Submitted by Claire de Lune on
In pagan and Native traditions, a spirit animal is an animal that represents the characteristics and skills that you are supposed to have and learn. It is a combination of personality traits that you have now, and the ones that you should take the time to teach yourself and develop.
It’s nothing too complicated or spiritual, it’s just a matter of drawing from the behaviors of other species you relate to in order to provide insight into your own life.
Spirit animals can provide guidance on the following things:
- An aspect of yourself that is already strongly developed or needs to be explored more.
- A situation or environment in your everyday life that has a strong emotional impact.
- A life direction you could consider or reflect on.
Many people take online quizzes to see which wild animal they relate to best, not realizing that their spirit animal might be living in their own house. Here are 5 signs that your pet is your spirit animal:
1) They are your better half
They display character and personality traits that you wish you had. Forgiveness, unconditional love, acceptance, and non-judgment are behaviours that they can’t avoid. They are literally your better half, and you often look up to them for wisdom and guidance.
This is not just an ordinary pet that you have to keep you company or provide you with some therapeutic benefits, they act as a positive mirror for you and reflect back to you personality traits that you need to have. When you see them, you see a better version of yourself that is more relaxed, collected, forgiving, and wise. They act almost as a sort of teacher for you, and you find that you extract a lot of lessons from their behavior.
2) They inspire and humble you
They inspire you to become a greater version of yourself. Let’s say you have a fight with someone and you end up hurting each other’s feelings. Your pet walks up to you and greets you with total love and acceptance. It doesn’t care what you did or said, it just wants to share a loving space with you. By doing this, they humble you and remind you that love is the greatest truth, and the next day you apologize to that person and end on good terms.
This is just one example of how your pet is actually a kind of mentor and life coach to you. If you have a pet that inspires you to be a better person, appreciate them.
3) They help you heal emotionally and spiritually
Your pets act as a therapist, a psychiatrist, and an anti-depressant for you. When you feel upset, alone, or angry, you will often think to yourself how much you would like to cuddle with your pet. In fact, pets have been scientifically proven to lower blood pressure, reduce depression, and improve heart health.
According to an article published in Scientific American, cats purr during both inhalation and exhalation with a consistent pattern and frequency between 25 and 150 Hertz. Various investigators have shown that sound frequencies in this range can improve bone density and promote healing.
So when you feel like you are being healed emotionally and spiritually by your pet, you literally are.
Almost everyone has a variety of pets in their lifetime, but every once in a while a special kind of pet comes along that sticks out from the rest. They connected with your spiritually, inspire you to be a better version of yourself, and help you heal from your wounds and traumas.
These are your real “spirit animals”. Not a raven, or a hawk, or a deer. The animal that is here to guide you and represents characteristics you are supposed to learn and develop may just be the one that sleeps at the foot of your bed each night.
Steven Bancarz - http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/3-signs-your-pet-is-your-spirit-animal/