What Maya’s Car Anxiety Taught Me About Symptoms, Trust, and Healing

By Jeff Feinman, VMD, CVH.

My joyous pup Maya usually loves the car.

She would happily jump in, settle into her spot, and come along for the ride. The car meant adventure, togetherness, new smells, and sometimes something even better: a walk in nature. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, something changed.

Instead of hopping in with ease, Maya began trembling. She looked anxious. She hesitated. Usually she would not get in the car at all.

And once she did get in (or if I lift her up) she stands, pants, trembles and looks scared for the entire ride.

There was no obvious reason. No accident. No scary event that I could identify. No clear explanation that my rational mind could grab onto and say, “Ah-ha! That’s it.”

And that is exactly the kind of moment that initially sends me like many loving pet parents into a spiral.

What happened?
Is something seriously wrong?
Will she always be afraid now?
Did I miss something?
What should I do?

This is where the Path to Pet Wellness becomes so valuable. Not because it gives us instant control over every symptom, but because it gives us a more supportive way to understand what symptoms are trying to tell us.

Instead of seeing Maya’s sudden car anxiety as a disaster, I can see it as information. A clue. A temporary expression of imbalance. A message from her body, mind, and energy system saying: “Something needs attention.”

That shift changes everything.

Symptoms Are Not the Enemy

Most of us were taught to think of symptoms as problems to eliminate as quickly as possible. If our dog trembles, limps, scratches, vomits, hides, barks, or suddenly refuses something they used to enjoy, our first impulse is often fear.

And of course it is. We love them.

But symptoms are not enemies. They are communications. They are the body’s way of making the invisible visible.

In the Path to Pet Wellness, and homeopathy, symptoms are viewed as clues to underlying imbalance. They may reflect changes in cellular energy, mitochondrial function, emotional stress, environmental exposure, inflammation, or changes in the flow of vitality. In simpler words: symptoms tell us that the system may be temporarily out of balance and is asking for support.

This does not mean we ignore symptoms. Quite the opposite. We observe them more carefully.

We ask better questions.

How is my pet’s overall quality of life?
Are they still eating well?
Are they still engaged with me?
Are they sleeping normally?
Are they still interested in life?
Is this symptom getting better, worse, or simply moving through?

That is where Maya’s quality of life scale and BEAM become such helpful tools.

Maya’s Quality of Life Scale

When Maya started acting anxious about the car, I could have focused only on that one symptom: “Maya has car anxiety.”

But that would have been an incomplete picture.

Instead, I looked at her whole quality of life. On a simple 1–10 scale, with 10 being “fully herself,” I asked: where is Maya today?

Outside of the car issue, was she still bright? Was she eating? Was she playful? Was she connecting? Was she enjoying walks? Was she resting well? Was she still Maya?

This simple quality of life scale helps prevent one symptom from taking over the entire story.

It does not dismiss the symptom. It puts it in context.

That context is important because a dog with one temporary fear and otherwise excellent quality of life is in a very different situation than a dog whose fear is accompanied by a major drop in energy, appetite, mood, or engagement.

This is exactly why BEAM is so powerful.

How BEAM Parallels Quality of Life

BEAM stands for Behavior, Energy, Appetite, and Mood. These four categories give us a practical way to track our pet’s overall vitality and balance.

Behavior: What is your pet doing? Are there new fears, habits, compulsions, sensitivities, or changes in daily patterns?

Energy: Is your pet eager, active, and resilient? Or are they sluggish, withdrawn, or tiring more easily?

Appetite: Are they eating normally? Are they enthusiastic about food? Has thirst, digestion, or food tolerance changed?

Mood: Do they seem joyful, connected, relaxed, curious, playful, or content? Or more irritable, anxious, sad, or flat?

BEAM reflects quality of life because it shows us how our pet is experiencing life, not just what diagnosis or isolated symptom they may have. HA!’s educational materials describe BEAM as a way to “shine a light” on health and track symptoms within the bigger picture of vitality and balance.

