I spoke to Nicole Birkholzer on March 2, 2023. We had recently connected when she wanted to learn more about what I do with Chronic Reversed Polarity and that is when I discovered also what she did and how aligned we were in how we saw animals and worked with them. We had a wonderful discussion about how intuition shows up through animals and in our lives and how doing what you love can truly be a blessing to the world in so many ways.
Bio
Nicole’s unique approach of communicating
with all animals is based on listening, respect,
and ancient wisdom: also known as:
communicating with body, mind, and spirit.
For more than 20 years, Nicole has developed a mindful
communication and problem-solving approach to
communicating with animals that is informed by
traditional skills, and inspired by ancient animal wisdom;
known as the Mindful Connections® Approach.
Nicole’s techniques have been cultivated over two
decades of working one-on-one with individual animals,
animal rescue organizations, and as the director of a
therapeutic riding center.
Nicole communicates, writes, and podcasts from her home in Southern Vermont, where she lives with a menagerie of furry companions, including horses, cats, and a dog.
Relationship Coach for Animals & Their People
Intuitive - Author - Speaker - Podcaster
https://www.mindful-connections.com/podcasts
www.mindful-connections.com
PH: 508-846 5001
I spoke to Nicole Birkholzer on March 2, 2023. We had recently connected when she wanted to learn more about what I do with Chronic Reversed Polarity and that is when I discovered also what she did and how aligned we were in how we saw animals and worked with them. We had a wonderful discussion about how intuition shows up through animals and in our lives and how doing what you love can truly be a blessing to the world in so many ways.
Bio
Nicole’s unique approach of communicating
with all animals is based on listening, respect,
and ancient wisdom: also known as:
communicating with body, mind, and spirit.
For more than 20 years, Nicole has developed a mindful
communication and problem-solving approach to
communicating with animals that is informed by
traditional skills, and inspired by ancient animal wisdom;
known as the Mindful Connections® Approach.
Nicole’s techniques have been cultivated over two
decades of working one-on-one with individual animals,
animal rescue organizations, and as the director of a
therapeutic riding center.
Nicole communicates, writes, and podcasts from her home in Southern Vermont, where she lives with a menagerie of furry companions, including horses, cats, and a dog.
Relationship Coach for Animals & Their People
Intuitive - Author - Speaker - Podcaster
https://www.mindful-connections.com/podcasts
www.mindful-connections.com
PH: 508-846 5001
Welcome to Sears Beers, knowers and Doers, a podcast about intuition. Do you know what that is? Intuition to me is that inner sense for knowing that something is true. And yet I have no proof. But there's so many definitions and there's so many ways it can come. I'm looking to bring together and share with you some amazing guests. You have some amazing life stories and also some insights into how intuition can come, and I'm looking to gather those crows in the trees. I hope you're one of them. I hope that this podcast inspires you to be more connected to your intuition, and I hope that by doing that we make the world a better place. Thanks for coming on this journey with me.
Speaker 2:Before we get started today, I would love to share some tools with you to help with stress and feeling overwhelmed, especially for the energetically sensitive person. Feel free to go to my store on my website@www.healingvitality.ca. Thanks so much for coming on this journey with me.
Speaker 1:So I'm super excited today because I am connecting with somebody that I connected with merely a month ago, I think, and she has just brought so much delight into my world, so many horses, so many wonderful people, and I was excited she said yes to be on my podcast. So thank you so much, Nicole Bork Houser for coming on my podcast and joining my tribe, joining the crows in the trees. Would you mind telling people a little bit more about yourself please?
Speaker 3:Oh, thanks for having me. My number froze in the trees because I drive a lot lately and you know, I see all these birds always in the trees saying hi. They told me they are friends along the way. So I always love hearing your crow reference. Well, we love to talk about intuition. You and I, you know, we both intuitive and I work a lot with animals. Mostly I feel I can tap into animals, emotions, their, their, their body, their nervous system, their thoughts and their bushes and meat. And it's kind of a fun thing for me to talk with animals pretty much every day to share to their people what these animals are thinking, feeling, or wishing for. And so that's kinda what I do most of my day.
Speaker 1:I love it. And it's so neat because when we first started talking, it was like I was just talking to a sister, you just called me outta the blue and said, somebody told me blah, blah, blah. Tell me, tell me, tell me. And we talked for an hour easily. And I just felt like I was talking to a sister cuz it's like, oh you did that. Oh, oh goodness gross. Oh yeah. And it was<laugh>. I just got so excited to connect with somebody who gets it. And so we all have those connections, we all find people that we never met before and have those connections. And I think that is part of intuition where you kind of have this knowing like, oh I need to call that person or I need to connect that person with this person. And it seems like that's part of your intuition. It goes beyond the animals, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's interesting.
