Animal Communication | Body Language | Mindset | Intuition | Relationship
Extraordinary Animal Communication for Ordinary People
Clear, non-verbal communication with animals is a skill anyone can master.
Do you believe that animal communication is a psychic superpower only a gifted few possess? Then skip this article.
But if you are curious and want a richer dialogue with the animals in your life, read on.
Eastern cultures organize their philosophies and health practices around the “three pillars” of body, mind, and spirit. From the perspective of these three pillars, I believe there are three skills anyone can learn to create deeper connections with their animals: body language, mindset, and spirit, as intuition.
We communicate with animals at all three levels all the time whether we’re aware of it or not. When you become conscious of what you’re telling (or not telling) your pets through these three channels, magic can happen.
Let me describe how I see body, mind, and spirit as non-verbal communication channels to dialogue with our animals.
Body Language
The common language we share with other animals is body language. Becoming aware of your own body language and being more observant of your pet’s go a long way to boosting communication between you.
In the wild, an animal’s survival depends on reading the intentions of other animals. They become aware of the slightest nuance. A tongue flick, an ear turn, a glance, a stare, body tension and so much more speak volumes. There is an encyclopedia of subtle signals that most people miss.
Reading and responding to an animal’s body is the secret of horse and dog whisperers. They get really good at it. Carefully watching the animal’s body language, they can predict what the animal is likely to do in the next nanosecond.
Then they use their body language to communicate a choice to the animal. They reduce whatever pressure the animal feels from their body language to say “relax” or “wait.” They might interrupt what’s about to happen or redirect it in some way. They use their body language to suggest choices in a way that’s logical to the animal.
It looks like mind reading. But it’s really body reading. And using their body language in a way that is logical and understandable to the animal.
So next time you’re working with your animal, try using as few words as possible. Pay close attention to your vocal tone, your facial expression, your posture, the direction you’re facing or moving. Observe how that affects your pet’s behavior.
Want a different result? Try changing your body language. Observe the result. Rinse. Repeat. Learn.
Mindset
In his 1943 animal communication classic, A Kinship with All Life, author J. Allen Boone describes how his view of human-animal relationships was shaped by the canine silent film star Strongheart as Boone cared for the German shepherd while his trainer traveled.
Boone came to understand Strongheart as a kindred spirit and highly intelligent companion, not merely as a dog. Not a “dumb” animal in any sense of the word. Returning the compliment, this highly intelligent and discerning German shepherd accepted Boone as a fellow traveler in this world and became his guide into a new world.
Boone’s mindset made the difference in his relationship with Strongheart at a time when thinking of animals as sentient beings risked being labeled a kook. Non-verbal communication with them? Boone was brave to even open up the subject when he started writing about it in 1939.
People approach animals with different mindsets. Your mindset molds everything (like your body language) in your interactions with your animals. How would you describe your mindset about the relationship you have with your pets:
· Alpha or leader or boss
· Pet parent, mom, dad, my kid, my baby
· Soulmate or muse
· Guardian or keeper
· Rescuer or protector
· Companion or partner
· (fill in another label you use)
Beliefs that underlie your mindset affect all of your interactions with your pets. Just understanding this concept starts to shift your relationship with them.
Your mindset is the sum of your beliefs. Beliefs create thought patterns. Thought patterns show up in your mind chatter. That’s where you can hear your mindset. You convince yourself that your mindset is true through the stories you tell, whether to yourself or others
Beliefs are choices. You can keep your beliefs and stories. Or you can change them and change how you experience life.
If your relationship with any of your animals is less than ideal, consider whether changing your mindset could shift it in a more positive direction.
If you’re not clear about your mindset toward your pet, keep a notebook handy. When any thought about your pet enters your mind chatter, jot it down. Just a sentence will do. As sentences accumulate, you’ll be able to identify your default mindset. If it’s working for you, great. If it’s not, are you willing to change beliefs, make other choices, in order to change your relationship with your animals?
Spirit as Intuition
When your body language and mindset are in sync with the relationship you want with your animals, you’re on your way to the kinship that J. Allen Boone writes about. Accessing intuition is the next level of communication,
Here’s where changing your mind is important. Achieving an emotionally neutral state by shifting your beliefs enables you to begin listening to your intuition. An intuitive connection with your animals takes communication to a whole other level.
Google dictionary defines intuition as “the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning” and “a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning.”
Can you relate to that? Have you ever felt that something’s just not right at home? You hurry back to find you accidentally left outdoors, Now it’s raining and your pup is whining pathetically at the door. Or you called the vet to look at your horse because you just felt something was “off” even though you couldn’t point to any specific symptom. You apologize to the vet for being a worrywart. But the vet does bloodwork and confirms your hunch.
That’s intuition. Just a knowing. A nagging hunch. A fleeting thought that floats into your conscious mind out of the blue.
There are left brain, right brain discussions about how intuition works. And discussions about brainwaves like alpha and theta. But you can learn to access intuition without analyzing how it happens.
Regular meditation or journaling are two simple ways to begin accessing your intuition. Commit to journaling to identify your mindset beliefs about animals, for example, and you’ll be off to a good start to developing intuitive skills.
Learning New Skills
Things have changed since Boone braved ridicule seven decades ago to write about communing with animals. If you’re curious about these concepts, start playing with them as you engage with your pets. Playful, even childlike, is the operative word. Shift your mindset and observe your animal’s reaction to the changes in your relationship. Capture that in your journal. Track your observations over time. Allow your intuition to kick in to create a deeper connection with your pets.
Defining animal communication in terms of body language, mindset, and intuition is just one way of describing how we connect to animals. The concepts will be foreign to some readers, confirm what others already believe.
Either way, if a left-brained journalist can learn them, you can, too.
© Bonnie Kreitler 2021. All rights reserved.
Writer Bonnie Kreitler creates content to help fellow animal addicts build rewarding relationships with the critters in their lives. See more at www.ramblingdog.com
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