September 6, 2023 • 36 mins
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Animal communication has so much to offer. Learning to talk with animals can help us understand our pets better. It can help us work more effectively with rescued animals to find out what they need to return to the wild or secure a new forever home. Learning animal communication can also help the communicator feel more alive and intuitive.
But many students of animal communication find that they hit a plateau at some point. For example, you may have had many successful conversations with animals but you just can't seem to go any deeper in your conversations. Or you may find it is easy for you to talk with animals about some topics but not others.
All too often, this points back to a lack in our own self care. To become the kind of animal communicator that can be of the highest service to our animal clients, we must tend to ourselves first.
In this episode of the Let's Talk to Animals podcast, animal intuitive and animal communication teacher Shannon Cutts shares a deeply personal story from her own experience of how blocks came up in her interspecies communications and how self care helped her break through those blocks.
Study animal communication with Shannon: https://www.animallovelanguages.com/enroll
Listen to the podcast version: https://letstalktoanimals.buzzsprout.com/
Are you animal communication curious? Have I got something special for you! My new Animal Communication Adventure to Mastery student learning program just launched! This program is designed to be a gentle, yet thorough, serious, yet lighthearted path to interspecies fluency that pairs beautifully with my ongoing live Animal Communication Adventure Practice Circle for developing student practitioners. Visit animallovelanguages.com and click on programs to join us.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to let's Talk to Animals.
My name is Shannon Ketz.
I'm an animal intuitive andsensitive and a Reiki master
practitioner for pets and theirpeople, and also your friendly
neighborhood host of the podcastfor all species, let's Talk to
Animals.
We are now in our fourth season.
After three wonderful seasonsof interviewing amazing
(00:33):
intuitives and holistic petpractitioners from around the
world, I have taken off myhostess badge, at least for a
few episodes.
Here in season four I'm sharingpersonal stories from my own
animal communication journey andmy professional practice, as
well as my experiences as ananimal communication teacher,
mentor and guide.
Today I'm going to talk aboutsomething, a topic that is
(00:57):
really kind of a personalpassion of mine and it's
something that, in my opinion,doesn't get talked about nearly
enough in animal communicationlearning circles and I share
that because I actually havestudied with several teachers
and not to take away from thewonderful, wonderful gifts that
they've given me.
But it's all too easy to assumethat this topic because we're
(01:19):
all adults here.
In most cases when we come toanimal communication, we're
coming into it by choice as anadult, because we want to learn
this universal, intuitivelanguage, and so we kind of all
just tend to assume thateverybody's taken care of it,
and the truth is is that many ofus are not, and it's not
because we don't want to, it'sthat we don't realize that it's
(01:43):
so important we don't realizewe're not already taking care of
it and we also don't know howor what to do.
And so the topic on the tabletoday is self care and animal
communication, and that's one ofthose cliched phrases that when
we hear self care we think ofglossy magazine covers and five
(02:04):
page spreads with expensivesachets and bath bombs and
massages and things like that.
And that's kind of where wehave left self care.
As a mass market society, as aconsumer based society, we've
kind of said self care meansbuying stuff, it means taking
(02:25):
time to do expensive things, itmeans taking vacation, and it's
so much deeper than that.
So I'm going to share a reallypersonal story from my own
journey that illustrates howimportant self care is, how it
can crop up and cause you toexperience blocks in your
(02:47):
conversations with animals, andhow to work through it and how
to resolve it, and I hope thatthis is helpful and supportive
to you If you're wondering whyyou just don't feel like you can
go deeper in your conversationswith animals, or why you feel
like you can't hear your petclearly in when you talk about
(03:08):
certain things, or why you justfeel really confused,
overwhelmed, exhausted or evenfrustrated when you try to
tackle a certain type ofconversation with your animals
Self care, which I define asself kindness and further define
as am I being as kind to myselfas I would be to the being that
(03:29):
I love the most?
Am I giving myself that levelof self kindness, self
consideration, self generosityand self care as I would if I
was caring for someone elsewho's going through something or
who needs something from me?
That's my definition of selfcare.
You can come up with your owndefinition.
In fact, it's really importantto come up with your own
(03:51):
definition of self care, andthat's where I'm going to start
today, to just kind of give youa little context for what I'm
about to share with you and howit can impact your ability to
have deep conversations, notjust with your pet, not just
with others animals, if you're aprofessional communicator
yourself but also with anyoneyou want to talk with in life,
including yourself.
(04:11):
Okay, so let's rewind about 40years ago.
I'm in my 50s now.
About 40 years ago, I developedanorexia I was 10 and it
unfolded in part because of mygenetics it's in my family but
also because of someenvironmental situations, things
that I went through, somebullying that I experienced from
teachers and peers, and itplagued me for 20 years.
(04:34):
I had anorexia and then I hadbulimia and out of that, as I
was trying to heal my poor,depleted body, I developed
really severe panic attacks,anxiety and cyclical depression,
and so this was all before, asit was about 10 years.
I've been in recovery, reallystrong recovery, from all of
that for about a decade now, andso it doesn't surprise me that
(04:58):
I came to animal communicationintuitive animal communication
later in life, because I had alot of healing to do.
I had a lot of work to do toget to the point where I was
strong enough and brave enoughand healthy enough on all levels
of me physical, mentally,emotional and at the sole level
to hold space for others thatwere going through these kinds
(05:19):
of challenges.
Self-care has always been apassion of mine.
It's something that I've workedreally hard on in my life and
it's something that I care verydeeply about, and it's something
that I really emphasize a lotwhen I teach animal
communication, because I haveseen how powerful it becomes and
(05:39):
we really are taking good careof ourselves, how much better
able it makes us to hold spaceand provide the necessary care
for others that come to us frommentoring or coaching or a
listening ear or guidance andhelp of some kind.
So what happened was, eventhough I had recovered, and
(06:02):
really had been in strongrecovery from eating disorders,
anxiety and depression, before Istarted learning animal
communication.
So when I first startedlearning, I found that it was
relatively easy for me to havedeep conversations with animals
about a whole host of otherthings Soul contracts not a
problem.
Last wish is not a problem.
(06:24):
Reincarnation of pets.
I am living with thereincarnation of my soul.
Bird pearl Didn't have an issuewith it.
Super comfortable having theseconversations.
Activities, favorite toys,daily routine, pet siblings,
human pet relationships not aproblem.
(06:46):
Eager to have theseconversations.
But when it came to talking withpets about their food, how they
felt about their food, whetherthey liked their food, whether
they were getting enough food orperhaps sometimes too much food
or the wrong kind of food, Ifelt really blocked.
What was happening and it tookme a while to sort it out is
(07:08):
that I didn't realize that Istill had some lingering blocks
within myself around my ownrelationship with food, how I
related to food.
There were some areas where Ifelt really uncomfortable about
food, or I just didn'tunderstand how I was feeling
about food and I hadn't takenany time to check in with myself
(07:32):
in my own healing journey toask myself how are you feeling
about your own portion sizes?
How are you feeling about thefoods you're choosing for
yourself?
