Wild Mandala. Ep. 006. July, 2026. New Directions.

Another magical podcast moment, this one recorded during a horseback ride with Daria in the back forty of Roosevelt National Forest in Colorado. Dr. Keeney shares a little more about the changes in her practice, including her new focus on end-of-life care. She also offers a sneak peek at her next online course, a general overview of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine, as we get ready to launch the Holistic and Integrative Canine Wellness course. Thanks for listening! (Music credit: Purrple Cat)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Wild Mondala Podcast. This is Dr. Keeney. I am super excited to be recording this when I'm out on another ride on my sweet companion Daria. Um yeah, it just seems like that's when I'm always to have a little bit more space to record these. So yeah, we are out, and I was just struck by my just just how much I love just being out here. No, no. On just walking along in this beautiful nature on the trails. And I was um thinking about when I was younger and how much pressure I put on myself to do all these things with horses and you know, extremes and galloping and you know, jumping over things and just all this stuff, and how much joy it brings me just to just to kind of become one and feel like we're in true partnership and feel like we are just out having a little adventure together, and it's calm and peaceful and gentle, and we're just walking, and I just love it. I just I don't need any more than this, and it could even be just in circles around my property, and I would be you know just happy doing that. Like it's just really interesting how you know when we leave more space for just the simple pleasures, how fulfilling things actually are in their simple forms, and how slowing down for me right now is such a um a lesson and uh and an endeavor. I I'm unpacking a lot of stuff around perpetual motion and a little bit of like constant chaos, or a lot, being kind of my default mode and like unpacking all that into like what's motivating that need for perpetual motion and where where is that edge of where does that edge of discomfort live in slowing down and feeling into a new way of being, and yeah, I just was really called to talk about that today, and I also wanted to talk about this you know, some of the things that I'm moving into professionally and what I some of the shifts I've made. I know that there are some of my families and clients that listen to this, um that that listen to this podcast, and it might be interesting to just kind of feel into kind of some of the more nuanced aspects of what's going on. And I stepped into doing it's just strange, like I didn't really plan on it. I have had a very full veterinary practice with waiting lists and you know not able to take new clients for a long time, and and I just decided that I was gonna hybridize my practice and do more end-of-life work for a multitude of reasons. Um and I so I'm doing both now, and it's been really fascinating, like just doing something new and stepping into um working for someone else and just being surrounded by a lot more community of vets and um new processes and new ways of you know having to not navigate a new software system and you know, just like all this stuff, it's so good for my brain. And it's so good to just step out of my comfort zone even more in a different avenue. So um it has been positive in a lot of ways in that, like growing my edge, and um and then along with that, then just bubbled up this new um enthusiasm and passion for my mandala practice and my and really like just getting so convicted around stepping into being of of better service, of offering more value, of stepping into higher work, and um yeah, so that's all kind of shifting and changing now in real time, and my mandala practice is gonna um be shifting and transforming a bit around this new um just growth mindset. So yeah, it it's just this interesting, I don't know, it's just interesting to hold both this expansive side of everything and then also at the same time being equally committed to surrendering and finding more slowness and stillness. So I'm holding both of those, um the yin and yang forces, and yeah, it's just the richness of that is is pretty profound right now. So um, yeah, I I wish I I mean I guess I could be videoing this, but it's so amazing out here. You know, all the wildflowers are are in full bloom, and we just had a huge storm last night, and we have wind, and we have just everything's just fully on as far as kind of the nature plants and the life here is just bustling, and I feel like I'm being carried on that wave of of kind of manifestation energy, just like just this um current of pure creativity bubbling through my channels and avenues of expression. So, anyway, I am in the midst of finishing up a new webinar that I'm going to be getting out soon after the Canine Wellness Um Integrative and Holistic Fundamentals course, which is a pretty large course that is pretty well finished, and we'll hopefully be launching that um and announcing it with the newsletter that's coming out at the beginning of July. And then the um the course that I'm almost finished with right now is an introduction to Chinese medicine and um traditional Chinese veterinary medicine, and just kind of going through some of the key terms and just the principles behind it, and just kind of introducing the broad strokes philosophy because it's incredible and beautiful, and um and I wanted to talk a little bit about that because it's you know how I got into Chinese medicine. I was I was initially drawn to it before I was ever even a vet, I was using it for myself. I've always been very drawn to the ancient healing modalities and um stepping outside of the conventional box pretty much in every area um of my life, and so I've been really comfortable exploring different um different types of medicines and drawn especially to indigenous traditions and how they heal and how they connect so holistically with the body, mind, and spirit, and integrate that into just everything. And the Chinese medicine side um drew me in just because of the sophistication of its um branches and also not to say other traditions are less sophisticated, but Chinese medicine just had such an algorithm behind its diagnostic and therapeutic processes, and paired, you know, this really, really sophisticated um meridian system and and way of describing the energies in the body with these incredible healing techniques like acupuncture and food therapy and tina and all these just in their own right, each such so impactful that as somebody that was trained studying medicine and trained, you know, in in a conventional medical paradigm, it just made perfect sense for me to step into that kind of work given just my constitution and what I believe in. But one of the things that is also so special about Chinese medicine is how rooted in Taoist philosophy it is. I mean, this whole idea of describing the body and the forces in the body in a way that you pair with nature, um, that just speaks so deeply to me. And then the other branch of medicine that I didn't mention that's actually one of the key um key reasons why I dove so deep into the Chinese medicine teachings is their um herbal practice and the sophistication of kind of the herbal formulations and um yeah, and just the accessibility as a veterinarian of some a couple of, I mean not tremendously accessible, but there are you know other veterinarians that are incredibly talented in these areas that teach this. So I was able to find education early on, and it was just something I could step right into after graduating from vet school. Um, so yeah, that's how I ended up um studying Chinese medicine so early. I had also looked into homeopathy, which I I do love very much. It's um it's another uh modality of holistic medicine that is very sophisticated and very nuanced and very in-depth. Um but yeah, so I'm really, really excited about this course. I speak in I when I see clients, I go through and kind of say what I'm finding because I kind of verbally process and also I want them to know that's why they're here, why they're with me. And yet they all kind of look at me like I have three heads when I start talking about blood deficiency and wind invasions and spleen tue deficiency. And um, you know, it anyway, it's kind of a nice option if somebody's super interested in diving deeper into some of these fundamentals that this this will be available. So yeah, really psyched to get this all out and work on the next one. I'm vacillating on what my next one's gonna be. I definitely want to do another couple of really big courses um similar to what I've done for the dogs for both horses and cats. Um but that was a bear of a project. So I'll probably kick out a couple of shorter, um, shorter courses in the meantime, just to keep the content flowing and keep the creative juices flowing. And I'm really psyched if anybody has any desired topics they'd like me to go into. Um, yeah, I would love to hear. And yeah, thanks as always for being a part of my little microcosm here. I'm just so grateful for all of you listening and just being able to share this precious space with everyone. So much love, gratitude, and blessings to you.