So with Maya, the question was not only, “Why is she afraid of the car?”

The bigger question was, “What is her BEAM?”

If her car anxiety appeared while her BEAM stayed high, I could respond with curiosity and calm support. If her BEAM dropped significantly, that would tell me we needed to look deeper and possibly act more quickly.

This is not about ignoring veterinary care. It is about making more informed, less fear-driven decisions.

“This Too Shall Pass”

One of the greatest gifts of homeopathic and whole-istic care is the lived experience of watching symptoms change.

In my own treatment, in Maya’s care, and in many patients over the years, I have seen symptoms arise, shift, soften, resolve, or transform as the body reorganizes toward better balance. This teaches a deep lesson: not every symptom is permanent. Not every symptom is a crisis. Not every symptom means the body is failing.

Sometimes a symptom is part of a healing process.

Sometimes it is a temporary clue.

Sometimes it is the body’s request for a different kind of support.

That experience helps me remember: this too shall pass.

And when I remember that, I can help Maya more effectively. I can stay grounded. I can observe. I can support her nervous system. I can avoid forcing her. I can use calming holistic actions. I can look for patterns. I can track her BEAM. I can work with her body and emotions instead of panicking about them.

My calm becomes part of her treatment.

The Regrowth Mindset vs. the Fixed Mindset

When symptoms scare us, it is easy to fall into a fixed mindset.

A fixed mindset says: “This is the new reality. My dog is anxious now. Something is wrong. There are only a few options. I need to stop this symptom immediately.”

That mindset is understandable, but it can narrow our vision. It often comes from the limited physiologic understanding of our pets as machines with broken parts, rather than living beings with dynamic, adaptive, self-healing systems.

The regrowth mindset is different.

A regrowth mindset says: “This symptom is information. Maya’s body and mind are communicating. Her system can rebalance. I can observe, support, learn, and choose actions that build vitality.”

This mindset does not deny discomfort. It simply refuses to reduce our pets to their symptoms.

The regrowth mindset gives us more choices. It reminds us that our pets are not static. They are living, changing, responsive beings. Their mitochondria, nervous system, emotions, immune function, and vitality are always interacting with the world around them.

And because they are always changing, healing is possible.

Reducing the Anxiety of Uncertainty

Uncertainty is one of the hardest parts of loving an animal.

They cannot tell us exactly what they feel. We cannot always know why a symptom appeared. We cannot predict every outcome.

But we can change our relationship with uncertainty.

BEAM and quality of life tracking give us something steady to return to. They turn vague worry into loving observation. Instead of spinning in fear, we can ask:

What changed today?
What stayed strong?
Is BEAM improving or declining?
Is this symptom persistent, prominent, problematic, or peculiar?
What simple holistic action can I take right now?

This helps us move from panic to participation.

And that is empowering.

Walking the Path With Our Pets

Maya’s car anxiety is still a clue I am listening to. I do not need to have every answer today. I can honor what she is showing me while trusting the bigger process.

That is the heart of the Path to Pet Wellness.

We observe symptoms without fearing them. We track BEAM and quality of life. We support vitality and balance. We remember that symptoms often reflect temporary energetic and mitochondrial imbalance rather than permanent limitation. We choose curiosity over panic, partnership over control, and regrowth over fixed fear.

Our pets are always communicating.

When we learn to listen with love, symptoms become less frightening. They become part of the conversation.

And sometimes, that conversation leads us and our animals back to the car, back to trust, and back to the next joyful adventure together.

Jeff guides fellow dog lovers on the “Path to Pet Wellness”. Through the Holistic Actions! (HA!) online platform, Jeff and the HA! faculty share ways to whole-istically help our beloved companions be as healthy and happy as possible. You can begin learning how by joining the worldwide HA! community and signing up for the free Holistic Pet Health 101 course at: https://www.holisticactions.com/holistic-pet-care-course/