To me, nature has always been a magical place full of wonders, and animals have always been my best teachers, healers, and friends. As I went through the challenges of growing up, animals always listened when I cried, made me feel wanted and loved, and encouraged me to keep going at times when I didn’t want to be here. Now, as an adult, animals are still teaching me about life, death, and everything in between, and I never tire of the lessons.
In my second book, Cow Hug Therapy, I share stories of some of our Gentle Barn rescued animals and what they taught me about recovering from grief, practicing self-care, healing from compassion fatigue, feeling gratitude, and trusting my own intuition. Cows and other animals have helped change my outlook in ways I never thought possible.
Cow hug therapy—yes, it’s a thing—was started in 1999 because of The Gentle Barn’s very first cow, Buddha. Each evening, I checked on the animals before bedtime. One night, shortly after Buddha’s arrival, I gave her a kiss on the head as I was about to walk out of the barnyard gate. Buddha looked up at me and asked me to stay. I sat beside her and rested my back against her shoulder, and what she did next changed my life and the future of The Gentle Barn. Buddha wrapped her neck around me and hugged me!
I came to rely on those hugs every evening. They washed away the day and made me stronger for the next morning. In time, I realized that this unique form of healing needed to be shared with other hurting humans. I reached out to drug and alcohol rehab centers, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, senior centers, war veteran centers, classes for those with disabilities, and foster agencies, and they started bringing their clients and residents to The Gentle Barn for healing. Many clients arrived defeated, depressed, shut down, and angry, with heads hung low and no eye contact. By the time they hugged Buddha, their defensive faces melted, their eyes brightened, and they were smiling with their heads held high. Buddha’s hugs changed their lives along with mine, and cow hug therapy became a staple of healing at The Gentle Barn for the community.
We have offered cow hug therapy for the last 25 years at all three locations of The Gentle Barn. Hugging cows takes us back to when we were infants being held by our mothers. We feel helpless against a much larger being and connect to their breathing and heartbeat. We close our eyes and start to breathe with them, slowly and surely. This relaxes us and releases all stress and past trauma. Cow hug therapy grounds and centers us, clears our minds of thoughts and worries, and immerses us in the present. Guests participate because they are suffering from depression, anxiety, loneliness, grief, or just need a really good hug. We host individuals, folks from agencies, and therapists who recommend our cow hug therapy for their patients who cannot break through with traditional talk therapy.
Our cows at The Gentle Barn choose to become therapists. They love this work and take the healing and restoration they received from us and pay it forward to hurting humans from all walks of life. We listen to our cows and enable them to be the therapists they want to be if they choose this work. We trust them completely, and it is an honor to work beside them!
If you’d like to learn more about Buddha and cow hug therapy, please read or listen to my new book, Cow Hug Therapy, available on Amazon, anywhere books are sold, or in our online store at https://www.gentlebarn.org/. The Gentle Barn is located in Santa Clarita, California; Nashville, Tennessee; and St. Louis, Missouri. You can book a cow hug therapy session by going to https://www.gentlebarn.org/.
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