Jane Witherspoon is a Canadian expat adventurer, yoga instructor and passionate rambler who recently relocated from Panama to Denia, Spain.
Animals, both wild and tame, have an incredible ability for empathy and contain all our most attractive characteristics, including compassion, kindness, and love for each other and humans.
Encounter with an animal can soothe you, heal emotional hurt, calm anxiety, or bring happiness to your day. This can include anything from receiving affection from your family pet to hearing birdsong while hiking in nature. Our connections with animals are also an antidote to loneliness.
Studies show that our social networks are diminishing, making loneliness the number one reason people seek out therapy. A new commission by the World Health Association reports that 1 in 4 adults globally are struggling with loneliness.
We are social animals and require connection to other living beings to feel a sense of belonging and love. Animals fulfill our need for company, to be loved, and our profound need to love other beings.
At times, even those closest to us may not fully grasp our pain, but animals possess a unique ability to sense even the faintest hint of discomfort. Animals have an intuitive connection to humans. They have an innate understanding of human emotions, a bond that has led to the emergence of service and emotional support animals. These animals, with their unconditional love and support, become a constant companion for those in need.
It is not only domesticated animals that can create a feeling of joy. Spying an owl in a tree can cause a truly magical moment of wonder, or looking out your window to see a deer roaming across your lawn, these awe-inspiring moments are endless. We connect with animals daily in wonderful and unexpected ways if we become aware of our surroundings.
These words by Laura Staley sum up our relationship with animals, “The interspecies dance of love softens and expands the heart.”
And so my Sole Sisters, as you ramble out into your week, I hope that you experience, on some level, that interspecies dance of love.
Animals exist with us and communicate with us in many ways, If we allow ourselves to become still enough to notice, and if we live in a sacred way - in realization that communication with them is natural. - Reverend Misa Hopkins
Animals can inspire us to be less busy, more present, less worried, more joyful and more passionate about life. They will never judge us for things we do or don’t do. Kristen Moeller
READ MORE > Jane's Mindful Musings, Rambler Cafe Blog
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