How are you feeling aboutchanging your diet?
All of these differentquestions that I would ask of an
animal were questions that Ireally wasn't comfortable asking
(07:52):
myself, and I have found in myjourney as a teacher that if you
are asking anyone else anotherhuman or an animal a question
that you don't feel comfortableanswering yourself or that
brings up something we call ittriggering in recovery circles,
but it triggers something in you, like maybe pushing on a mental
(08:13):
or an emotional bruise,something that just makes you
feel uncomfortable.
Well, that's something to stopand pay attention to, because
it's something within you thatneeds your kindness and
self-care.
That's something within youthat needs your attention first
before you can proceed furtherwith the conversation with
(08:35):
someone else.
And so what I had to do is goback and take a look at my own
relationship with food and why Iwas downplaying it so much.
I mean, the truth is is I amwired a little differently.
There's all kinds of scientificstudies now that prove that
people that have my type ofdisease, my anorexic and bulimic
(08:58):
genes, we don't get as excitedabout food.
We typically don't experienceas much pleasure, like the
pleasure centers in our braindon't light up as much as people
that don't have these genes.
And so, yeah, there's somethingwithin me that actually doesn't
understand why food would be soimportant, but that doesn't
(09:23):
have to hold me back as long asI'm okay with it.
I'm like, okay, that's just whoI am, it's not a big deal.
And just recognizing that mebeing that way doesn't mean that
everyone else is that way.
Like I can really separate myown personal experience from
being able to empathize with ananimal who is so excited about
(09:47):
their food and it's like thehighlight of their day.
Like I live with an animal likethat our Docs and Flash Gordon
like he literally lives to eat.
I honestly think the onlyreason he wakes up in the
morning is because there'sbreakfast and then after that
there will be snack and thenafter that will be more snacks
and after that will be dinner.
Yay, so I'm literally livingwith an animal who is wired as
(10:09):
my 180 degree opposite, andbelieve me when I say it's
brought up some stuff for me,not just personally, but in my
animal communication work, in mypractice, in my profession this
is actually a good thing.
It can be really uncomfortablewhen you notice something like
this in yourself.
(10:29):
For some people it might betalking about what happens when
you die, or reincarnation issues.
There may be a block in termsof beliefs or prior conditioning
or shaming or blaming thathappened to you, maybe in your
family of origin or in areligious setting or in school
or politics or something.
(10:50):
It doesn't matter what it is.
We all have them.
It's not something to judge orshame yourself for or to say to
yourself well, I'll just neverbe able to do it, because this
is how I feel.
It's an area inside of youthat's asking for kindness, for
more kindness, for more empathy,for more understanding and for
(11:11):
honest and open conversation.
Because, after all, that's whatwe're all about in animal
communication is having open andhonest conversations.
And here again we come back toif you can't have an open and
honest conversation withyourself about that subject,
about that topic and any aspect,then you're not gonna be able
(11:32):
to achieve the same with anyoneelse that you talk with about
that topic either.
I truly, truly have come tobelieve that that is why we
argue so much about politics andreligion because we have blocks
, we have inner fears orjudgments or shame or blame or
guilt, and we haven't healedthose things within ourselves
(11:54):
and so we're not able to hearothers and we're not able to try
on different points of view forsize.
We can't let ourselves go therebecause we're too afraid.
This is what we willingly walkinto and accept.
When we start the animalcommunication journey, we are
saying yes to healing everythingwithin ourselves that could
(12:17):
potentially create a resistanceor a block to having an open and
honest conversation with ananimal about that topic in any
of its facets.
That can be pretty daunting,but that is what self-care
really means.
When I say self-care and animalcommunication, that is what I
am talking about Self-kindnessat such an epic level.
(12:41):
It goes so far beyond bathbombs and massages and it's
something that, I'll be honest,some of my students have also
struggled with it and they'vecome to me and they've said I
just wanna have deeperconversations and they've come
to me for mentoring, and whatwe've ended up talking about and
working towards is that studentactually reconnecting with
(13:05):
themselves in the area wherethey feel blocked.
So I want to conclude today'sepisode by sharing some of the
tools that I use that have beennot just the most helpful but
literally game changers for mein helping to work through these
issues.
The number one thing isawareness, and actually the
(13:29):
first three things that I'mgonna share with you also form
the foundation of the way Iteach animal communication,
because awareness typicallytends to be about 90% of the
battle.
It's about 90% of the workbecause it's the hardest to come
by.
There's something in our fight,flight, freeze, tender,
befriend system that says ifyou're not aware of it, it can't
(13:51):
potentially hurt you, and sothere's a really big incentive
within us from that level thesurvival system level to stay
ignorant, to not notice, juststay stuck in our fears, stay
stuck in our anger, stay stuckin our resistance, or stay stuck
in the anxiety or thedepression or the eating issue
or whatever behavior or habitthat serves to keep us
(14:15):
distracted from what's reallygoing on.
And so awareness is huge If youfind yourself, even as you're
listening to this episode,becoming aware of something that
needs some self-kindness fromyou on your own behalf.
If you're becoming aware of,maybe, a block that you're
(14:36):
having in conversation withsomeone, it doesn't have to be
an animal, it might be with yourpartner or your boss or your
friend or your neighbor.
But if you're becoming aware,give yourself a huge hug, just
an accept, a virtual hug for me,because awareness is huge, it's
key.
So we really want to giveourselves permission to be aware
(14:58):
, very, very, very important,and I can't stress it enough.
So first is awareness, and Icall that noticing.
Let's just notice.
Let's not give it so, so,terribly much important.
Let's not make it into a biggerdeal than it is, but let's just
give ourselves permission tonotice.
Oh wow, I noticed that I have areally big problem trusting
(15:18):
myself when I have conversationswith pets about their food, and
for me, the way that thatmanifested for a while is I just
didn't have them.
And then I found a mentor and Itold her.
I said I don't want to talkabout that food stuff, that's
not important.
And she said well then you'velost sight of what your clients
want and need, and she was right.
So sometimes, if we can'tfoster awareness within
(15:42):
ourselves because we are tooblocked and when I say blocked,
typically what that means to meis I'm too afraid or I'm too
angry about something to see itfor what it is Then sometimes
what we really need is a mentoror a coach, a teacher, a guide,
a counselor or a therapist,somebody who has developed a
(16:05):
degree of objectivity that willallow them to help us become
aware of something that'sholding us back.
Because that's really all thisis.
I want to be the kind ofcommunicator where there's no
topic that's off the table.
I want the animals that I speakwith to know they can say
anything to me, and in order forme to evolve into that kind of
(16:26):
communicator, I need to becomethe type of human animal that
you can say anything to.
So it's a huge high calling.
You can see, it's a life's work.
In my experience, we all havethe ability to communicate with
animals.
This is a universal language.
It's pre-installed in everyhuman animals operating system,
just like it's pre-installed inevery non-human animals
(16:48):
operating system.
But we are not all called tolearn or should I say to relearn
how to do this.
So it's important to recognizethat.
