FOREWORD

Know Thyself by Penelope Smith

INTRODUCTION

Revealing the Animal-Human Healing Plan

1 The Higher Path to Wholeness

2 The Inner Workings of Emotional Healing

3 Introduction to the Emotional Wound Patterns

THE PATTERNS

4 The Scared One ✶ Healing Terror

5 The Needy One ✶ Healing Abandonment

6 The Sensitive One ✶ Healing Invasiveness

7 The Protector ✶ Healing Betrayal

8 The Perfect One ✶ Healing Perfectionism

9 The WISH Emotional Release Technique

10 Moving Beyond Guilt and Regret Regarding
an Animal

CONCLUSION

Cultivating Emotional Wellness

FAQs about the Patterns

Resources

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Index

INTRODUCTION

Revealing the Animal-Human Healing Plan

True love is the recognition

of another in yourself.

Eckhart Tolle

Animals and humans are sentient beings, and emotions provide the compass that guides our earthly experiences. When we awaken to the hidden messages and intelligence held within our emotions, they become the lighthouse for our inner growth. Even when our emotions guide us into the darkness, they aspire to help us reconcile something within us that needs the upsurge of healing that can be attained when experiencing contrast. Additional wisdom is held within our emotional wounds. Our wounds often conceal themselves as the agitators that prevent us from having the peace we seek; but through the process of intimately looking at them, our life begins to bloom.

You and I are fortunate, though, because we’ve teamed up with an incredible healer (or two or three . . .) who is more than happy to help us unpack our emotional baggage for our mutual benefit. Indeed, our beloved animal companions are transmissions of energy that are tuned in to the channel of our innermost emotions and beliefs. They sense every unexpressed and unhealed emotion that we carry and will often reflect them back to us to garner our attention. We can count on our attuned collaborators to brilliantly find a way to shed light on any incongruences in our energy. Our thirst to grow, heal, learn, and evolve never stops, and often we only achieve these through the soul-mirroring beings we are in relationship with. When there are barriers to our love due to past trauma and suffering . . . often an animal slides into our hearts’ DMs and embraces this role by becoming our evolutionary partner.

The animal kingdom’s willingness to partner with humanity for our emotional growth is nothing short of extraordinary. Our divinely orchestrated relationships with domesticated animals begin on safer ground, unlike many of the ones we have established with people. We naturally gravitate to animals and are prone to trust the healing partnership that ensues to resolve our emotional wounds alongside each other. When we raise our awareness to consciously look at animals as the multifaceted teachers and guides that they are, they will open our hearts and the door to the next level of emotional wellness. These bright lights waltz into our lives representing something we are missing, or have buried, and want to guide us into communion with our holy nature, our truest selves.

Animals have their own emotional wounding they are recovering from as well as supporting our healing journeys. For those of us who join forces with animals, it is a win-win. The relationship is reciprocal! Our souls have an intention to heal, grow, serve, and evolve together. But more often than not, they need us to take the first step to look beneath the surface of our issues and patterns to break the ice for us both.

THE PATTERNS ARE TELLTALE

This book is ready to take you on an unprecedented healing journey with your animal companion. It’s a journey that will illuminate your emotional connection with your companion and yourself and reveal how this connection serves as the catalyst for your mutual transformation. Through the learning of the five emotional wound patterns, your level of awareness might skyrocket in surprising ways! Perhaps this is the first time you’re learning about these commonly used survival patterns. If so, I hope you find them as fascinating and useful as I have, and that they become a valuable resource to guide you, your animals, and your clients to a new and improved level of wellness.

In a nutshell, the psyches of humans and domesticated animals form survival patterns as a means to cope with their circumstances and to protect them from feeling the painful emotions birthed at the time the original wound was created. The primary objective of the pattern is to keep you safe and get your needs met in ways you didn’t early in your life. As you mature, you overidentify with the patterns and think the reactions they invoke are just “who you are.” In actuality, they block your truest self from being revealed. Think of the survival patterns as having an expiration date. The longer you rely on them to tell you how to show up in the world, the less effective they are in producing the same results they did during childhood. In fact, they generate more unwanted suffering. It’s amazing the amount of suffering humans are willing to endure while trying to avoid suffering.

The great news is that as you and your animal companion begin to shed the protective skins of your patterns, more vital life energy will be unleashed. Then, it’ll be infinitely easier to navigate this earthly experience. The reason I wrote this book is to make you aware of each pattern’s functions, origins, and characteristics so you and your animals can break free from the bondage that is preventing you from feeling safe, lovable, free, good, and authentic. Also included is the road map to get you there! The real purpose of this book, however, is to expand and redefine the boundaries of the energetic, emotional, and physical bond between you and your animal to fashion a new model for emotional healing. As you walk through the gateway to embrace and reveal more of your core essence and truest self, you can confidently count on your animal to be the barometer of how you’re (both) doing.

Thank you for your love and care of animals and for aspiring to learn more about the incredible, multidimensional relationship you have with them. Undoubtedly, this fundamental work of healing your emotional wounds requires more than a teaspoon of courage, but you’re worth every tearful release and every moment of feeling lost in the fog of your emotional pain. Both you and your animal are more than deserving of experiencing life through a softer gaze and an open, trusting heart. This book is designed to empower you, so get ready to roll up your sleeves and start unpacking!

NUGGETS, INSIGHTS, AND TIPS
FOR HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

When writing and structuring this book, my goal was for the content to be as uncomplicated and accessible as possible. I suggest that you read the entire book first to fully grasp the concepts and broader picture of the teachings, then utilize it as a resource as the need arises.

If you’ve read my first book, Soul Healing with Our Animal Companions, you might recall that I wrote about the emotional wound patterns in one of the chapters, and I described how they reveal themselves within animals. Since that book was published, I’ve known that one day I would share the abundance of additional details I’ve observed over the years about the patterns in both animals and their people, and now that day has arrived.

Unquestionably, you will recognize yourself and your animal in one or more of the patterns described. Often the animal who is mirroring your emotional wound and/or triggering you is symbolically representing your inner child. Therefore, choosing to use compassionate words and actions with that animal will have a positive ripple effect with your wounded inner child. Specifically, when you use the animal “Positive Talk” and “Healing Guidance” suggestions listed on the character charts, your inner child will also yield positive results.

Throughout the book, I’ve provided many supportive tools and recommended action steps to ease your process as you stroll down the emotional healing pathway. Included are numerous practices, meditations, and affirmative self-talk statements designed to unravel and soften the negative effects of your weathered survival patterns. Give yourself permission to dive into these at will, and then rinse and repeat as often as you feel guided. For your convenience, the practices and exercises shared throughout the book are also listed following the table of contents to serve as a centralized access point.

I am delighted to share with you (in chapter 9) the WISH emotional release technique! WISH is the highly efficient, four-step healing method I created to help you allow in emotional support, align with healing, release your emotional wounds, and learn how to parent yourself in healthy ways. This benevolent healing method is a valuable tool to use in every emotional situation. I hope you try it on such that it becomes your go-to option to regulate and stabilize your energy and emotions, in addition to the times you are taking a deep dive to lift the veil on your emotional wounds.

The example stories provided throughout the pattern chapters are sure to tug at your heartstrings. These real-life accounts might serve up insights into your own animal relationships. As you read the stories, observe your reaction to determine if any emotions are activated that need to be discharged. Perhaps you relate to some aspect of the story. Take note of whatever emotions arise and gift yourself by allowing the healing release. These true examples will also help you to spot the patterns you’re using and provide you with an opportunity to convey compassion to yourself.