All the sounds came together for me like a Mozart symphony. I became immersed in the moment and felt a profound sense of connectedness. While Ivy was sleeping, I was listening to the sounds around me-ducks, chickens, cows, horses, dogs and nature. She was such a sweet girl and such an emotional being, she reminded me of Sylvester. It was a beautiful, warm, summer evening, and I was just sitting at an animal sanctuary with a pig named Ivy. What is the most memorable moment of your journey to discover more stories like your own? Animals have a purity that helps us be our true selves without worrying about being judged. Animals don’t care about your past, your money, your mistakes in life-they have no preconceived notions about you. If you treat an animal with kindness, that is the only thing that the animal will judge you by. Animals help diffuse the human-generated pressure in our lives.
It’s the fact that the animal is not a human being. How do you explain that an untrained animal, like Sylvester, the abused dog you bonded with, can help a person heal and recover? After time spent with homeless people, a former mobster, a Marine veteran, a serial killer, animal sanctuary workers and farmers, she relates what happens when people forge (or break) bonds with animals, and how the love we give them comes full circle back to us. The result is her book, Our Symphony with Animals: On Health, Empathy, and Our Shared Destinies. She found there were more stories like hers that explain how the health and happiness of humans and animals are interlaced.Īfter traveling to interview people whose lives have been profoundly influenced by animals, Akhtar used her experiences and those of others to demonstrate the science behind the intricate and mutually beneficial associations between humans and animals.
As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and bullying, she gained strength and courage to change her situation after forming a deep bond with an abused dog. Aysha Akhtar wanted to acknowledge that medicine has largely overlooked our relationships with animals and their impact on our health.
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