If you are interested, ifyou're listening to this podcast
, if you are actively involvedin learning communication,
perhaps if you're working evenas a professional volunteer or
(17:10):
professionally in the field,that you're brave, you're really
really brave and you do havethe ability, you do have the
opportunity to be the kind ofcommunicator that an animal
could say anything to.
But it's going to requireconsidering your own self-care
(17:31):
practice, your self-kindnesspractice, and moving it to the
head of the line, making it ahuge priority and really
tackling perhaps some difficultstuff that's built up over the
months or the years or, in mycase, the decades in your life
that may still need a little bitmore TLC, a little bit more
(17:52):
awareness, a little bit morenoticing, a little bit more
kindness, and so when I start,it's always with noticing,
because if we don't know, wecan't do anything about it,
right?
So let's go back to this foodexample.
I've noticed that I was reallyhaving a block, or I always,
when I would ask an animal whatthey ate or what their favorite
treat was, I would get it wrong.
I would receive informationthat the pet parent was like
(18:14):
yeah, I don't know what you'retalking about, we never give him
that, or whatever, and so thatwas my wake-up call, I became
aware I've got some blocksaround having these
conversations about food, and somy next step is always to get
curious, because so much of ourresistance to tackling these
(18:35):
blocks, or to even noticing thatthey're there, is that we don't
know what to do next.
It's like, okay, I'm aware ofthat, I don't really like
talking about food, I'm notreally interested in that topic,
but I don't know what to doabout that.
Just hate it for the rest of mylife.
Just become a communicator.
That's like, yeah, I don't talkto animals about their food,
even though that's like one ofthe most important topics of
(18:57):
conversation to have with acompanion animal, especially
because it's something thattypically they don't have much,
if any, control over.
So they really, really want tobe heard.
If they want more of somethingor less of something, or they
need a different kind of food,or they want to share what their
favorite treat is, like that'sa really important conversation
to have.
So it's like I wasn't willingto settle for I'm just not going
(19:19):
to talk about an animal's food.
I don't want to be thatcommunicator.
But then I have to figure outokay, well, what do I need to do
about it, and so that requiresme doing some meditation to get
curious, to notice.
You are just the sweetestlittle bird.
She's just singing and singingand singing so cute.
(19:41):
So then I have to get curious.
This is exactly the processthat we follow in animal
communication as well.
When I teach it.
We first, we notice, we getcurious, we start to ask
questions, to wonder, hmm,what's going on here, what's up?
And so for me, what that lookedlike is I had to start asking
(20:04):
myself why does this bother youso much?
Or why do you feel so insecurehaving conversations about this
topic, or why do you not thinkit's important?
And what this brought up in meis that I realized that when the
conversation turned to food, mylevel of empathy suddenly
dropped drastically.
(20:25):
I talk a lot about the empathychannel when I'm teaching animal
communication because it's kindof the inner intuitive
equivalent of our smartphone.
Like, if we want to have aconversation with another human
who maybe lives down the streetor in another state or across
the world, we pick up our phoneand we call or we text.
Well, the inner intuitiveequivalent of that is what I
(20:47):
call the empathy channel.
We use our empathy, and Ididn't have any empathy for
myself in those areas.
I wasn't being kind to myself.
I wasn't recognizing that Ineeded my own attention First
before I could haveconversations about food with
others, that I had some unhealedthings within me, that I was
being really harsh with myselfLike we'll just get with the
(21:09):
program.
That's something that you needto do as an animal communicator.
It wasn't being gentle withmyself.
It wasn't recognizing that.
It bothered me.
It brought up memories for me,fears that I had about choosing
foods, about deciding onportions, all the things that
you go through when you recoverfrom disordered eating behaviors
(21:30):
on any end of the spectrum.
And so of course I wasn'twanting to have conversations
about those topics with othersof any species.
It's just not something that Iwas comfortable with.
And so I had to stop and tuneinto my own empathy for myself
and give myself the time andattention to be heard, to talk
(21:54):
through those issues with myselfand to extend myself kindness
and compassion.
And once I went through thatprocess, I was then able to come
back to the animal and keep myempathy channel open for them as
well, to really hear them whenthey said I'm not getting enough
(22:14):
to eat or I'm not gettingenough of the right food to eat,
or I don't like my food, or Iwish I would get this treat more
often because it just makes myday, or whatever it is.
Until I was able to be empathicand kind towards myself in this
area, I wasn't able to be kindand empathetic with others in
(22:37):
this area.
So I really want you to hear mewhen I share that these blocks
or these resistances or any kindof strong emotion, especially
the so-called negative emotionslike sadness or anxiety or anger
or fear it's coming up to behealed in you.
(22:58):
And the payoff, the carrot, thereward that you get is not just
and I don't even want to usethe word just not even you feel
more love and kindness towardsyourself and being you and your
own skin as a kinder, safer,sweeter place to live, but then
it frees you to be of so muchgreater service to anyone else
(23:22):
who needs you as well, becauseyou have done the really, really
heavy lifting.
I don't know why it's sodifficult for us human animals
to be kind to ourselves, butthat is really heavy lifting,
and especially in those reallydeep wounded places, to go into
your own being and say what doyou need from me right now?
Do you just need somebody tolisten?
Do you need a hug?
(23:43):
Do you need empathy?
Do you need somebody tobrainstorm with, to troubleshoot
?
Do we need to come up withsomething new to try, just the
same way you would for your petto do for yourself?
That's something that most ofour species yours and mine is
not very good at, and it's alsowhat separates the perpetual
(24:04):
student animal communicator fromthe true professional who
understands the depth ofcommitment and responsibility
that we take on when we do thiswork.
So I hope that that gives yousome courage that encourages you
to continue.
If you're listening to thisbecause you're dealing with some
(24:25):
blocks, I also want to sharesome more tools that I use.
I always start with noticingthe awareness that we talked
about and then getting curiousand wondering, asking questions,
starting to dialogue withmyself.
Do you not understand thisissue?
Are you not getting somethingthat you need?
Do you not even know where tostart?
(24:47):
Could you use some help andsupport?
So that's where I mightincorporate it into my
meditation practice.
Ask my light team.
We talk a lot about light teamsand support from the subtle
realms when we are intuitivelycommunicating with animals and
we can use that same light teamto intuitively communicate with
(25:08):
ourselves.
So here again, there's anothercarrot.
We get to strengthen ourintuitive communication skills
when we dialogue with ourselvesand also strengthen our
relationship with our light team, with our spirit animals, with
our guardian angel, with ourcompanion angels, with our
spirit guides, with ourancestors, with beings of light
that are there to support us,with our Reiki guides.
(25:29):
If we're Reiki attuned, thenext step after that would be to
consider whether you need toinvite some more support into
your own life, so you might lookfor, maybe a coach or a mentor
or a teacher or a therapist or acounselor or an energy healer
or a light worker of some kindto come alongside and support
(25:51):
you, maybe help you have theseconversations with yourselves.
We all need support, we allhave something to give and we
also have something that we needto receive.
There have been periods in mylife where I've found that
intentional journaling has beenvery useful.
