On Sunday May 14, 2023, we are up for a real treat!

My dear friend,

In today’s blog post, I have something exciting to tell you, especially if you are fond of animals.

Have you ever wondered what our friends in the animal kingdom would tell us if we shared the same language? What are they hoping for us to understand, as they look into our eyes, put their heads on our laps, or brush their bodies against ours?
One person who knows a lot about what they are trying to convey is Emilie Cajsdotter.

Emilie Cajsdotter – a true master in her field

A dear friend of mine guided me in Emilie’s direction at the beginning of the year, when she gave a series of talks about her work. What Emilie, in her soft and humble way, shared during these talks, has brought me to a new level of understanding of how animals perceive the world we share, and it has even deepened my connection with Life itself.
That is why I am delighted to let you know about Emilie’s Zoom event in English this coming Sunday.

Emelie has been an animal communicator for more than 30 years, and she has written several books on the topic.
I share one of the covers here below. This one is about her adventures in Jordan and the horses she met there.

On Fiskeröd farm, in the south of Sweden, she has created a haven and sanctuary where animals can live a  life that resonates more with their true nature. About 160 animals live there, of which 65 are horses. (“Fiskeröd” is spelled with a funny letter “Ö”. In the Swedish alphabet, this “Ö” is pronounced the same way as the “I” in the English word bird.)


Her many years as an animal communicator have given her a deep insight into a world that usually is veiled for us human beings. A world habituated by species that we try our best to understand, mostly by guessing, and often we underestimate them.
Animals are more than beings destined to land on our plates, to keep us company, to irritate or endanger us, or a resource that sometimes does the heavy labour in our place. Emilie brings us into their world and shows us that there is so much more to discover.

Sunday, May 14, at 7 pm Swedish time, Emilie offers a Zoom talk in English

If this makes you curious, Sunday, May 14 at 7 pm (Swedish time) gives you an opportunity to hear what these beautiful creatures want to share with us.
The link below will take you to her website, where you can find more information about the upcoming call and book your spot. I will insert the link again at the end of this post if you want to continue reading without interruption.

Mio the way of compassion

Without a common language – can we still understand each other?

There are many ways to communicate.
My own experience has shown me that our ability to communicate with our environment has much fewer limitations than I first thought. My discoveries have left me shocked, delighted, surprised, speechless and even afraid at times, but always in awe, as I have experienced what I thought was impossible.
I have realised that there are hardly any boundaries between me and anything else around me. It doesn’t matter if the interaction is with another person, an animal, an object, or even the non-physical. Of course, the other party must want to communicate, too.

Singing crystals

It is easier to feel slightly crazy in good company!!!

One of the more stranger experiences happened when a dear friend came to visit. She is very knowledgeable about stones and minerals and was showing me an unusual semi-precious gemstone she recently bought.
As she put it in my hand, I not only felt its pulse as I normally do, but the colourful and beautiful stone started to sing to me.
My friend is a very open-minded and curious person, so she got all excited and emptied her pockets (which were filled with other stones). One at a time, I listened to them, and they all produced very specific sounds. Each of the songs/sounds was intertwined with a specific emotion. It was as if they taught me what they could do for the human energetic field.
My friend and I had so much fun that day, and it also gave me a lot to think about. From that moment on, I started to understand how affected we are by the very ground we stand on, and the materials we surround ourselves with. And also why humans, throughout history, have put so much effort into adorning their bodies with elaborate necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. The reason is not just to look nice. There is something going on between us and the minerals and the metals. I felt so grateful for having been invited to experience these stones with several of my senses simultaneously.

A simple recipe

Through trial and error, a lot of practice and many mistakes, I have found that successful communication consists of three main ingredients; speaking, listening and a willingness to understand. All in equal measures.

We can add many interesting spices to this recipe, which will give the communication its special flavour. However, finding a common language/platform where we can understand each other is, of course, key.  For most human beings, words would be our natural choice. But if we do not share the same verbal language, we have other systems to rely on, and there are many available to us.

Body language, facial expressions, gestures, sounds, and the way we use our voices are maybe the obvious expressions that come to mind. But we can also utilise our empathy and our innate intuitive abilities to pick up and share information with each other.

Think about how you communicate with a baby who hasn’t learned to speak yet. They will make their needs very clear to you, without using a single spoken word. And hopefully, you will respond to their message in one way or another because you somehow decipher intuitively what the baby is trying to tell you.

There are many other situations where we use abilities other than spoken language. Imagine you are travelling in a foreign country and cannot find the bus to take you to the airport. The question you want to ask is important enough for you, as well as the answer to your question, so you will not give up until you have managed to find common ground to stand on in your communication.
And you will probably get to the airport on time!

Necessity is the mother of invention.

What happens if one of the main ingredients is missing?

So, what we need is speaking (verbally and non-verbally) alternating with listening for the answer, and a willingness to understand.
For me, willingness to understand is not the same thing as agreeing with the opinion of the other. It is the ability to place my feet in the shoes of someone else, and through empathy, figure out what they are trying to share with me – why they have arrived at a particular conclusion.

