We celebrate being the most evolved beings on earth, and the most intelligent. We fly into space, create medical marvels, and use our brains to rule the animal kingdom.

Yet, you may not feel that way these days. Anxiety is on the rise, social media is a dumpster fire, and our mental health and sense of self are increasingly threatened.

To recenter ourselves, we must get back to our animal instincts, to the way the animal kingdom operates. What I mean by that is to reawaken your intuition.

We say “be fierce”. Yet, much of your work week (and life, really) is spent indoors staring at screens, filling out spreadsheets, and liking our peers’ vacation photos in an online popularity rat race. Is this what we evolved to do?

It’s easy to let these patterns seep in to our lives. We can easily get into the space of feeling like we ‘have’ to stay in our holding patterns in order to survive. We’ve convinced ourselves this is the way it has to be.

The animal kingdom doesn’t operate that way, and has ruled supreme for thousands of years. It’s because energy informs action, not the other way around.

How we got here

Now, it’s not our fault that we ended up in this situation of letting to-do lists rule our energy field and our lives.

For so many of us, we grew up with external expectations to get good grades, go to bed at a certain time, get a job, and be a good neighbor. These constructs aren’t necessarily bad and allow society to function.

Where we get stuck though is that we submit all of our desires and truth to these external expectations. We override our bodies and brains regularly to comply with outside standards.

Or worse, things are really not going our way, and instead of listening to friction and hearing what it has to tell us, we muscle through and force ourselves to charge forward, no matter what.

Over time, our intuitive senses decay and dull. We have a harder time listening to our gut instinct, and it becomes increasingly difficult to make decisions that feel good or make decisions that are in alignment with who we are.

(Or we’re making desperate, short-game attempts to purge our lives of negative energy all in one go.)

What’s more, sometimes this ‘energetic deafness’ can actually prevent us from being in touch with our bodies, causing a delayed diagnosis of health conditions.

These structures of living are nowhere to be found in the animal kingdom — here’s why.

Channeling your “animal instincts”

As famed biologist E.O. Wilson points out, animals have access to multiple additional senses — such as sonar and heightened pheromone awareness — which empower them to communicate intuitively with one another and themselves in ways that we cannot.

Animals are also profoundly present, as their consciousness isn’t cluttered with projections about retirement or climate change or lifelong health. In a way, animals regularly achieve a degree of presence that humans can only hope to aspire to.

We should aspire to it, though, because getting present and tapping into our animal instincts can often unlock a buried truth or bring about a life-changing epiphany.

And even though our intuitive systems are dormant, they live within us, and can be awakened and accessed with the right guidance.

Action happens now

We say we’ll take action, and then we procrastinate — another phenomenon that humans do on the reg, but doesn’t exist whatsoever in the animal kingdom.

If you’re ready to access your animal instincts, but aren’t exactly what that looks life, a way to jumpstart your systems is to take action now.

That errand you’ve been putting off? Do it now.

That intimate conversation you’ve been meaning to have with a friend? Call them now.

The investment in yourself you’ve been vacillating back and forth about? Make it now.

Take action now, then manage the outcomes and momentum that arise from your actions.

You may be surprised at what unfolds as a result!