Today’s Animal Spirit Guide

The Animal Spirit Guide posts are back! It’s been a while and I’ve been feeling like they have missed you all so they’re back! Toady is quite a good one…

The Shark!

When we initially talk about sharks, in just about any situation, we tend to come to the subject with a bit of fear. Fear of a shark attack; fear that “Jaws” could be real. While it’s true that sharks are quite fierce creatures and can maim of kill in seconds, they are also one of the most beautiful and graceful creatures in the mighty sea. The energy that Shark brings through is that of instinct, keen perception, respect and survival. Sharks are able to survive because of their great ability to sense food sources from great distances and through their keep instinct that leads them to the best locations for hunting. Think about it this way; sharks have been in existence for about 400 million years, they outlived the dinosaurs! So there are some lessons we can take by calling on the power of this great fish (that’s right, sharks are fish, chondrichthyes, not mammals).

The message from Shark is:
“Trust your instincts to discern the truth of the situation.”

Often, as we grow up, we are somewhat conditioned by our surroundings, both environmental and other people, to believe or see things in certain ways. We often lose some aspects of our instincts becasue we are taught to believe a certain way or see certain people or situations in a certain way. Because of that we might find that we work more off of conditioning and programming rather than our true inner guidance at times. All is not lost though, we can learn to bring this back into our lives with a little work and effort as well as some help from Shark as a guide or totem.

The first place to start is by learning to listen to your own body once again. Many of us stop doing that at an early age as we are taught what is good or bad for us physically. We often come to a point of just letting our physical body run on autopilot until there is a crisis and it does something to really get our attention (such as illness or disease). By taking a little time each day to tune in and listen to our bodies we can begin to reconnect to our instinct.

Each day, maybe while you are getting ready for your day, maybe even while in the shower, close your eyes and give yourself a moment to settle yourself and then take three deep breaths. Then, once relaxed, take the time to listen to your inner voice and feel your physical body. Now by feel, I don’t mean by physically touching the body, but with your mind just scan your body. With your eyes still closed imagine yourself looking at your reflection in a full length mirror and ask that any areas of the body that need your attention be pointed out in some way. You might want to see a spotlight shine on the area or see it radiate a certain color. In your mind state your desired indicator and take your time to really look at the image in your minds-eye and see if your body needs to tell you anything. When you’re done make a mental note of the areas that may have shown a need for attention and then release the image; take another few deep breaths and come back to your waking sense. Now use that information to care for the body. Maybe you need to have less caffeine in your day, maybe you need more exercise…or maybe you need more rest! Listen and trust what you’re body is telling you.

As you become more comfortable by following your instinct with your body again you can use this technique in any area of your life where you need to let your instinct direct you. You can even use the same visualization technique \. For example, let’s say you have two people that you’re working on a project with at work. One of those people, you feel, is trying to cause some problems and you want to know who you should trust as you go forward. Deep breathe into a relaxed state and in your mind visualize on a large screen each of the two people and ask for your inner guidance to shine a spotlight on the one that is more trustworthy right now. Let yourself connect with this, don’t just take it at face value. When you see the person under the light, how do you feel, in your gut, about this person? Do you really get that feeling that this is the person to trust or is it really that this is the better of the two “for right now”? Listen and keep asking questions to get yourself on track and you’ll find that this inner guidance and instinct will help! It is your God/Goddess given survival mechanism, so use it!

Other keywords for Shark include:
confidence, secrets, protection, respect, survival, authority, focus, action, unpredictability, ancestors, shapeshifting, solitude, endurance, assertiveness, divinity.