What animals Teach you

Their Whole Selves

Today I want to talk about what animals teach you.

Those of you who have read my previous posts know I mentioned animals do not have an ego. Not the same way as humans. Animals come to you with their whole selves. They do not hide anything about themselves from you. They may be cautious and they may take their time but once they feel that you are trustworthy they show you their 'Whole Selves'.

What does showing your 'Whole Self 'mean from the animal perspective:-

• Showing you how I feel fully in the moment
• Giving my full attention to you 
• Wanting to please you 
• Watching your moods and your body language and seeing how to compensate my behavior and mirror you
• Listening to you all the time
• Fulfilling the purpose I know I have as a species and with you
• Always there for you
• Bring my heart, my trauma, my everything without holding anything back
• I want to trust you

When animals meet you or greet you they scan you physically, emotionally and energetically. You may use masks in the human world but animals see through these and see the raw you as you are. This is one reason why humans feel that animals get them and they can connect to them - most especially after trauma. 

You see animals don't hide who they are and they give with zero expectations (maybe a treat here and there but that type of expectation is a conditioned response). Animals are attuned to their bodily sensations very deeply and are ready to meet you where you are. At the same time they will do what they can to bring you to this present moment and want you to see them for who they are. This in itself is such a beautiful gift indeed. Allowing you to see them. Their real selves. In their view they cannot be anything else. 

Meeting You Where You Are

Meeting you where you are is a sure way to build trust. When you meet an animal always meet them where they are. I do not believe in pushing animals beyond their capacity. One cannot get over trauma in one sitting and no behavioral methods can erase trauma. Trauma does not go away through conditioning. It may appear that way temporarily but it's not fool proof. Trauma sits in the tissues of the body. Research by Candace Pert and her colleagues (Pert, Ruff and Herkenam, 1985) (she was the Chief of Brain Biochemistry in the Clinical Neuroscience Branch of the National Institutes of Health before her death) suggests the mind and the body talk to each other through what are known as neuropeptides. These are complex protein molecules that are released in the brain and attach themselves to cell receptors in the body. These molecules create a cascade of chemical reactions inside the cells where they are attach and are related to how emotions are manifested in the body. Candace Pert dubbed these 'molecules of emotion'. What this research tells us is that emotions are full bodymind experiences that are not separated.  How does this relate to the current topic? It's very important because when I wrote that animals meet you where they are - they are truthful and when they behave a certain way they are showing you a great deal about themselves. There is a reason for everything and there is a time to direct and a time to invite and a time to stand still in the quietness so that integration and learning can happen. An animal does not learn when the brain is in a flight or fright stress/trauma response, so continually eliciting this response is a sure way to create fragmented memory and does not address the fear in the animal at all. It creates a platform for a total shut down and a resignation to helplessness. The animal is pushed beyond beyond their threshold.

Threshold
​Each animal is an individual. Each animal has their internal reality (I will cover this in another post) and has their own thoughts and emotions. Bringing all of these together means that they bring their personalities and all of their experiences with them when they meet you. A threshold is a demarcation or a line that marks the top end level of tolerance in any given experience. In working with trauma this threshold is the marking point of what the animal can handle at any one time. Some animals have a small window of tolerance others do not. Think about a time when you were triggered and you were terrified of going to a certain area as a result and someone pushed you through that when you weren't ready. You probably collapsed internally and some type of dissociation of the bodily feeling occurred because the pain was too great. You moved beyond your threshold. Trauma is no different for animals. In fact it is even more intense because animals are fully aware of their experience and their bodies. Humans, on the other hand, are focused on the cognitive and lose track of their bodies very easily. When trauma has been the status quo for a human or animal finding joy in new experiences and exercising curiosity is no longer natural.

Curiosity and Play

When an animal is healthy (mentally, emotionally and physically) they show a cautious curiosity and play in new situations. I am sure you have watched kittens and puppies play - they are adorable and totally throw themselves into the experience and the moment. Jumping all paws in! This is the healthy way to navigate life! These are examples of healthy curiosity and play. Provided the animals have the correct resources for good health and they are in a homeostatic place (where bodily checks and balances are maintained) they will exhibit these behaviors. Often young animals most especially in domestication are plucked from their Mothers too soon. This is the number one thing animals tell me they want a healing for. So by the time animals in domestication are born they have inherited the traumas of their parents (trans-generationally), have lived through the trauma of birth and have been prematurely separated from their animal families.  This is the beginning of the trauma cycle and timeline right there. By the time they are 8-10 weeks old, baring all else is well (resources, human interaction etc) young animals already hold the scars of these traumatic events in their bodies and personal narratives. Rescue animals hold much more based on their experiences.

So what do animals teach us...

• To look in our hearts and use wise eyes to see others as they are not who we want them to be or what we project upon them 
• To bring our whole selves to the table - to be real 
• To meet each other where we are at and not create false ideas of who we are based on expectation and insecurity
• To be truthful to ourselves about how we feel and what we are willing to accept and not accept
• To create adequate boundaries based on species-specific etiquette 
• To communicate using our bodies fully
• To take time out for self care (animals will retreat to their nesting places when they need their own time without apologies)
• To love for the sake of loving another with the purity of full belief in the other
• To bring the purity of our inner child to our experiences
• Giving full attention to what we are doing and be totally immersed in it
• To be cautiously curious in life and engage in creative play

Remember there is a time to DIRECT, a time to INVITE and a time to STAND STILL.

References
Pert, C.B., M.R. Ruff, R.J. Weber, and M. Herkenham. 1985. Neuropeptides and their receptors: a psychosomatic network. J Immunol. 135:820s-826.

Chiara gives a voice to the voiceless. She brings the internal realities of animals to life through her Nervous System to Nervous System (N2N) Connectivity™ process. She is unique and mixes science and intuition. She calls it a boundless science. A science that includes doing, being and has a method. 

Wild Voices Talk™ and Chiara are about you and your animals. Chiara provides unique services that bring a richness of connectivity between animals and their human counterparts. She provides a new perspective on animal minds, emotions and trauma with a view to supporting animals through their journeys with their humans. It is a Nervous System to Nervous System (N2N) Connectivity™.

​She creates the space for animals to find their voices in a human world. She creates a communicative meeting place between their consciousness and yours. 

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