327 Whale Watching Wisdom with Anne Gordon de Barrigon

Anne Gordon de Barrigon is a whale and dolphin expert. She has been running Whale and Dolphin Wisdom Retreats since 2007 and has a Degree in Biology and Animal Behavior.  She has worked as a zookeeper and has trained animals for over 20 years for movies and TV. Married into the indigenous Embera tribe in Panama. Owns and operates Embera Village Tours. Pioneered the whale watching industry in Panama.

Contact Info

• Website: www.WhaleWisdomRetreats.com
• Free Ebook: You can download 'Messages From the Sea', which is wisdom that I received direct from the dolphins and whales. I'm happy to share that with you. (Get it from her website)

Most Influential Person

• I think that would be the whales and dolphins. For me, they're, they're my gurus.

Effect on Emotions

• Mindfulness has given me a deep sense of peace, a deep peace and comfort.

Thoughts on Breathing

• Breathing is really important because dolphins and whales are conscious breathers. Dolphins and whales have to literally consciously think to breathe.
• That means, let's just say you're swimming underwater and you know you can't breathe until you come to the surface. Same with them. So when you are conscious breather for a whale and dolphin, they can't sleep like we can.
• We sleep because they they'd suffocate without breathing so they sleep with one half of their brain and the other half keeps them moving and breathing or you know, coming to the surface.
• So when you are fully conscious of your breathing, it also, that just expands to being more conscious and using more of your brain power or conscious of how your physical body moves, which also opens up your mind to being more aware and conscious of the world around you.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Conversations With God By Neale Donald Walsch
• App: Nature is my app lol

Bullying Story

• I'm not aware of being bullied or just didn't pay enough attention so that it affected me. I have an interesting story that I think you'll like.
• It was on a retreat here with the whales and I had these people on this trip who were all from the UK. This one young man, he was just 21 and he was so much fun, but he was hyper as all get out. He was just bouncing off the walls.
• This was not even a spiritual group. They were more of a whale-watching scientific group. Somebody in the group asked, can we do some meditation? I'm like, sure. Okay. So when we went to do the first meditation, this young man said, I don't know if I can do this meditation stuff. I can't sit still for anything.
• And I said, you know what? That's fine. It's up to you and if you want to just try it and if it doesn't work, just very quietly walk away so you don't disturb anybody. So he was like, okay. So I gave him permission to leave if he needed to.
• So I started the meditation and when I oftentimes lead meditations, I have an idea of where it's going, but the whales and dolphins enter and they guide me and I just go wherever they want to take us. So on that particular evening they wanted to take us to forgiveness.
• So okay. We went there and what they asked me to show was to have everybody imagine a dolphin hunter from Japan standing in front of them and then feel what they feel about a dolphin hunter, but then see that this man, this hunter has a family and he has his culture and he has his history and he's just trying to do what we're all trying to do and that's feed his family and live a good life, good healthy, happy life.
• And that's all he knows how to do; to connect with him on a heart to heart level and a soul to soul level. And then I guided them to hug this man once they connected heart to heart, soul to soul. So afterwards, I was asking for anybody to share and this young man said that was amazing. He said, I saw that Japanese hunter and I punched him.
• But then when you asked me to look at his heart and his soul and see that he was just trying to get by. I hugged him and I apologized. I'm so sorry that I hit him. And so for me, bullying is about like he was trying to bully this Japanese hunter.
• If we just open our hearts and our, our souls to connect on that level because the people doing the bullying are doing so out of pain that they're feeling. And so they don't know how else to act out. So we need to open our hearts and move to understand them and give them the love they're so desperately seeking.