A self-help book that taps into the wisdom of animals…to improve readers’ emotional health and leadership skills. A vivid, offbeat, and thought-provoking look at ways of dealing with the stresses of life.”-Kirkus Reviews
“This book invites us to change our conversation about the human experience and to return to our fundamental nature as a source of wisdom and health.”-John Boyd, PsyD, CEO of Rogers Behavioral Health's Hospital Division
“Beth brings her experience as a therapist and as a horsewoman and combines them into a book that will help a lot of people on their journey to discovering their true selves.”-Warick Schiller, Podcast Host, The Journey On
“If you are interested in unearthing the natural leader within yourself, I highly recommend you take a breath, settle in, and read this book.”-Maggie Merritt, Executive Director, Steinberg Institute
“This book will crack open your inner human-animal soul. It’s an intimate look from a brilliant and transparent mind at how we can be our deepest selves.”-Bryan Kramer, Forbes Columnist, Podcast Host Humanly Possible, TED Talker
“Well into my self-development journey, Beth has written the book that brings it all together for me. She gives us a pathway to find our way back to our authentic selves with engaging stories and practical tools and exercises.”-Robyn Schiller, World Champion Equestrian
“In these challenging and disorienting times, Beth Anstandig is the person you want in the arena with you. Her book promises to be valuable for both our personal and professional lives. She’ll help us to be more in touch with the animal within and create the space we need to make sense of things and smart decisions.”-Alison van Diggelen, BBC Contributor, Host of Fresh Dialogues
“If you were a child who stared into animals’ eyes and knew they could speak to you, you were right. This book is for all of us who tried to talk to animals as children, because we knew they had something to teach us.”-Sam Lamott, Podcast Host, How to Human
“Beth Anstandig invites the reader to embrace the sensations of the natural world, to build trust and connection with self and others, and to listen to our innate human signals of physical being.”-Carol Ann Gittens, PhD, Dean of Kalmanovitz School of Education, Saint Mary’s College of California
“Beth does a wonderful job of articulating how awareness within ourselves, others, and our environment can help us dig deeper into relationship and meaning. The stories helped me relate, the concept brought it home, and the exercises created change.”-Samantha Zorn, Program Facilitator for People Development, Google
“Natural Leadership has offered me both a focused lens in which to view the world as well as concrete tools that I can rely on and apply in any situation or relationships. The steps Beth walks you through are immediately relevant and applicable in any life circumstance.”-Amy Hublou, M.A., M.F.T., Imagine That Farm
“During these times when the world has become so disconnected, and the crucible of the pandemic has created energies that are rippling through our world, we must empower ourselves to refine our skills and reconnect with our Humanness. The Human Herd provides such an opportunity.”-David P. Hott, Director of Operations, Loaves and Fishes
2022-04-01
A self-help book that taps into the wisdom of animals in an effort to improve readers’ emotional health and leadership skills.
“One of the casualties of a busy and technological modern life,” writes leadership coach Anstandig in this heavily autobiographical work, “is that we have lost our sensitivity to pressure as a central signal system for taking care of our needs.” One of her book’s many lessons details how she learned from the various animals in her life how to deal with these pressures and become “a pure and free version of me.” She relates many stories of having been, as she puts it, “raised by wolves,” referring to her childhood dog companions. Her narration of her deep emotional connections with these and other creatures, including horses, undergirds a greater discussion of a concept she calls “Natural Leadership,” which is based on “our innate signal systems as mammals and on phenomena that occur in the natural world.” There are various channels that all feed into the integrated awareness of Natural Leadership, Anstandig says, and she maintains that making an effort to truly listen to these signals give us “a more honest story about who we are.” Overall, the author’s decision to ground so much of her motivational insights in her friendships with members of other species turns out to be a compelling one, as it allows her to discuss the workings of pressure without getting distracted by the typical, everyday rationalizations that tend to stick to the subject when discussing human interactions. Her animals, she engagingly points out, insist that she meet them “where they live: in the present, in honesty, and in the body.” Her extensive passages describing these relationships—their “verve and aliveness,” as she puts it—are the high points of the book.
A vivid, offbeat, and thought-provoking look at ways of dealing with the stresses of life.
