I had the good fortune to go paddle boarding in the mornings on my trip home from NJ. Every day on the water was a glorious day, but my last paddle was jaw dropping. I saw dolphins across the Bayou as soon as I mounted my board. As I approached, I realized it was a whole pod including five or six adults and three little babies, the smallest I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes!

I was paddling along with the pod for about twenty minutes, making small shifts in my position to stay within thirty feet or so of the center of the group. Sometimes I would have a single dolphin peel off from the group to within FIVE feet of my board–my senses were all a-tingle!

I kept talking to them softly, and they seemed to be happy that I was there as they didn’t move away. I watched the adults sky hop, training the babies. As the babies mimicked their elders, they went straight up in the air and fell over on each other. They looked like kids at a waterpark!

It was delightful to behold, as I’ve never seen this behavior in wild dolphins, so I pulled out my phone to document it (that’s the video you see) and then the fun ended abruptly.

The dolphins disappeared, and I was left alone adrift on my board. It was not the best feeling, going from one of the pod to alone with my pic in my hand, but it was real. I shifted my energy from experiencing the moment to capturing the moment, and the dolphins were not having it.

I witnessed something similar during an Equus training in Arizona. It was the same experience in reverse: I went from watching the horses run around like a NASCAR competitor as I tried to force them through an obstacle course, to stilling my energy with an eyes-closed meditation. When I opened my eyes, the horse was right in front of me, drawn to my peace.

You don’t have to believe in the effects of shifting your energy, right up until you witness it with wild things. I wonder how much this affects more domesticated animals, like humans? Can’t you feel the loss when someone with whom you’re vibing checks their phone in the middle of a deep conversation? It feels like a slap. Now think about how often we do that on a daily basis.

After being schooled by the dolphins, I’m looking at human communication with new eyes. I have turned off notifications for email, and I ignore the buzz from text messages until I’m no longer face-to-face with a person. I’ve already had one convenience store dude thank me for pocketing my phone before coming to the counter

I wonder if the humans running Discovery Cove have learned the same lesson in deep attention? And if they have, it begs the question, “Who’s training who?”

XO Terri If you try this humans over screens approach, tell me all about it HERE !