Message from your animal spirit guide: Shark:

"Trust your instincts to discern the truth of the situation" Your instinctual self is that aspect of you that sends signals to your brain directly from your body. It is what's responsible for your survival-particularly when you're in a life-threatening situation and must avoid danger by fighting, fleeing, or remaining still and quiet. Your instinct dictates which choice most likely ensures your perpetuation. It's much more primal than intellect, and it's what connects humans with all other animals.

The trust for your instinctual signals can be modified and distorted by conditioning, especially childhood conditioning. When you're repeatedly told to distrust what your body is telling you or you've faced life threatening situations with no escape, this exquisite survival mechanism becomes clouded at the least and completely suppressed at the extreme. It's replaced by either a generalized fear and agitation that gets projected onto relatively benign situations, or else a psychic numbness that anesthetizes the senses and severely limits your body's ability to process environmental cues for danger. This sensory numbness also limits your ability to fully ex pleasure. Take the time to tune in to your gut feelings, using slow, deep breathing as an access code. Listen with all your senses to discern what your body is telling you, and use your intellect to interpret whether it's a conditioned reaction or an instinctual response. With practice, you'll refine your perceptual capabilities so that you can completely trust what you feel. ASSOCIATIONS: Confidence; Secrets; Protection; Respect; Survival; Authority; Focus; Action; Unpredictability; Ancestors; Shapeshifting; Solitude; Endurance; Assertiveness; Divinity Messages from your animal spirit guides oracle decks by Steven D Farmer.