Automatic writing can be veryuseful and, if you're not
familiar, that's where you askyour spirit a question and then
(26:13):
you just let your hand write,and this is another tool I love.
I use Reiki a ton In fact.
I open a channel every morningand every night for everyone in
our family to benefit from, andyou don't have to know what you
need.
You can simply ask.
One of my very favorite prayersis help, help me, and you just
(26:33):
hold an intention for yourhighest good and trust that your
light team will make up thedifference.
Another tool that I love isreading books or finding
podcasts that I resonate withand soaking up wisdom from
people that I deeply, deeplyrespect.
Just because somebody ismentoring you doesn't mean that
(26:53):
they have to know it and itdoesn't mean you have to know
them personally.
I have mentors that I've nevermet in person and never will.
The Dalai Lama I mean I'd loveto meet him, but I've never met
him, and he's one of my foremostmentors.
When he said, be kind wheneverpossible, it is always possible.
That has become my guidinglight.
(27:14):
It took me longer to realizethat that also applied to my
relationship with me.
I've really taken that to heart.
So find inspiring mentorsanywhere in life.
They can be people that havepassed.
They can be non-human animalsmy bird petal, my tortoise malty
and my box turtle IO and FlashGordon they're all mentors to me
(27:38):
.
You get to pick your mentors,and the thing with society is is
if you don't pick consciouslyand intentionally pick your
mentors, they will be picked foryou and it will come from the
screaming news headlines and thenonstop ads and the social
feeds.
So this is something that Ihave found very impactful for me
is to pick a small core groupof mentors and I follow them
(28:02):
pretty exclusively and I kind ofshut everything else out, like
if I've picked a teacher, I'mgoing to follow them.
I'm going to follow them forprobably a few years at minimum
and pretty exclusively, and I'mgoing to read their books and
then I will reread them and Iwill listen to their podcasts
and I will follow them on socialmedia and I will make sure that
(28:23):
I have a steady diet of theirwisdom and their uplifting words
flowing into my life and I kindof block out all the rest.
And it has reshaped mycharacter from the inside out
over the years to do this,because I'm literally gathering
my inner circle, what BreneBrown calls those who are
willing to step into the arenawith you.
(28:45):
She talks about that a lot inher book Daring Greatly.
She's one of my mentors as well, even though I've never met her
.
So gather these mentors aroundyou and when you need help when
you need inspiration, when youneed to feel braver.
These are the beings that youturn to If you have wild animals
that you look up to.
The loneliest whale is one ofmy non-human animal mentors, a
(29:07):
black German shepherd namedChief, who is one of my clients.
Dogs in Spirit is one of mymentors.
You gather your group ofmentors and in fact, I encourage
you to journal this out After.
This episode is actually brightdown for yourself, and you don't
have to know them all, and youcan add new mentors at any time.
But try to keep the listlimited to the point where you
(29:28):
have time to have an impactfulconnection with these mentors,
if not on a daily basis, then atleast regularly, at least maybe
once a week or something, somekind of touchstone, whether it's
social media or a book that youjust leave out to remind
yourself of them, or maybe youprint something out and you put
it on your bathroom mirror,where you put it on your vision
board, some place that you seeregularly, or on your car
(29:49):
dashboards.
You can remember these mentorsand feel inspired all over again
by the light that they share inthis world, and the more you
resonate with their light, themore you focus on and remember
their inspiring example, themore you will reshape your
character to be like them, toresonate on that same frequency.
This is something huge that hasbeen absolutely key in every
(30:13):
aspect of my evolution, mycontinuing evolution in my life.
The other thing that has reallybeen incredibly impactful that
gets downplayed so much becauseit's such a no-brainer that we
just kind of have stoppedthinking about it probably a
long time ago, especially asadults are the simple basics
(30:36):
Stay hydrated.
Hydrated cells are happy cells.
If your cells are dehydrated,they are not going to do a good
job of communicating inside yourbody and you are not going to
do a good job communicating withyourself or with anyone else,
human or non-human.
Get enough sleep.
If you are sleep deprived, allof your other habits are going
(30:58):
to be skewed.
Everything else you do in theday is going to be some type of
coping mechanism to overcome theeffects of not enough sleep.
If you do not sleep enough anddo not have good enough quality
of sleep every night, then yourbrain and your body cannot
repair itself, and when you needrepairs, you're not going to be
as effective helping others whoneed repairs in their lives as
(31:20):
well, regardless of species.
Another thing that's superimportant is take a look at your
own diet.
What are you eating?
What are you feeding thosehungry cells of yours?
How often are you eating?
Are you keeping your bloodsugar regular?
Are you tending to yournutrient needs?
You know there's nothing wrongwith enjoying food, even though
(31:41):
I'm not particularly wired to doso.
I love a good chocolate chipcookie or glass of wine as much
as the next person.
But I'm also judicious andrecognize.
For me, my mantra is food ismedicine.
Food is the best medicine.
Am I giving myself good dailymedicine, recognizing that
everything I do to upkeep myphysical, emotional, mental and
(32:04):
soul selves is going to flowoutward in the service I'm able
to provide to others?
And finally, are you breathingand moving your body enough?
Animal communication is anintuitive and sensory language.
It doesn't make use of the leftbrain, analytical, logical mind
(32:26):
, until a certain key point inthe process, and I talk about
this a lot more in the classes Iteach.
And so if you're not in yourbody, this was another big one
for me.
That would probably take awhole another podcast episode.
But being dissociated from mybody after all those years of
not feeding myself the rightmedicine, not feeding myself
enough medicine, not feelingcompetent care for my own body,
(32:50):
my own physical home.
It meant that I wasn't tuned inenough to my own body to
receive really clear messagesfrom the animals, especially
about certain issues, certaintopics, and so we've got to be
in our body.
If you like yoga, do yoga.
I can't recommend that enough.
If you like to walk, go walking.
(33:10):
If you'd like to swim, goswimming.
If you like to do intervaltraining, do that.
Do something, but make surethat you're breathing deeply.
Oxygenated cells are intuitivecells.
At the very least, take fivedeep breaths in and out, to the
point where you can feel yourbody move.
Before you start a conversationwith anyone, especially a
(33:33):
really important conversation,get those cells the oxygen they
need so they can support you inthe conversation that you want
to have.
And finally, continue askingyourself, especially when you're
feeling strong emotions oryou're feeling like any kind of
resistance or any kind of blockam I being as kind to myself as
(33:53):
someone who really, really lovesme would be to me, or as I
would be to somebody I reallyreally love, an animal or a
human animal?
If the answer is no, of course,correct as needed, ask yourself
how can I improve, what can Ido better on or what is needed
that I'm not offering myself andif you don't know or you don't
(34:15):
know how, that's where thementoring and the journaling and
the automatic writing andprayer, and sometimes just
taking a nice shower or taking agood long walk or doing
whatever kind of movement youenjoy, that can really really
help you move through that block.
But ultimately, at the end ofthe day, how well you care for
(34:35):
yourself, how deeply andthoroughly and consciously and
kindly care for yourself, willbe the number one driver of the
depth and quality of theconversations that you can have
with the animals.
