friend, my coach who helped me through multiple Ironmans, including getting to the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii (where I now live), and a business relationship at Multipsorts.com which rocks it out as far as the people and what they bring to the world of sport, Paula Newby Fraser. The point is we have a lot of connections but the connection that people rarely get to share is this one.

Dogs and Emotions

The note was about something we share deep feelings for. Gidget. Gidget the Wonderdog.

I rescued Gidget back in 2001 from a shelter while I was at a dog training academy in Arizona. She came home to San Diego with me and I got to spend time with her as I brought her out of living in a fearful state.

When I got her she would duck and have worry cloud her big brown eyes as she looked up at me. At that point she thought she was in trouble for every little thing she did, she was living like many who just don’t know how to get out of the way of fear; always trying to do the right thing but not sure of what it is that is good enough, afraid of making a wrong move without even meaning to. Lack of confidence.

Her Life as Gidget the Wonderdog Had Begun

She ended up having the greatest life then and now.

I had great fun with Gidget. Taught her tons of things to do, took her so many places. She loves fetching. She got to the point she would fetch anything I asked her to. She was so proud of herself. She played with other dogs, and had her place on the couch. Gidget even slept right next to me in bed. I feel emotion when I think of Gidget because she has a deep spot in my heart.

Dog Whisperering

But being the dog whisperer type I am, the realization came that with 4 dogs in my pack and my work, a large home to take care of on my own, none of them were getting all the attention they deserved in the long run. Or I wanted to give them. The attention I would tell others that they need to be able to give to their dogs as companions…..

The realization at the time came around when my good friends Huddle and Paula were ready to have a dog, which had been a want for years, but difficult to commit to with triathlon and travel and running a rockin business. Gidget was a perfect candidate. It was time for them to have a dog and Gidget would get to be the center of attention.

So off she went. It was as sad day for me. But it was one of those days that in the moment I knew I had done the right thing and as it turns out, Gidget truly became the Wonderdog and is having the greatest life ever.

Living the Good Life One Moment at a Time

Gidget’s life: Exercise galore, gets to go everywhere, no leash required. The full attention of two who play with her, feed her good food, engage her, and touch so many other lives with her. Gidget accompanies them to run on the track, to just ride around in the car, be the cool one in all the dogs who have come and gone and played on the greenbelt by her house.

She dives bushes to get her favorite toy. It’s like a new best fun thing to do every time. She makes one smile every single time with her full on enthusiasm. Her full on joy of life.

She runs trails, goes cross country skiing, walks, plays, goes to dinners, beaches, friends houses. Gidget’s such a Wonderdog she gets to go into public places and races and establishments most dogs aren’t allowed. She behaves herself yet entertains and people from all walks of life are drawn to her. If there is such a thing as a therapy dog whisperer, it’s Gidget.

She does it all, but mostly she gets to be with her people all the time, and yes indeed those people give her the star attention a dog like Gidget should get.

Walk Away From Deep Down Inside Fear

She was the dog who was afraid of everything, locked in a small kennel with #8 on it. She had the dream happen. She was adopted, fully taken in and loved and cared for in a way she grew to be proud of and give all that joy back to the world around her. She became the dog laced with confidence and the wag of her nubby short tail, the bat of her eyelashes and the smile she gets while looking up in pure adoration for life is all of her gratitude for what life has turned out to be.

The news in the note; Gidget has a mass in her chest and is going into surgery. Again, she’s being given the best care ever. She’s the Wonderdog. If it’s time for her to make it she will. She’s strong, she’s fit and she’s in her most golden of years. I’m thinking of you Gidget. I love you Gidget. You’ll always be with me Gidget but it makes me sad, it makes my heart hurt to think “the end” of you here with us might be on it’s way.

Gidget is a big part of my ReVIBE. If you’d like more from me on dogs subscribe to ReVIBE | Dogs

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Sinking canoe

What would you do if your canoe were sinking?

These women in this double outrigger canoe I know. I’ve paddled with them. I have been on their paddle team here in Hawaii. Some of them I know better than others. And had I been in the canoe this particular afternoon, I would have known an even deeper side of each one of them.

What do you do when your canoe is sinking?

You pull together. You keep moving forward. You don’t let the swell that keeps pushing against you stop your efforts. You don’t let the waves that have crashed over top of your head knock you down without getting back up.

No matter how strong the current runs against you, the push to move forward continues. You give it everything you have. And when you feel like you don’t have anything more, you keep going anyway.

When you make it to shore and the time to look back comes, you are definitely stronger than you were before. You have learned what worked and what didn’t and you didn’t give up until it worked. You had an attention detox to all the small things that didn’t matter anymore and got what matters most to you done.

What would happen if we used these same efforts, the ones we have in us to get what we need, get what we want in times of survival, to do the thing we keep talking about doing?

