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Animal Symbolism

For many years I’ve  been fascinated by dream interpretation and symbolism. I’ve always felt as if there were important lessons to be gained from our subconscious mind processing our day’s happenings. One perspective I came across a few years back was looking closer at animal symbolism and interpretation. I’m a huge fan of Carl Jung and his work on archetypes and dreams and I find his style of symbolism to be intriguing and useful.

This could be a huge post, hundreds of pages long if I weren’t careful so I’m keeping it focused on animal symbolism. One very useful book I like to reference is called Animal Speak by Ted Andrews. He draws upon a very spiritual look on how animal symbolism had played out in North American history and how it can still be relevant today.

One technique I like to use is to read about the animal symbols and how they were interpreted by medicine men and shamans. His book will talk about animal behaviors as well as traditional history and interpretations of animal symbolism. Then it wraps up with possible interpretations of animal symbolism and what it might mean in the reader’s life. Here are a few examples:

Hawks:

Associated with Visionary Power and Guardianship as well as higher levels of consciousness. How would you feel that vision and soaring to new heights is relevant to your world right now?

Coyote:

Associated with Wisdom and Folly, sometimes coyotes are incredibly wise and understanding creatures but if those around you don’t understand, you may need to simplify things in order to communicate that perspective. They also hunt in packs by coordinating and cooperating. Is cooperation an aspect of one’s life that needs work?

Frogs:

Associated with transformation. Since frogs start off as tadpoles in water, and then eventually grow legs to navigate on land, there is a tremendous amount of adaptation and trasformation in this symbol. Are there aspects of life which need transformation in order to move forward? Since frogs start off in water and then land, how do the elements of Earth and Water become relevant?

Sometimes these animal symbols won’t make sense when you first think about dreams and what plays out. But in the context of a deeper wisdom it may illuminate a much needed perspective on what is going on in one’s life. But if a bizarre dream of your parents sitting in water holding a frog doesn’t make sense, try thinking of the wisdom of the symbols and consider if a moving beyond old family patterns and transforming the self to something beyond that would be a benefit.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a reference book that will give meaning/interpretation to cover all situations but consider what animal symbolism could teach you. One must make their own assessments and interpretations based on situational and personal relevance. Are there animals you seem to be naturally drawn to? Have there been odd symbols that didn’t make sense but could have a deeper meaning? Feel free to share some things that stand out or seem like they would be worth exploring, I’m curious.

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The Five Elements

There is an interesting concept I came across in some of my Eastern studies relating to the five elements. In Chinese astrology for example, not only is there an animal symbol for your birth sign but also a corresponding element relating to what part of that year you were born in. Also in certain Tibetan traditions, five elements were useful in bringing balance to the self. Let me lay out a summary of the elements and what they may mean.

Earth: This is a very solid, grounding type of energy. Things like dirt, metal, and stone are examples of this. The Earth element can bring about stability, heaviness, or solid protection if needed.

Water: A very flowing, fluid type of energy. Water conforms to it’s container, holds no shape of its own, and is less dense than Earth. It can represent the ability to flow with changes around the self, is sometimes associated with vast ‘oceans’ of wisdom, and other times can be a tsunami of force.

Fire: This energy is passion, motivation, drive, and motion. The element of fire also tempers and purifies. Sometimes things need to be burned away to give way to something new, this is another way in which fire can help.

Air: The element of air also takes the form of wind, fresh perspective, change, and freedom. Very light and expansive, air can be a sense of peace and freedom in certain cases.

Space: This element is the fifth element, a little more abstract. All matter occupies space, this is where the potential lies. The larger the space the more one can allow in to certain situations. It can be expansive or restrictive depending on the need.

In all of this lies the concept of balance. Within all of us is aspects of all of these elements and a certain strength in each of these. The energies of these elements can be strong, weak, or in a relative harmony. The goal is to try and assess where each of these reside and what type of adjustment may be needed.

For example, I worked with a manager who tended to be hot-headed. When too many things came his way he tended to be short, make rash decisions and at times lash out. Interestingly enough, one of his favorite past times was boating. He felt relaxed and peaceful while on his boat. In this case his element of fire was probably too strong and water was a way to ‘flow’ better and even out some of his temper.

In another case, a job seeker who is unhappy in their position but is afraid to leave the security of where they are, may actually have too much Earth element (grounding) and could use a little fire to motivate.

Another example could be the pessimist who thinks that they are out of options and can’t actually change their situation. This individual would benefit from increasing the element of space to allow in possibility as well as increasing the element of air to usher in some fresh ideas and perspective.

It gets interesting when you start using elements to assess workplace culture, work styles and leadership styles. When elements are incorporated into the perspective then it sometimes is easier to see potential solutions to change. A stagnant work culture may need more fresh ideas (air), then introducing new trainings or newer personnel may be useful.

What I suggest now is thinking about these concepts in different aspects of work and life and see if you can measure them:

1. What elements seem to be more prevalent?

2. How do you think they are weighted? Too much, too little, neutral or in balance?

3. What counter elements could be introduced to bring a better balance?

4. What activities or solutions could reflect those counter balancing elements?

Let me know what you think, I’m curious to hear your assessments!

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Observations from coaching job seekers

I recently gave a presentation on, “How to Navigate a Career Transition” for the Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee.  As I was thinking about what to share in this session, I really felt torn because I really only had 45 minutes or so to present  some key take aways.  Navigating a jump in career can take different forms and can be a relatively planned event or a chaotic chain of unfortunate circumstances.  I decided to cover more of an outline of what I use as a process in identifying direction, strategy and resources to help people along.

One trend that really stood out to me in my experience coaching was that seekers had the most trouble with communicating scope in both their resume and the interview process.  I think that most workers in the field wind up doing their day to day jobs and hitting benchmarks, metrics, or whatever it is called in the organization.  Few stop (or maybe don’t have time)  to reflect on the depth of work they do.  Which is really too bad if you think about it, a worker may spend 8-14 hours in a work day and not even having the chance to contemplate what they have done before tending to the next committment.

Here is an observation I’d like to share: You will do better in position as well as in a career transition if you are aware and conscious of your accomplishments and understand your scope. Here are some examples:

-It’s one thing to tell someone that you are a supervisor.  It’s another thing to say you have been a supervisor in position for  over 5 years, had been responsible for performance management of 55 team members and led that team in the best safety streak the company has seen.

-It’s one thing to say you worked in a coffee shop but it’s another thing to communicate that you’ve trained over 25 employees in the last 18 months in a high volume store.

-It’s one thing to say you’ve taken on special projects but another to tell how you led a process improvement initiative which saved the company 100 labor hours every month.

One way to stay out of this trap is to meet regularly with a mentor to talk about your career experience.  A good mentor can have discussion to help see different angles in situations as well as be a sounding board for your concerns.  Also, by telling someone your goals it kind of forces you to stay on track.  Mentors can either be in your company or outside. A very wise woman in my network recently taught me you can have a ‘kitchen sink’ of people you can regularly count on to help you out.  It doesn’t hurt to tap your regulars for their perspective.

By utilizing this type of resource one can keep professional performance and goals at the forefront as well as get outside perspectives on the situation.  So when it comes time to write your resume or answer the interview question of ‘what was that result?’ you will have plenty of examples in mind because you had been regularly reflecting on them.