I’ve learned a lot from my dog.  I know she tries to train me (like getting me to give her attention or treats when she barks), but I don’t think she tries to TEACH me anything.

I just learn things from watching her do what comes naturally.

When I’m working, whether I’m on my phone or staring at a spreadsheet on my monitor, she’ll usually stretch out on her blue blanket in my office, the one with brown fringe and pattern of tiny paws.

She likes to be close to me — always. I like that.

The other day, after a period of deep concentration, I looked up and noticed that she was not in my office.

Where’s India? I wondered.

I grabbed a couple green beans (a sensible treat that has become a favorite of hers) and her orange plastic ball and began to look for her.

Nope, she was not in the living room, nor in my bedroom.  “Where’s your ball?” I called, hoping I could draw her out with a promise of play.

To my surprise, I found her in my guest bathroom, curled up on a small area rug she scrunched into folds to lay on in maximum comfort. Of course, being a very small room with its own heating vent, she found the warmest place in my home.

To me, the image said, Always seek warmth.  A good guiding principle.

I thought about her natural demeanor of ease as a contrast to my tendency to worry.

I was able to finish producing my books and get them released last month; an important accomplishment for me.

But now, I am looking at the task of promoting myself. How can I get my books sold and read?  How can I get reviews? How can I build momentum on a limited budget.

I have to face a very old belief that people wouldn’t be interested in what I had to say. I also realized I was looking at things from a very linear perspective.

I thought that I needed to make a list of all the things I had to do, all the people I should connect with, all the online publications I should get familiar with, and just check off these tasks as I completed them.

I looked at my situation as a recipe. I imagined that someone already thought through the perfect list of ingredients and set of steps, and all I had to do was follow them.

I also felt bad about myself at times, thinking that I must be missing some of the ingredients, as if the second page of the recipe got lost in storage or got wet in a kitchen mishap.

The prospect of this weighed on me. It represented a kind of pressure. Besides, following a set of steps often doesn’t guarantee results.

This frame of mind also felt joyless.

Then, I took in the image of my dog curled up on my bathroom rug and acknowledged the simple principle she followed naturally. Seek warmth.

I decided to start my outreach among people I knew. I’d ask for their help. I’d use the connection to catch up with what’s been happening in their lives. With every bit of research I performed in order to find a current email address, I remembered how important this person was in my life, at least during a certain period of time.

Of course, I wanted to reach out to my blog’s subscribers and facebook followers, but I started writing personal emails to many people. I told them that I did something new that came from a deep place in me and asked them if they would share information about the books with the people in their lives that might be interested.

The experience changed for me. Outreach was more than following a recipe or set of instructions. Each connection established or re-established led me to something else. When I called Phyllis, she reminded me of someone we both worked with at one time. Then I looked up how to reach her.

I realized that outreach is an experience of unfoldment. I promised myself to pay attention to how each interaction could lead me to the next thing I might want to do or next person I might want to connect with.

My dog seeks warmth is a very direct way, as an external comfort.

My experience of this is more internally focused, but I realized I’m motivated similarly. Without a perfect formula, it’s best to pay attention to life as it unfolds and consider any next action in terms of whether it is aligned with the heart.

Seeking out the warmth of my heart to help me make decisions is no small thing.