ReVIBE

These women were way out in the water for almost 2 hours getting this canoe back to shore. The video is the last 4 minutes. They learned a lot about themselves and about those who they had to band together with to get the work done.

I know I get emotional watching it, because I know these women, and I know that the power of the ocean could have been more than they had that afternoon. But they kept moving forward to get what they wanted. They found their passion and desire to get what they wanted.

What would it be like to take passion like you have in a sinking canoe and do the thing that you keep talking about doing?

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Ulitmate Success is All in Your Head

Going after it. Success. Whether a career or a triathlon or being truly in love with someone, making money or finding our life calling, what is the mistake so many are making to miss out on feeling ultimate success, peace, joy, contentment?

Too much “busy” in our heads? Is it lack of ability to keep our heads in the present and not out somewhere in the future?

Success is so sought after that what is going on in our heads is blocking the view that we are already in the midst of success. The idea that we already have everything we need to be happy, healthy and content is not one we practice.

Instead we spend our time talking in our own minds about shoulda, coulda, woulda. We occupy the space in our heads with busy-ness, not with really embracing all that we have right now.

What we think about, we create. Which do you want, busy-ness or to actually enjoy what you are doing right now? It is a choice.

The habit of staying really super busy trying to be better, have more, be faster, or not be so stressed about making more money is completely stopping us from actually noticing all the cool things that are going on right now. Today. All that we already have.

Staying super busy doesn’t allow us the time to actually create more of what we really want. Things like a rested mind, a peaceful body, health, good friends, family, manifesting enough money, they all escape us when we are too busy in our own heads.

The Habit of Notice

I moved to Hawaii a little over a year ago. The idea was to slow down. Live. Enjoy. Play. While at the same time I do my own thing, I work for myself.

Working for yourself has it’s challenges. One of the biggest is balance. Time. Not going overboard with it. Especially when one has been known to do 9 Ironmans in 3 years…. if you are one of those types, always going after it… you are like me and you NEED to start focusing on balance! Or true happiness could escape you even though it’s right there for you to grasp, to hold, to have right now.

I realized I had to let go and start noticing what was around me. Focus on all that I already had so that I didn’t start spending all of my time trying to get something more, something that brought me closer to some undefined sense of success. A sense of success based on what other people might be thinking rather than what is important to me.

So I started NOTICING.

So many way cool things happen to us every single day. Yet somehow we have trained ourselves to focus on all the things we don’t have done, or the workouts we should do, or making more money, or going faster at the next race… whatever your gig is.

The focus in our mind is out there on more, or different or something other than we have right now. The truth of the matter is most of us do not even know that we are thinking these things until we slow down and take the time to notice.

How to Start Noticing and Stop Being Too Busy

Carry a journal with you.
Notice what you are thinking about.
Write it down.
Make sure you do it several times a day.
Set a reminder for every hour to write down what you are thinking.

You’ll probably be quite surprised to find out that though you think you are being a positive person, you have thrown a negative thought or judgement to most things about yourself or someone the majority of the time.

No wonder that is what we get more of. Negative thoughts. Busy thoughts of getting to a better, more joyful place than we are right now. But not being good with what we are doing, or have or feel right now.

Start noticing the patterns in what you write down. By physically writing these thoughts down you actually have to define what is going on in your head.

Start ReVIBE –

Take what you’ve got and turn it into more of what you want minus the busy negative energy.

Start prompting yourself to write something down that:

Gave you a quick smile
Stirred emotion of “I like that”
Step way out there move yourself forward and write down why you like being you, just the way you are.
Write down what your are feeling versus what your are needing. Once defined you can start filling your time with doing more of what you need to revel in your success right now, starting with “I Like Being Me”.
Write down what you are grateful for today.
Write down anything you did or felt that is moving you towards more of what you want.
Write down the things you see around your that you like.

Your thoughts drive what you do, they are your manifesto to your life’s journey.

You’ll find you already have in you what you need to be successful at life, love, career, money, triathlon, fill in the blank. You just aren’t giving yourself time enough to even acknowledge it, practice it, or live it.

You are too busy trying to plan for more in your head. You’ve been saying yes to everything, super hero to anyone that looks like they are judging you, filling your time with what you think you are supposed to do and finding yourself a little resentful, a little tired, a little unfulfilled instead of defining, doing and actually enjoying what really makes you happy.

ReVIBE is about transpiring the essence of who and what you are into what you offer to yourself, to those in your life and to the world.

ReVIBE is about discovering alignment with what you say, think and do, and putting it into practice in a way that finally brings content, peace and joy no matter where you are in the world today.

ReVIBE | Life Habits + Move into Your Paradise + Write + I Like Being Me + Live in Color – Opens for registration June 2012

Jt Clough lives on the Big Island, Hawaii, and practices health, happiness and natural remedies, while working as a ReVIBE Habits Coach for people looking to live healthier and happier lives. She is a dog whisperer for our best friends and studies natural dog remedies, nutrition and communication.