We are born the same way, we initially crawl the same way, our bodies provide milk for our babies and we feed them the same way…we play in similar ways, we kiss and show affection in ways alike, so how different are we to animals after all? Modern day has almost sucked the nature out of us yet mammals prove and remind us on a daily basis how, in many ways, we are indeed very alike. So how is it that we have come to differ so drastically in our habits and ways..?

Animals continue to be solely guided by their instinct, we not so much. As societies, we haven’t been encouraged or even given the chance to develop our intuition or what is also known as our “third eye”. On the contrary, we have been trained to make more and more use of our mind and have in fact over the years been cheered for our brain performances and little praise and value has been offered to the direction of the spirit and the intuitive part of it; animals on the other hand, the ones who have been peacefully left out in their natural environment at least, religiously follow their gut feelings and lead their lives on the basis of such inner signals.

Another thing is rhythms; in their natural ambience animals follow the rhythms they are fit for, doing no more than what they are made to endure, whereas we humans try to shape ourselves to a lifestyle dictated directly or indirectly to us by others, often not suitable for our kind, our psycho-synthesis and in-built personal rhythms. The activities we’ll get up to and often, and rather sadly so, even the dedicated time and the timing of them, is set upon us by either peer pressure or the media or what appears to be the trend, or simply what our ego seems to enjoy and puff up with! And off we go, further and further away from nature, towards more and more artificiality, creating needs we never had, feeding a system of stress-producing materialism, a materialism we’ll read an article like the present and nod our heads with agreement over, yet the next thing you know, our actions will repeat themselves, and we’ll go deeper and deeper into a world we misleadingly think fits us, expresses us and suits us..! But does it really?

Are we as free or carefree as animals, as calm and as peaceful as other mammals in living life? We allegedly are more intelligent creatures and have capabilities beyond those of animals yet focusing on the part we do share in common with them, how present is it in our human equation? In essence, is our “animalistic” “natural” side awake or has it been dormant for what can only be termed as “way too long”? Do we spend (enough) time out in nature? Are we even able to spend time out in nature and to bring ourselves into a calm alignment with it, truly becoming one with it..?

Consider how long you could lie down under a tree or around a lake just doing nothing…simply sitting down and being in that moment and ambience. Then consider just how often animals do that… Animals enjoy uninterrupted chilling in nature and alignment with the cosmos every day!! Consider also how calm you feel right after spending some uninterrupted time by the sea, focusing on the sounds of the waves and the birds and the surrounding nature and how calm you feel after spending half an hour browsing on your phone or watching TV? Just like for animals, our natural environment is also this earth and touching base with its ground, absorbing its energy and being part of its ambience is of vital importance to our well-being. We may not have fur and pointy teeth to jump in the wild fields or go hunting, but we too carry an existential want to be out in nature. The more we don’t listen to that inner need we are all born with, the more we ignore and push it aside, so far back that the idea of being away from nature no longer seems tragic to us, then the more we create an inner layer of unhappiness that is so subtle, it’ll pass almost unnoticed by all of us.

And not only do we not place ourselves out in nature enough, multiple human actions and decisions destroy Mother Nature. Wars and chemicals and factories and toxic fumes and dust of different kinds everywhere…can’t help but wonder: where will this road lead?

With us breathing it all in (literally and metaphorically speaking), sat in front of some screen in vain, whilst habitually considering or looking into the next thing that will entertain our false image of self and others, which will eventually make us more alienated from nature, from our authentic self, from our playful side, our free side, our instinctive side…and all for what?! To make ourselves more liked, by whom? To build a greater image in which we will imprison and lock ourselves in certain modes of “acceptable” behaviour and ways of being..!

So YES, we no doubt have strong similarities with animals, particularly so with our fellow mammals, but what we need to ask is, are those similarities part of who humans are today?

Let’s be wise and let’s bring our inner animal more to the surface… Let’s be driven not only by our intelligence and mind (and ultimately our ego) but let’s surrender more to our gut feelings, our intrinsic nature and the rhythms we were meant to live in and which make us feel calm and alright. Let’s do this free of any guilt, fear or inhibitions and let’s care less about being liked by others and more about being liked by ourselves!

And just for fun, make a date with yourself out in nature…meet yourself somewhere you like and amongst other things, contemplate this: what does your inner animal call for and what does your power animal represent? 😉

Love and Light,

Tania Pirilidou Karatsi