Animals Helping Humans - The Incredible Healing Powers of Animals

Animals Helping Humans | The Incredible Healing Powers of Animals

Written by N'cita Willey | N'cita Willey Intuitive Counseling

Those of us who own pets know they make us happy, but can animals heal us? A growing body of scientific research is showing that our pets can also make us healthy, or healthier.

That helps explain the increasing use of animals, such as dogs, cats, birds, horses and even fish in settings ranging from hospitals and nursing homes to schools, mental institutions and jails.

 

Animals are often the ones healing the wounds of loneliness in our society, fulfilling not just the need for company, or the need to feel loved, but our own deep need to love too. Of course this doesn’t just apply to people who lack other people in their lives because there are so many of us who have plenty of human friendships, and we also still feel a special bond with our pets.

 

Research shows that just looking into the eyes of your pet can lower your heart rate and blood pressure because their presence alone is enough to calm you down, to let you feel loved and relaxed. For example, there are companion dogs who are trained to recognise an oncoming panic attack, who help veterans in their struggle with anxiety; some dogs are trained to alert for seizures in people with epilepsy or signal the onset of hypoglycemia in diabetics. Another amazing project is the “Dogs Detect Cancer Project” where the goal is to save lives by detecting cancer early, earlier than is possible using any other available tests. Researchers capture breath samples for the dogs to smell, and the dogs are trained to alert when they detect cancer cells in a sample.

 

Equine-facilitated therapy (therapy using horses) is doing wonders for distressed teens and suffering adults. Horses have also become popular therapists for people with disabilities. Companion animals help all kinds of individuals with special needs, providing care that we humans can’t or won’t always give one another. More people lately with or without anxiety or special needs are feeling the need for emotional support animals.

 

If you have ever owned a pet in your life, you know that each animal has its very own unique personality, and they have an enormous capacity for love and kindness. All of the emotions we experience as humans such as - caring, playfulness, feeling protective, angry and sad - we also see in our animals. Animals have feelings too.  

 

For many people, it’s a leap of faith to call an individual animal a healer, after all it is difficult for many humans outside a metaphysical belief system or western medicine to believe that they have the power to heal. Yet, we have so many research studies showing the power of animals as healers and their capacity to heal. Without a doubt I know that animals communicate with us in their own special way, they pick up on our feelings and also read our body language. In my own personal opinion, life is undeniably better with a dog (or any animal for that matter) by your side. 

 

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