✨SPIRIT ANIMAL ✨

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Our Higher Self, Our Lower Self, and the Instincts That Drive Us

I recently reflected on an idea from Osho that challenged me to think differently about human behavior. The idea suggests that human beings spend much of their lives operating from instinct, while true consciousness is surprisingly rare and difficult to sustain.

Whether or not you agree with the percentages, the larger point is worth considering: awareness requires effort, while instinct is automatic.

When people commit cruel, manipulative, or violent acts, we often reach for spiritual labels. We call them evil, demonic, or possessed. But what if we looked at those behaviors through another lens?

What if we asked, “What instinct is driving this person?”

Animals aren’t evil. They survive according to their nature. They protect territory, compete, flee danger, and react to threats. Human beings have those same survival instincts, but we also possess the capacity to observe ourselves, question our reactions, and choose differently.

That is where consciousness begins.

When I hear someone talk about a spirit animal, I wonder if we’re only looking at the qualities we admire. Maybe our instinctive nature also has a shadow side. Under stress, fear, jealousy, humiliation, or anger, what instinct takes over? Do we become defensive? Aggressive? Controlling? Withdrawn? Predatory? Protective?

These questions aren’t meant to shame us. They’re meant to help us understand ourselves.

I like thinking about it as the difference between our higher self and our lower self—our God self and our dog self.

Our higher self creates, reflects, loves, and chooses intentionally.

Our lower self reacts, protects, survives, and follows instinct without awareness.

The goal isn’t to destroy our instincts. Instinct keeps us alive. The goal is to become conscious enough that instinct no longer controls every decision we make.

The more awareness we cultivate, the more freedom we gain.

Perhaps the real spiritual journey isn’t about proving we’re good. It’s about recognizing when we’ve slipped into unconscious survival patterns and gently returning to awareness, compassion, and choice.

Maybe that’s what growth really is—not becoming someone else, but remembering the part of ourselves that can choose instead of simply react.