chances are you already know what is going on with your animals
Do you realise that when you feel pain or emotions in your body they may not be yours?
Most of us naturally pick up on the emotions and ailments of those around us, often those closest to us, but we tend to dismiss them as our own, therefore claiming ownership over them and labelling them as what we see them as – unhappiness, fear, a sore back or whatever it is we are feeling. And for some people that society calls “empaths,” this can be so much stronger and even debilitating, manifesting into ongoing actual physical sickness, even becoming chronic in nature.
My good friend Jennifer Pearce of Happiness with Horses, originally introduced me to this concept many years ago, and yet I still sometimes find myself being caught out with this, especially when I am busy and not spending as much time on my own needs and being connected to myself.
And this is not a bad thing, but is a gift, for it means we are meant to know or do something about it. It may be that we can assist the person or animal it belongs to because we are aware of it. If it is a friend who we are picking up on their emotions, we may be able to lend them an ear if they wish to talk. If it is a dog and we feel their nausea we may be able to investigate and offer something healing for them to take and ease it. This natural empathy is also another form of interspecies communication and forms a basis of animal communication. When I connect to a horse, I am also feeling in my body what the horse feels (only with the horses permission – and they can mask it too from me if they don’t want to share!)
I once woke up with a stabbing pain running up the side of my neck from the shoulder. It would be easy to assume I slept in a bad position, yet this did feel like it was not mine and I was not sure at that point whose it was. I set the intention that I would find out when I was meant to. I felt a pull to go outside at that point and let the horses into a different paddock, even though in my mind I was not ready to do that. I went with the pull of my intuition and as each horse went past me, most stopped to say hello and kept going but Champs (pictured here on this post) stopped and I felt the recognition lock in that it was his neck and shoulder pain. He stayed with me and I did some gentle body work on him and as I did so the pain completely cleared from my own neck and shoulder, and did not return after that.
So next time you feel a sudden influx of pain or emotion and you think “where did that come from”, just stop and feel your feet on the Earth, connect to your breath and ask yourself “is this mine?” and if you do not feel that it is, then ask whose is it and see who the first face or name is that pops into your awareness. And if that does not work, then just set your intention to go about your day being aware that there is someone feeling that way and if you are meant to cross paths you will. Often once we know the answers the feelings we are experiencing will subside or go.
Keeping an awareness of this makes a huge difference in day to day life for ourselves and those around us.