A pebble in the shoe

So, what if one of the members of our super-trio is not present?
If we leave out the speaking part, I think we can agree that not very much is going to happen.  

If we find listening painfully boring, or we prefer to do all the talking, we will get into trouble too. Sooner or later, our dialogue will be replaced with a monologue into thin air.

If we avoid the willingness to understand the other, we are moving into the marshlands of prejudice, preconceived notions, biases and other undesirable phenomena.
With a lack of willingness to understand, I think we have the most to lose. It widens the gap between ourselves and the other.

There are countless pitfalls here, and we (I think I can safely speak for all of us) stumble all the time.
Maybe we decide beforehand who (or what) is worth listening to. (I am not talking about the soft and objective voice of intuition here).
Perhaps we are convinced that we already know what the other is going to say, so why waste the time hearing them out? Instead of really listening, we are polishing up the next line we are eager to deliver.
If it feels evident that we are “right”, and someone shares something different, they must be “wrong”, by pure logic. I realise that this ties into my most recent blog post Warning for subjectivity. Communication seems to be on my mind lately.

Let’s check on the baby and our lost tourist

How could unwillingness to listen affect the interaction with the infant trying to get our attention?
A person who sees babies only as eating, sleeping, little machines with an underdeveloped mental capacity, would have problems reading the situation. A limited imagination and poor empathy, give this person a short list of what babies need.
Are they fed?– check
Dry? – check
Is the temperature within a healthy range? -check.
Well, then, everything must be alright!
The crying is seen as random but will assist in strengthening the baby’s lungs. This person will fail to notice if our baby feels lonely or fearful, or that their teddy has dropped to the floor.

And if our tourist lacks the willingness to find common ground? What challenges could he create for himself?
He could be operating from “my way or the highway”, and expect things to be the same as at home. If the friendly local, whose language he doesn’t understand, guides him in a way that is too different to what he is used to, he might just dismiss the information.
Or, perhaps, he is suspicious of the unfamiliar. Do they enjoy tricking foreigners? Maybe he is a thug who robs tourists for a living?
And what if the only person around to ask is a woman? Hasn’t scientific research proven that 30 % of all women cannot tell right from left? Trusting a woman would imply a 30% risk of getting a wrong answer.

More often than we probably find it comfortable to admit, we do similar things. Though, I hope for all the babies in the world that their caretakers have more empathetic abilities.

Practice, practice, practice…

As you can imagine, my work with clients is like a constant communication boot camp.
I get to practice listening, speaking and refining my willingness to understand every single day. As these main ingredients come more and more into balance, I have found that my interaction with others becomes richer and more interesting the more I practice.
We can use every interaction with one another as an opportunity to sharpen these skills. Keep an eye on yourself when you connect with someone else. Are you speaking from who you really are? Are you really listening? Are you willing to understand rather than judge?

When it comes to our perception of the animal kingdom, we all have a lot of preconceived notions about what animals are, their mental capacity and what drives their behaviour. Unfortunately, animals lack the means to point out the errors in our thinking. Many misconceptions remain.

Fishy information

There are a lot of sticky “truths” about what animals are. One of the more ridiculous ones that I hear being referred to now and then is about goldfish. I don’t know if it is a joke, if it is rooted in scientific studies or if it belongs to the department of quasi-science, but apparently, the memory of a goldfish reaches only one second back in time. That is why they are perfectly content swimming round and round in their fish bowl without ever getting bored.

I got surprisingly triggered the first time I heard this because I found it so utterly … stupid. Maybe, because big aquariums and waterparks are among the more depressing places I know. I avoid them because of the deep sadness and hopelessness that floats like fog in the atmosphere at these places.
And if we turn the question around – can anyone prove how far back a human memory reaches? Just because something is not measurable (yet) doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.


A translator fish in action, on May 14

(That heading is understood by those who have read The Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams!)
This is why Emilie Cajsdotter, with her long experience and vast knowledge, is so fascinating to listen to. She has an intuitive version of Google Translate installed into her awareness, which she uses to connect with an animal. She has found a way to understand other species with precision.

A note on the price – approximately 10 USD

Just to clarify, when a good friend visited Emilie’s website to book her spot, she was confused by the price listed as 100 Swedish Crowns (SEK). This is roughly 10 US Dollars. You can pay more if you like, and the donation will go toward crispy carrots or some other yummy currency the animals on Fiskeröd farm need and enjoy.

I have booked my spot, so if you decide to participate, we can lean out through our Zoom windows and wave to each other. I sense we are up for something truly magical.
As promised, here is the link again to book your ticket, if you have felt the pull towards learning more. I have also inserted another link where you can find more information about Emilie and her projects.

www.miothewayofcompassion.com

www.friendsofmio.com

I have much more to share on the special bonds between animals and humans. So, look forward to future blog posts. There is another master I also would like to introduce to you. For today, I bid you farewell with a favourite piece of music.
Enjoy, and see you next time!

With love,
Carin

Dog Days Are Over by Florence + the Machine

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