So I hope these stories from myown journey have helped maybe
shut a little light on areaswhere you might be feeling a
(34:58):
little stuck or blocked orafraid.
If you have questions or youhave other topics you'd like me
to cover, please do send me anemail, shannon, at
animallovelanguagescom, or dropa note in the comments.
I'd love to hear from you andstay tuned.
We're doing these episodesevery two weeks for season four
to give me a little more time toplan and prepare and edit and
(35:19):
do all those good things.
So would love to see you backhere in a couple weeks for a
fresh new episode of let's Talkto Animals.
Okay, all my love Bye.
Welcome to let's Talk to Animals.
My name is Shannon Ketz.
I'm an animal intuitive andsensitive and a Reiki master
practitioner for pets and theirpeople, and also your friendly
neighborhood host of the podcastfor all species, let's Talk to
Animals.
We are now in our fourth season.
After three wonderful seasonsof interviewing amazing
(00:33):
intuitives and holistic petpractitioners from around the
world, I have taken off myhostess badge, at least for a
few episodes.
Here in season four I'm sharingpersonal stories from my own
animal communication journey andmy professional practice, as
well as my experiences as ananimal communication teacher,
mentor and guide.
Today I'm going to talk aboutsomething, a topic that is
(00:57):
really kind of a personalpassion of mine and it's
something that, in my opinion,doesn't get talked about nearly
enough in animal communicationlearning circles and I share
that because I actually havestudied with several teachers
and not to take away from thewonderful, wonderful gifts that
they've given me.
But it's all too easy to assumethat this topic because we're
(01:19):
all adults here.
In most cases when we come toanimal communication, we're
coming into it by choice as anadult, because we want to learn
this universal, intuitivelanguage, and so we kind of all
just tend to assume thateverybody's taken care of it,
and the truth is is that many ofus are not, and it's not
because we don't want to, it'sthat we don't realize that it's
(01:43):
so important we don't realizewe're not already taking care of
it and we also don't know howor what to do.
And so the topic on the tabletoday is self care and animal
communication, and that's one ofthose cliched phrases that when
we hear self care we think ofglossy magazine covers and five
(02:04):
page spreads with expensivesachets and bath bombs and
massages and things like that.
And that's kind of where wehave left self care.
As a mass market society, as aconsumer based society, we've
kind of said self care meansbuying stuff, it means taking
(02:25):
time to do expensive things, itmeans taking vacation, and it's
so much deeper than that.
So I'm going to share a reallypersonal story from my own
journey that illustrates howimportant self care is, how it
can crop up and cause you toexperience blocks in your
(02:47):
conversations with animals, andhow to work through it and how
to resolve it, and I hope thatthis is helpful and supportive
to you If you're wondering whyyou just don't feel like you can
go deeper in your conversationswith animals, or why you feel
like you can't hear your petclearly in when you talk about
(03:08):
certain things, or why you justfeel really confused,
overwhelmed, exhausted or evenfrustrated when you try to
tackle a certain type ofconversation with your animals
Self care, which I define asself kindness and further define
as am I being as kind to myselfas I would be to the being that
(03:29):
I love the most?
Am I giving myself that levelof self kindness, self
consideration, self generosityand self care as I would if I
was caring for someone elsewho's going through something or
who needs something from me?
That's my definition of selfcare.
You can come up with your owndefinition.
In fact, it's really importantto come up with your own
(03:51):
definition of self care, andthat's where I'm going to start
today, to just kind of give youa little context for what I'm
about to share with you and howit can impact your ability to
have deep conversations, notjust with your pet, not just
with others animals, if you're aprofessional communicator
yourself but also with anyoneyou want to talk with in life,
including yourself.
(04:11):
Okay, so let's rewind about 40years ago.
I'm in my 50s now.
About 40 years ago, I developedanorexia I was 10 and it
unfolded in part because of mygenetics it's in my family but
also because of someenvironmental situations, things
that I went through, somebullying that I experienced from
teachers and peers, and itplagued me for 20 years.
(04:34):
I had anorexia and then I hadbulimia and out of that, as I
was trying to heal my poor,depleted body, I developed
really severe panic attacks,anxiety and cyclical depression,
and so this was all before, asit was about 10 years.
I've been in recovery, reallystrong recovery, from all of
that for about a decade now, andso it doesn't surprise me that
(04:58):
I came to animal communicationintuitive animal communication
later in life, because I had alot of healing to do.
I had a lot of work to do toget to the point where I was
strong enough and brave enoughand healthy enough on all levels
of me physical, mentally,emotional and at the sole level
to hold space for others thatwere going through these kinds
(05:19):
of challenges.
Self-care has always been apassion of mine.
It's something that I've workedreally hard on in my life and
it's something that I care verydeeply about, and it's something
that I really emphasize a lotwhen I teach animal
communication, because I haveseen how powerful it becomes and
(05:39):
we really are taking good careof ourselves, how much better
able it makes us to hold spaceand provide the necessary care
for others that come to us frommentoring or coaching or a
listening ear or guidance andhelp of some kind.
So what happened was, eventhough I had recovered, and
(06:02):
really had been in strongrecovery from eating disorders,
anxiety and depression, before Istarted learning animal
communication.
So when I first startedlearning, I found that it was
relatively easy for me to havedeep conversations with animals
about a whole host of otherthings Soul contracts not a
problem.
Last wish is not a problem.
(06:24):
Reincarnation of pets.
I am living with thereincarnation of my soul.
Bird pearl Didn't have an issuewith it.
Super comfortable having theseconversations.
Activities, favorite toys,daily routine, pet siblings,
human pet relationships not aproblem.
(06:46):
Eager to have theseconversations.
But when it came to talking withpets about their food, how they
felt about their food, whetherthey liked their food, whether
they were getting enough food orperhaps sometimes too much food
or the wrong kind of food, Ifelt really blocked.
What was happening and it tookme a while to sort it out is
(07:08):
that I didn't realize that Istill had some lingering blocks
within myself around my ownrelationship with food, how I
related to food.
There were some areas where Ifelt really uncomfortable about
food, or I just didn'tunderstand how I was feeling
about food and I hadn't takenany time to check in with myself
(07:32):
in my own healing journey toask myself how are you feeling
about your own portion sizes?
How are you feeling about thefoods you're choosing for
yourself?
How are you feeling aboutchanging your diet?
All of these differentquestions that I would ask of an
animal were questions that Ireally wasn't comfortable asking
(07:52):
myself, and I have found in myjourney as a teacher that if you
are asking anyone else anotherhuman or an animal a question
that you don't feel comfortableanswering yourself or that
brings up something we call ittriggering in recovery circles,
but it triggers something in you, like maybe pushing on a mental
(08:13):
or an emotional bruise,something that just makes you
feel uncomfortable.
Well, that's something to stopand pay attention to, because
it's something within you thatneeds your kindness and
self-care.
That's something within youthat needs your attention first
before you can proceed furtherwith the conversation with
(08:35):
someone else.
