Energy healing and animals
- Becci Godfrey
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Not everyone is an animal person, but the chances are that if you love animals, you enjoy the way they make you feel.
Animals can be very calming to be around. I'm sure part of this is because they don't have the same stressors as humans. The pets in my life have never had a mortgage, a text message, a parking fine or a water leak. They don't care about fashion, how much money they have or their social status. An animal's life is not a life totally devoid of stress, but for the most part their lives are much more simple than ours. They are also less inclined to be constantly thinking about the future or chronically angry about the past. As a rule they're much better than humans at living in the present moment.
However what animals do experience, which is the same as us, is physical pain and discomfort from things like birth trauma, deformities, genetic issues, injuries, inappropriate diet and age-related wear and tear. They too, like us, also experience emotional issues such as separation anxiety, loneliness, bullying and unresolved trauma from previous life experiences or current living environments.
There's one more stressor that our pets can be exposed to that may not be as obvious, and that is emotional contagion from humans (1). Emotional contagion is where an emotion is mirrored in an animal as it is from it's source. This means if an owner is highly anxious, the animal's brain may mirror that anxiety and experience it as if it is it's own. Emotional contagion is a primitive form of empathy to ensure survival of offspring. It is witnessed between animals of the same species (e.g. dog to dog, human to human), between species (cat to dog, dog to human), amplified by duration of time spent together and especially prevalent within females (2).
As someone that works alongside animals providing therapeutic support to people wanting to heal and restore wellbeing, I have a high duty of care to ensure the wellbeing of the animals I work alongside. It has led me to become very interested in this topic.
One of the things I have been most interested to observe is the lasting impact our human emotions have on animals. We've all likely seen how different animals can be with different people. Some pets intuitively know who is kind or an animal lover, whilst cats seem to have a strange desire to connect with the non-cat person in the room. These interspecies interactions sit on a spectrum of:
The person mostly benefits
The animal mostly benefits
The person and animal benefit equally.
In my job, it's absolutely vital I know where on the spectrum my sessions with animals sit to ensure wellbeing of the herd, positive role modelling and healthy interactions for the client.
Animals, in my experience, and horses I have noticed do this most of all out of the animals I know; have this fantastic capacity to hold a space to allow emotions to shift. In the animal world, it is instinctively known that being exposed to emotions for a long period of time is dangerous. This is why you will see ducks shake and rearrange themselves mid waddle, or a dog yawn and stretch after a sleep. These are nervous system resets, just like us humans do, to restore harmony after a conflict or shift state from resting to wakefulness.
Humans are animals/nature too, which is why we too will jerk, shake, yawn, cry, sigh or yell to release and reset - if we let ourselves.
And that's the critical statement - let ourselves. Too often we don't let ourselves, we see these behaviours as bad and undesirable, so we shut them down and our emotions get trapped. I saw a Linkedin thread once saying "is it ok to cry in the workplace?" Much debate ensued, backed up with each individual's justifications. I thought the fact it was even a topic to be debated in the first place was a very telling insight into the thoughts and beliefs of the current population.
Moving on
Animals know that we need to let go and move on when there's been a change or upset or it will result in a health condition. If animals are given the opportunity they will reset themselves to the best of their ability. They're pretty effective at it, and like us, often develop greater resilience as a result.
However, just like us, if not given the opportunity to reset themselves after an upset, it can stay stuck in their system and create long-term issues until the core issue is resolved. An example of this is an early or abrupt weaning, loss of a companion, physical accident or harsh discipline that isn't followed up with the opportunity to co-regulate with another or heal and release the issue. By that I mean, a puppy that is removed from it's mum and litter early and left to "cry it out" in a cage in a different room to any other living being on it's own. Another example is an animal that is left without food multiple times, so now is scared they won't be feed. Just like humans, these unresolved issues leave a physical and emotional imprint that means they will do anything to avoid experiencing the same thing again. This can then come across as being overly aggressive, needy or overly compliant behaviour, which is an extra burden for both owner and animal.
In part 2 of this blog I will share some ways we can facilitate the health and wellbeing of the animals we interact with through regulating ourselves and creating a safe container for change.
Want to know more about being a source of safety, security and healing for your animals? Ask about my Reiki training courses for pet owners via my contact form!