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The Beast Within
by Jackie Kosednar
There is a bridge between heaven and earth...
It is called love.
There are some things in life we can’t change.
Human Nature is one of them. The physical part of us,
our body, is intimately related to the animal kingdom.
You don’t have to tell your body how to heal or
make a baby or get out of the way of danger. It already
knows how and does so automatically. Our bodies come
pre-wired with instincts, or automatic programs that
are necessary to survive on this planet. We take that
animal intelligence for granted. It is so integrated
into us we don’t even recognize its existence.
If you set an intention to notice the part the ‘animal’
plays in your behavior and the behavior of others, you
can become more wise and compassionate. You can then
use this energy instead of letting it use you. There
are positive ways the animal within can aid us. One
of them is in childbirth or intuitive parenting of our
young. Ask any women who allowed the “animal self”
to take over and then gave birth in an easy, glorious,
profound way.
There is also the other side of the animal, the dark
side. We bring out the beast when we tell others they
are wrong or challenge them. Others may then fight us
because they feel threatened. By paying attention to
the animal within and having compassion for it, however,
we let go of some of the impossible expectations we
have for others and ourselves.
Fighting
The human animal becomes a beast when it doesn’t
know love or is abused; that is, when it feels stripped
of its power. Feeling afraid is feeling powerless. When
we feel a power deficiency it triggers the animal and
our survival instincts take over. We go unconscious
and look for ways to steal power. The instinctual animal
self will take it from the ones we love, or ones we
hate through abuse. Abuse is always an effort of the
traumatized animal self to steal power and puff itself
back up.
Have you noticed that when people start fighting, they
stop listening? If you consider your last fight, you
will probably see that no one won and everyone lost.
Even if it looks like you won, you have lost something—usually
the love and respect of the other person. That’s
why we have the same fights over and over again with
no resolution.
The power-deficient animal self can never come from
a place of compassion. If threatened, it doesn’t
take your wishes into consideration for it doesn’t
care how you feel. The higher parts of the brain turn
off as the reactive mind take over. Love is not allowed
into the equation when the beast has hijacked the brain.
It simply takes over because that is its job: to protect
us. It is a blind intelligence whose goal is to maintain
its position of power to survive. When the beast recedes
we feel guilty and wonder what got into us.
Human drama
We live in a power hungry world—a world of fear.
The nightly news is enough to keep the animal up and
on guard, barking its head off. Human drama glorifies
the human animal. The human beast is our main source
of entertainment from news shows to soap operas. In
this way, the media gives us the entitlement to act
out the nature of the beast: making war on others for
territory, possessions or control. The human animal
is very sophisticated, sometimes very subtle. Unfortunately,
it has an intelligence that our animal friends or wild
animals don’t have, which can make us more cunning
and deadly.
What’s the answer?
The goal of the spiritual seeker is to stay in a ‘witness’
viewpoint and master the potential beast within. Then
we can cultivate and grow our higher self. For we can’t
master the beast by ignoring, cornering or suppressing
it.
There is a bridge between heaven and earth—or,
from the frontal lobes of the brain to the anterior
primitive or survival brain. It is called love. Where
there is love, there is safety. All animals will respond
in some degree to love and respect. Every animal trainer
knows this. The only way animals became domesticated
in the first place was through love. By loving them
tame, they became beloved pets. The only way an animal
can be trained or tamed is with love and appreciation.
Love and consistency make us feel safe. Unless we feel
safe, we can’t love. Fear makes us bite and nip.
Love makes us purr. Both fear and love move in a circle.
Love creates love. Fear perpetuates fear.
How to tame the beast
- Start by noticing when your animal (or someone else’s)
is engaged in a power struggle. Make yourself the
witness, not the participant. Yes, this is tricky,
but it is possible with practice. Dedicate one week
to noticing the animal in others: on television, in
the grocery store. If the beast engages you and insists
on fighting, you won’t be able to get through.
So stop trying. Maintain your power by not engaging,
by not defending yourself.
- Next, begin to perceive why you (or they) are feeling
powerless. When you see an individual as powerless
and trying to make up for the deficiency, you can
create a space for compassion. Then you have the option
not to buy into hurtful words or behaviors. That could
mean you give them what they want, or just let them
wind down without challenging them or defending yourself.
Sometimes leaving the scene is the only way to defuse
the energy of the beast and empower both of you.
- Always do your best to love and empower people.
Look for ways to appreciate them. Kind words and praise
tame the beast. The more we empower each other, the
safer and less reactive we all are. When you set an
intention to be more loving, opportunities will present
themselves.
Perspective in retrospect
As you practice (no one ever gets through this without
lots of practice), you will notice that the choices
of the beast are limited to fight, freeze or flee. With
only these options, it is impossible to come up with
intelligent solutions to conflicts. You can tell the
brain has been hijacked when conflict becomes robotic.
Effective problem solving comes from the frontal lobes
of the brain (or place of power), not the anterior lobes
(or primitive brain, which is the seat of fear and,
thus, no power). That means the only way problems can
be solved is through agreement, when both people are
coming from a higher place (safety). You could even
make a list of the common fights and set a time each
week to sit down together and brainstorm solutions.
Sometimes just agreeing to ‘not agree’ defuses
a lot of conflict. Everyone has a right to his or her
opinion; we just don’t have the right to inflict
ours on other people, even if we believe we are right.
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