And so what I had to do is goback and take a look at my own
relationship with food and why Iwas downplaying it so much.
I mean, the truth is is I amwired a little differently.
There's all kinds of scientificstudies now that prove that
people that have my type ofdisease, my anorexic and bulimic
(08:58):
genes, we don't get as excitedabout food.
We typically don't experienceas much pleasure, like the
pleasure centers in our braindon't light up as much as people
that don't have these genes.
And so, yeah, there's somethingwithin me that actually doesn't
understand why food would be soimportant, but that doesn't
(09:23):
have to hold me back as long asI'm okay with it.
I'm like, okay, that's just whoI am, it's not a big deal.
And just recognizing that mebeing that way doesn't mean that
everyone else is that way.
Like I can really separate myown personal experience from
being able to empathize with ananimal who is so excited about
(09:47):
their food and it's like thehighlight of their day.
Like I live with an animal likethat our Docs and Flash Gordon
like he literally lives to eat.
I honestly think the onlyreason he wakes up in the
morning is because there'sbreakfast and then after that
there will be snack and thenafter that will be more snacks
and after that will be dinner.
Yay, so I'm literally livingwith an animal who is wired as
(10:09):
my 180 degree opposite, andbelieve me when I say it's
brought up some stuff for me,not just personally, but in my
animal communication work, in mypractice, in my profession this
is actually a good thing.
It can be really uncomfortablewhen you notice something like
this in yourself.
(10:29):
For some people it might betalking about what happens when
you die, or reincarnation issues.
There may be a block in termsof beliefs or prior conditioning
or shaming or blaming thathappened to you, maybe in your
family of origin or in areligious setting or in school
or politics or something.
(10:50):
It doesn't matter what it is.
We all have them.
It's not something to judge orshame yourself for or to say to
yourself well, I'll just neverbe able to do it, because this
is how I feel.
It's an area inside of youthat's asking for kindness, for
more kindness, for more empathy,for more understanding and for
(11:11):
honest and open conversation.
Because, after all, that's whatwe're all about in animal
communication is having open andhonest conversations.
And here again we come back toif you can't have an open and
honest conversation withyourself about that subject,
about that topic and any aspect,then you're not gonna be able
(11:32):
to achieve the same with anyoneelse that you talk with about
that topic either.
I truly, truly have come tobelieve that that is why we
argue so much about politics andreligion because we have blocks
, we have inner fears orjudgments or shame or blame or
guilt, and we haven't healedthose things within ourselves
(11:54):
and so we're not able to hearothers and we're not able to try
on different points of view forsize.
We can't let ourselves go therebecause we're too afraid.
This is what we willingly walkinto and accept.
When we start the animalcommunication journey, we are
saying yes to healing everythingwithin ourselves that could
(12:17):
potentially create a resistanceor a block to having an open and
honest conversation with ananimal about that topic in any
of its facets.
That can be pretty daunting,but that is what self-care
really means.
When I say self-care and animalcommunication, that is what I
am talking about Self-kindnessat such an epic level.
(12:41):
It goes so far beyond bathbombs and massages and it's
something that, I'll be honest,some of my students have also
struggled with it and they'vecome to me and they've said I
just wanna have deeperconversations and they've come
to me for mentoring, and whatwe've ended up talking about and
working towards is that studentactually reconnecting with
(13:05):
themselves in the area wherethey feel blocked.
So I want to conclude today'sepisode by sharing some of the
tools that I use that have beennot just the most helpful but
literally game changers for mein helping to work through these
issues.
The number one thing isawareness, and actually the
(13:29):
first three things that I'mgonna share with you also form
the foundation of the way Iteach animal communication,
because awareness typicallytends to be about 90% of the
battle.
It's about 90% of the workbecause it's the hardest to come
by.
There's something in our fight,flight, freeze, tender,
befriend system that says ifyou're not aware of it, it can't
(13:51):
potentially hurt you, and sothere's a really big incentive
within us from that level thesurvival system level to stay
ignorant, to not notice, juststay stuck in our fears, stay
stuck in our anger, stay stuckin our resistance, or stay stuck
in the anxiety or thedepression or the eating issue
or whatever behavior or habitthat serves to keep us
(14:15):
distracted from what's reallygoing on.
And so awareness is huge If youfind yourself, even as you're
listening to this episode,becoming aware of something that
needs some self-kindness fromyou on your own behalf.
If you're becoming aware of,maybe, a block that you're
(14:36):
having in conversation withsomeone, it doesn't have to be
an animal, it might be with yourpartner or your boss or your
friend or your neighbor.
But if you're becoming aware,give yourself a huge hug, just
an accept, a virtual hug for me,because awareness is huge, it's
key.
So we really want to giveourselves permission to be aware
(14:58):
, very, very, very important,and I can't stress it enough.
So first is awareness, and Icall that noticing.
Let's just notice.
Let's not give it so, so,terribly much important.
Let's not make it into a biggerdeal than it is, but let's just
give ourselves permission tonotice.
Oh wow, I noticed that I have areally big problem trusting
(15:18):
myself when I have conversationswith pets about their food, and
for me, the way that thatmanifested for a while is I just
didn't have them.
And then I found a mentor and Itold her.
I said I don't want to talkabout that food stuff, that's
not important.
And she said well then you'velost sight of what your clients
want and need, and she was right.
So sometimes, if we can'tfoster awareness within
(15:42):
ourselves because we are tooblocked and when I say blocked,
typically what that means to meis I'm too afraid or I'm too
angry about something to see itfor what it is Then sometimes
what we really need is a mentoror a coach, a teacher, a guide,
a counselor or a therapist,somebody who has developed a
(16:05):
degree of objectivity that willallow them to help us become
aware of something that'sholding us back.
Because that's really all thisis.
I want to be the kind ofcommunicator where there's no
topic that's off the table.
I want the animals that I speakwith to know they can say
anything to me, and in order forme to evolve into that kind of
(16:26):
communicator, I need to becomethe type of human animal that
you can say anything to.
So it's a huge high calling.
You can see, it's a life's work.
In my experience, we all havethe ability to communicate with
animals.
This is a universal language.
It's pre-installed in everyhuman animals operating system,
just like it's pre-installed inevery non-human animals
(16:48):
operating system.
But we are not all called tolearn or should I say to relearn
how to do this.
So it's important to recognizethat.
If you are interested, ifyou're listening to this podcast
, if you are actively involvedin learning communication,
perhaps if you're working evenas a professional volunteer or
(17:10):
professionally in the field,that you're brave, you're really
really brave and you do havethe ability, you do have the
opportunity to be the kind ofcommunicator that an animal
could say anything to.
But it's going to requireconsidering your own self-care
(17:31):
practice, your self-kindnesspractice, and moving it to the
head of the line, making it ahuge priority and really
tackling perhaps some difficultstuff that's built up over the
months or the years or, in mycase, the decades in your life
that may still need a little bitmore TLC, a little bit more
(17:52):
awareness, a little bit morenoticing, a little bit more
kindness, and so when I start,it's always with noticing,
because if we don't know, wecan't do anything about it,
right?
