Embrace Your Inner Animal

Why You Should Embrace Your Inner Animal

By Kristen Hedges

No, this doesn’t mean to eat a watermelon with your fingers and roll naked in the mud (though I highly recommend both of those things!). Over the years, we have forgotten that we’re animals; no different from any of the others on this glorious planet we call home. Because of this, we’re disconnected. We wonder why we feel out of place in a cubicle, or why we yearn to be outdoors blanketed in the energy of the sun. We tower over the other beasts with authority, viewing them as others, rather than brothers. But changing this can be simple. It’s our true being, after all.  And reconnecting with your animal nature can be the best thing you ever do.

As you start to embrace your inner animal nature, expect the following results to shortly ensue:

You will reconnect with your body. When you realize that you are indeed an animal and you do have to care for this vessel you’ve been given, your world will turn upside down. You will feel your toes for the first time in your life. You will realize that being naked is a blessing. You will be mindful with your food choices, lean towards a less processed diet, and take notice of the signals your body sends you.

You will reconnect with Nature. We belong in a world without walls, a world of grass and vines and tree houses. Yet, in this day and age, living in the wild is nearly impossible. But you can still connect with Nature in simple ways! Spend more time outdoors. Plant a garden. Eat wild foods, and breathe in the wild air. Feel that you are equal to the ferns, the fawns, the birds overhead. Observe them with admiration, and care for them as family. The connection with the natural world will come subtly, but the feeling is that of pure life!

You will be physically fit. An animal is active not because it feels the need to exercise, but because it simply lives that way. Enjoy animalistic activities: run, jump, dance to the beat of a drum, crouch like a leopard in yoga, climb a tree, hike to a mountain top, swim in a pond, be alive, alive, alive! Make your lifestyle that of an animal, and you will be in a constant state of enjoyable exercise.

The sex will be fantastic. There’s a reason that sex is often portrayed as rough, passionate, and primal – because that’s how it’s meant to be! Sex is in our true nature. We are designed, as animals, to feel the sexual drive, to want to take power, to seduce, to embrace pleasure, to move both rhythmically and without control at the same time. Be an animal in bed. Make animal noises. Have great sex (and lots of it!).

You will drop judgments; on others, and on yourself. Do you see gorillas looking in the mirror and criticizing themselves every morning as they brush their fur? I don’t think so. When you realize your nature as animal, you will come to accept that this is you, truly. You will be thankful for the body you have, and stop comparing it to all the others around you. You’re all animal brothers and sisters – one within the same species. And when that realization happens, you will begin to see that everyone else is beautiful as themselves. You are bare. You are nature. You are a beautiful animal.