Dolphin: Emotional Unfolding

One of my Reiki students has a child who has been autistic since infancy. She has explored a wide range of alternative treatments for him, many of which have had positive results.

His first breakthrough came when he spent a week with dolphins in the Florida Keys. After one of his experiences with them he spoke his first words: "Dolphins help. I know."

Feeling What We Feel

The dolphin is associated with both the power of breath and with emotional release. These are deeply related.

Through my years of working with crystals, essences, Reiki, and other vibrational methods I have learned that the most important key to growth in all areas is to allow ourselves to fully experience our feelings.

So often we don't like what we feel - pain, anger, grief - and try to suppress unwelcome feelings and emotions. We are, however, only laying the groundwork for long-term unpleasantness.

The feelings we don't like don't go away; they only go underground to create energetic blockages which, if not dissolved, can lead to physical imbalances. Also, when we work so hard not to feel the "negative" feelings we may end up having trouble feeling at all, and lose much of life's joy.

The Breath of Life

On a very basic level breathing is communication with the outside world, and when we feel that the outside world is a source of pain we learn - often at a very young age - to constrict our breathing. The function of the diaphragm, which is designed to help us breathe and feel deeply, becomes suppressed.

By learning to breathe deeply we can begin to learn to feel deeply and to release suppressed feelings. One way to do this is to imitate the dolphin's breathing pattern. It breathes deeply, holds its breath while underwater, then exhales explosively. This is an excellent breathing pattern for releasing tension.

Another important attribute of Dolphin is that it is a mammal who lives in water. Water in many traditions (including that of astrology) is related to feeling and emotion. Dolphin invites us to enjoy water in its physical form and also to swim freely and flow with our feelings.

Dolphin is one of the Wild Earth Animal Essences. Dolphin images are available in pocket totems, power stones, pendants, and bracelets.