So let's go back to this foodexample.
I've noticed that I was reallyhaving a block, or I always,
when I would ask an animal whatthey ate or what their favorite
treat was, I would get it wrong.
I would receive informationthat the pet parent was like
(18:14):
yeah, I don't know what you'retalking about, we never give him
that, or whatever, and so thatwas my wake-up call, I became
aware I've got some blocksaround having these
conversations about food, and somy next step is always to get
curious, because so much of ourresistance to tackling these
(18:35):
blocks, or to even noticing thatthey're there, is that we don't
know what to do next.
It's like, okay, I'm aware ofthat, I don't really like
talking about food, I'm notreally interested in that topic,
but I don't know what to doabout that.
Just hate it for the rest of mylife.
Just become a communicator.
That's like, yeah, I don't talkto animals about their food,
even though that's like one ofthe most important topics of
(18:57):
conversation to have with acompanion animal, especially
because it's something thattypically they don't have much,
if any, control over.
So they really, really want tobe heard.
If they want more of somethingor less of something, or they
need a different kind of food,or they want to share what their
favorite treat is, like that'sa really important conversation
to have.
So it's like I wasn't willingto settle for I'm just not going
(19:19):
to talk about an animal's food.
I don't want to be thatcommunicator.
But then I have to figure outokay, well, what do I need to do
about it, and so that requiresme doing some meditation to get
curious, to notice.
You are just the sweetestlittle bird.
She's just singing and singingand singing so cute.
(19:41):
So then I have to get curious.
This is exactly the processthat we follow in animal
communication as well.
When I teach it.
We first, we notice, we getcurious, we start to ask
questions, to wonder, hmm,what's going on here, what's up?
And so for me, what that lookedlike is I had to start asking
(20:04):
myself why does this bother youso much?
Or why do you feel so insecurehaving conversations about this
topic, or why do you not thinkit's important?
And what this brought up in meis that I realized that when the
conversation turned to food, mylevel of empathy suddenly
dropped drastically.
(20:25):
I talk a lot about the empathychannel when I'm teaching animal
communication because it's kindof the inner intuitive
equivalent of our smartphone.
Like, if we want to have aconversation with another human
who maybe lives down the streetor in another state or across
the world, we pick up our phoneand we call or we text.
Well, the inner intuitiveequivalent of that is what I
(20:47):
call the empathy channel.
We use our empathy, and Ididn't have any empathy for
myself in those areas.
I wasn't being kind to myself.
I wasn't recognizing that Ineeded my own attention First
before I could haveconversations about food with
others, that I had some unhealedthings within me, that I was
being really harsh with myselfLike we'll just get with the
(21:09):
program.
That's something that you needto do as an animal communicator.
It wasn't being gentle withmyself.
It wasn't recognizing that.
It bothered me.
It brought up memories for me,fears that I had about choosing
foods, about deciding onportions, all the things that
you go through when you recoverfrom disordered eating behaviors
(21:30):
on any end of the spectrum.
And so of course I wasn'twanting to have conversations
about those topics with othersof any species.
It's just not something that Iwas comfortable with.
And so I had to stop and tuneinto my own empathy for myself
and give myself the time andattention to be heard, to talk
(21:54):
through those issues with myselfand to extend myself kindness
and compassion.
And once I went through thatprocess, I was then able to come
back to the animal and keep myempathy channel open for them as
well, to really hear them whenthey said I'm not getting enough
(22:14):
to eat or I'm not gettingenough of the right food to eat,
or I don't like my food, or Iwish I would get this treat more
often because it just makes myday, or whatever it is.
Until I was able to be empathicand kind towards myself in this
area, I wasn't able to be kindand empathetic with others in
(22:37):
this area.
So I really want you to hear mewhen I share that these blocks
or these resistances or any kindof strong emotion, especially
the so-called negative emotionslike sadness or anxiety or anger
or fear it's coming up to behealed in you.
(22:58):
And the payoff, the carrot, thereward that you get is not just
and I don't even want to usethe word just not even you feel
more love and kindness towardsyourself and being you and your
own skin as a kinder, safer,sweeter place to live, but then
it frees you to be of so muchgreater service to anyone else
(23:22):
who needs you as well, becauseyou have done the really, really
heavy lifting.
I don't know why it's sodifficult for us human animals
to be kind to ourselves, butthat is really heavy lifting,
and especially in those reallydeep wounded places, to go into
your own being and say what doyou need from me right now?
Do you just need somebody tolisten?
Do you need a hug?
(23:43):
Do you need empathy?
Do you need somebody tobrainstorm with, to troubleshoot
?
Do we need to come up withsomething new to try, just the
same way you would for your petto do for yourself?
That's something that most ofour species yours and mine is
not very good at, and it's alsowhat separates the perpetual
(24:04):
student animal communicator fromthe true professional who
understands the depth ofcommitment and responsibility
that we take on when we do thiswork.
So I hope that that gives yousome courage that encourages you
to continue.
If you're listening to thisbecause you're dealing with some
(24:25):
blocks, I also want to sharesome more tools that I use.
I always start with noticingthe awareness that we talked
about and then getting curiousand wondering, asking questions,
starting to dialogue withmyself.
Do you not understand thisissue?
Are you not getting somethingthat you need?
Do you not even know where tostart?
(24:47):
Could you use some help andsupport?
So that's where I mightincorporate it into my
meditation practice.
Ask my light team.
We talk a lot about light teamsand support from the subtle
realms when we are intuitivelycommunicating with animals and
we can use that same light teamto intuitively communicate with
(25:08):
ourselves.
So here again, there's anothercarrot.
We get to strengthen ourintuitive communication skills
when we dialogue with ourselvesand also strengthen our
relationship with our light team, with our spirit animals, with
our guardian angel, with ourcompanion angels, with our
spirit guides, with ourancestors, with beings of light
that are there to support us,with our Reiki guides.
(25:29):
If we're Reiki attuned, thenext step after that would be to
consider whether you need toinvite some more support into
your own life, so you might lookfor, maybe a coach or a mentor
or a teacher or a therapist or acounselor or an energy healer
or a light worker of some kindto come alongside and support
(25:51):
you, maybe help you have theseconversations with yourselves.
We all need support, we allhave something to give and we
also have something that we needto receive.
There have been periods in mylife where I've found that
intentional journaling has beenvery useful.
Automatic writing can be veryuseful and, if you're not
familiar, that's where you askyour spirit a question and then
(26:13):
you just let your hand write,and this is another tool I love.
I use Reiki a ton In fact.
I open a channel every morningand every night for everyone in
our family to benefit from, andyou don't have to know what you
need.
You can simply ask.
One of my very favorite prayersis help, help me, and you just
(26:33):
hold an intention for yourhighest good and trust that your
light team will make up thedifference.
Another tool that I love isreading books or finding
podcasts that I resonate withand soaking up wisdom from
people that I deeply, deeplyrespect.
Just because somebody ismentoring you doesn't mean that
(26:53):
they have to know it and itdoesn't mean you have to know
them personally.
