What our dogs carry for us — and how to gently give it back.

Anyone who has lived closely with an animal has felt it: the dog who grows restless when the household is tense, the cat who goes quiet when someone is grieving. In my experience, animals are deeply attuned to the emotional weather around them — and sometimes they seem to carry a little of it for us.

I don't think we burden them on purpose. It is simply what love in close quarters does. The gift is that, once we notice it, we can begin to set some of it down ourselves, so they don't have to hold it in our place.

A small practice: when your animal seems anxious or off, pause and ask honestly what you are carrying that day. Name it, breathe with it, let it be yours again. Often the animal softens as you do. It is less a technique than a turning toward — and animals, in my experience, always notice when we turn toward them.