I have mentors that I've nevermet in person and never will.
The Dalai Lama I mean I'd loveto meet him, but I've never met
him, and he's one of my foremostmentors.
When he said, be kind wheneverpossible, it is always possible.
That has become my guidinglight.
(27:14):
It took me longer to realizethat that also applied to my
relationship with me.
I've really taken that to heart.
So find inspiring mentorsanywhere in life.
They can be people that havepassed.
They can be non-human animalsmy bird petal, my tortoise malty
and my box turtle IO and FlashGordon they're all mentors to me
(27:38):
.
You get to pick your mentors,and the thing with society is is
if you don't pick consciouslyand intentionally pick your
mentors, they will be picked foryou and it will come from the
screaming news headlines and thenonstop ads and the social
feeds.
So this is something that Ihave found very impactful for me
is to pick a small core groupof mentors and I follow them
(28:02):
pretty exclusively and I kind ofshut everything else out, like
if I've picked a teacher, I'mgoing to follow them.
I'm going to follow them forprobably a few years at minimum
and pretty exclusively, and I'mgoing to read their books and
then I will reread them and Iwill listen to their podcasts
and I will follow them on socialmedia and I will make sure that
(28:23):
I have a steady diet of theirwisdom and their uplifting words
flowing into my life and I kindof block out all the rest.
And it has reshaped mycharacter from the inside out
over the years to do this,because I'm literally gathering
my inner circle, what BreneBrown calls those who are
willing to step into the arenawith you.
(28:45):
She talks about that a lot inher book Daring Greatly.
She's one of my mentors as well, even though I've never met her
.
So gather these mentors aroundyou and when you need help when
you need inspiration, when youneed to feel braver.
These are the beings that youturn to If you have wild animals
that you look up to.
The loneliest whale is one ofmy non-human animal mentors, a
(29:07):
black German shepherd namedChief, who is one of my clients.
Dogs in Spirit is one of mymentors.
You gather your group ofmentors and in fact, I encourage
you to journal this out After.
This episode is actually brightdown for yourself, and you don't
have to know them all, and youcan add new mentors at any time.
But try to keep the listlimited to the point where you
(29:28):
have time to have an impactfulconnection with these mentors,
if not on a daily basis, then atleast regularly, at least maybe
once a week or something, somekind of touchstone, whether it's
social media or a book that youjust leave out to remind
yourself of them, or maybe youprint something out and you put
it on your bathroom mirror,where you put it on your vision
board, some place that you seeregularly, or on your car
(29:49):
dashboards.
You can remember these mentorsand feel inspired all over again
by the light that they share inthis world, and the more you
resonate with their light, themore you focus on and remember
their inspiring example, themore you will reshape your
character to be like them, toresonate on that same frequency.
This is something huge that hasbeen absolutely key in every
(30:13):
aspect of my evolution, mycontinuing evolution in my life.
The other thing that has reallybeen incredibly impactful that
gets downplayed so much becauseit's such a no-brainer that we
just kind of have stoppedthinking about it probably a
long time ago, especially asadults are the simple basics
(30:36):
Stay hydrated.
Hydrated cells are happy cells.
If your cells are dehydrated,they are not going to do a good
job of communicating inside yourbody and you are not going to
do a good job communicating withyourself or with anyone else,
human or non-human.
Get enough sleep.
If you are sleep deprived, allof your other habits are going
(30:58):
to be skewed.
Everything else you do in theday is going to be some type of
coping mechanism to overcome theeffects of not enough sleep.
If you do not sleep enough anddo not have good enough quality
of sleep every night, then yourbrain and your body cannot
repair itself, and when you needrepairs, you're not going to be
as effective helping others whoneed repairs in their lives as
(31:20):
well, regardless of species.
Another thing that's superimportant is take a look at your
own diet.
What are you eating?
What are you feeding thosehungry cells of yours?
How often are you eating?
Are you keeping your bloodsugar regular?
Are you tending to yournutrient needs?
You know there's nothing wrongwith enjoying food, even though
(31:41):
I'm not particularly wired to doso.
I love a good chocolate chipcookie or glass of wine as much
as the next person.
But I'm also judicious andrecognize.
For me, my mantra is food ismedicine.
Food is the best medicine.
Am I giving myself good dailymedicine, recognizing that
everything I do to upkeep myphysical, emotional, mental and
(32:04):
soul selves is going to flowoutward in the service I'm able
to provide to others?
And finally, are you breathingand moving your body enough?
Animal communication is anintuitive and sensory language.
It doesn't make use of the leftbrain, analytical, logical mind
(32:26):
, until a certain key point inthe process, and I talk about
this a lot more in the classes Iteach.
And so if you're not in yourbody, this was another big one
for me.
That would probably take awhole another podcast episode.
But being dissociated from mybody after all those years of
not feeding myself the rightmedicine, not feeding myself
enough medicine, not feelingcompetent care for my own body,
(32:50):
my own physical home.
It meant that I wasn't tuned inenough to my own body to
receive really clear messagesfrom the animals, especially
about certain issues, certaintopics, and so we've got to be
in our body.
If you like yoga, do yoga.
I can't recommend that enough.
If you like to walk, go walking.
(33:10):
If you'd like to swim, goswimming.
If you like to do intervaltraining, do that.
Do something, but make surethat you're breathing deeply.
Oxygenated cells are intuitivecells.
At the very least, take fivedeep breaths in and out, to the
point where you can feel yourbody move.
Before you start a conversationwith anyone, especially a
(33:33):
really important conversation,get those cells the oxygen they
need so they can support you inthe conversation that you want
to have.
And finally, continue askingyourself, especially when you're
feeling strong emotions oryou're feeling like any kind of
resistance or any kind of blockam I being as kind to myself as
(33:53):
someone who really, really lovesme would be to me, or as I
would be to somebody I reallyreally love, an animal or a
human animal?
If the answer is no, of course,correct as needed, ask yourself
how can I improve, what can Ido better on or what is needed
that I'm not offering myself andif you don't know or you don't
(34:15):
know how, that's where thementoring and the journaling and
the automatic writing andprayer, and sometimes just
taking a nice shower or taking agood long walk or doing
whatever kind of movement youenjoy, that can really really
help you move through that block.
But ultimately, at the end ofthe day, how well you care for
(34:35):
yourself, how deeply andthoroughly and consciously and
kindly care for yourself, willbe the number one driver of the
depth and quality of theconversations that you can have
with the animals.
So I hope these stories from myown journey have helped maybe
shut a little light on areaswhere you might be feeling a
(34:58):
little stuck or blocked orafraid.
If you have questions or youhave other topics you'd like me
to cover, please do send me anemail, shannon, at
animallovelanguagescom, or dropa note in the comments.
I'd love to hear from you andstay tuned.
We're doing these episodesevery two weeks for season four
to give me a little more time toplan and prepare and edit and
(35:19):
do all those good things.
So would love to see you backhere in a couple weeks for a
fresh new episode of let's Talkto Animals.
Okay, all my love Bye.
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