Speaker 1:You go a little bit deeper and wider than just speaking with animals, I think. Is that true? Yeah,
Speaker 3:It's so interesting. And what I loved also, you know, it's just reminded me of our first phone call, speaking of birds. Uh, I remember at one point you were driving actually and you were like, oh my god, there's some evil sign right over at that moment we both were like, ow. Of course<laugh>, right? Because that is one of those things when we also see animals show up when we are in this connected way, you know, we often feel like, oh the animals are like bag to girls. Wow, wonderful. Finally. And that's kinda what it like too. It
Speaker 1:Did, yeah.
Speaker 3:When we were first talking and you know, I think what it did for me is in this world where we, you know, I think I certainly feel very comfortable talking about intuition. You know, sometimes people say to me, can you tell people you talk to animals? And I'm like, yeah. And people go, really? Don't you get funny looks? And I will be like, well I always feel the other people are on the outside. You know, the people who think this is not real or that, you know, feel like, ooh, this thing odd. You know, to me means you are not allowing yourself into this space where the ego is really left out and we're all one and we're all together. We are in sync together and we are really, when we are in sync in this way, I feel we ought while I'm done, attract all these amazing resources. And I think that's what happened when I talked to you. I wanted to learn more about your work and then realize, oh my gosh, this is a resource that is not only helpful for my clients maybe, but also helpful for me, for my family, for my story animals. And we've worked out with one of my horses already and I see a difference and I'm like, wow, finally that is another person who help simply from the place of let's make things well. And to me that's the best part, right? It's cause we all seek wellness. Our air animals teach us about wellness all day long because they always pick these over our these, right? Yes. Where does the cat lie in the sunny spot? Where does the dog go in the summer under the deck? You know, where does the horse hang out? Probably with a friend. Uh, because that feels safe. You look for ease. And yet as humans being so often because our mind says we should, so because of, you know, something that somebody represents versus really trusting and feeling our way through connections and saying, oh my God, this resonate, this feels right versus this makes sense. So I think that's what we kind of opened up here when you and I met and we have been, you know, sharing each other with others, which I think just creates more abundance and vulner.
Speaker 1:Totally. And I love how you bring up ease because I think that there's a connection to intuition there cuz animals are very connected to their intuition. And yet we're, we have this movement, I feel like people are getting more connected to their intuition as we've gone through the last few years, maybe last decade even mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And so that stuck feeling or that dis-ease even literally as far as sickness is concerned. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, I find that when people are coming up against that they are now starting to be a little bit more curious. Yes, there's there's more curiosity in the field, which is kind of fun because that space, that curiosity creates seems to be a space that allows that intuition to seep in a little bit. So I love how you brought that up about the animals. So I wanna just back up the truck a little bit cuz we, we went, we dove in the deep end and I wanna back up the little, the truck a little bit so that people can get to know you a little bit better. Like, have you always worked as an animal community educator or did you have kind of the previous life in this lifetime of doing something else besides animal communication?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I actually have not been an animal communicator except, all right. So I, when I grew up in Germany many, many moons ago, I was attracted to animals. I was obsessed with animals, but I also grew up in a household where animals were not part of our life. So I had to go out and find them. Ooh. And I did go to different farms to, you know, kind of play with the caps and, you know, help them with milking closets or brush the cows or I would find horses. I had grandparents with dogs. So that was always my desire to be around them, but I had to work hard for, for it. And so I went down a very traditional path in terms of work profession. I worked in advertising, but since I was tiny, I think like five years, six years old, I really knew that my body didn't belong to in Germany. I always felt I needed to be in the us And so yeah, that was spurred on by movies and music and writing eventually. And so my desires was, my upbringing was always like, how do I get into this other country? And so when I was 23, I finally figured it out, uh, through my advertising agency. I ended up in New York City. And so I went from that corporate career. Eventually I taped back down to saying like, no, this is not what I wanna do. My, my body wants to be with animals. And so I became a therapeutic writing instructor. I became a director office, therapeutic writing center, and then became a horse advocate over time realizing what this really needed to be seen less as a vehicle, but more as an individual. And so I educated for many up until Covid really. I educated a lot of therapeutic writing staffers and volunteers in how to build a meaningful relationship, but so forth during a session.
Speaker 1:Wow. Okay.
Speaker 3:And that was like my big thing. And my, the first animal that spoke to me was actually a horse during a session and he started pointing out to me that, you know, he was tired. And I said, I get it. We have 10 more minutes. And after a moment I was like, wait a second, I just talked with him. So we literally, I answered verbally to a question. Yeah. And he, when I answered him, he went Okay. And he just kept on walking and I was like, what? Wait a second. So that was kinda how it started. And that's probably now 20 years ago. So I was in my late early thirties actually when that all came about. So I improved that we can all remember it if we, you know, just put ourselves back into the present moment. And
Speaker 1:I love it. I knew there was another story. Awesome. Because it is also true that like, that shock of when you have a realization that you've had an interspecies communication, and I think people do it all the time and they don't even realize they're doing it. They think they're making up the answer in their head. They think they're thinking, oh, I'm just answering for like rover or my horse spot. And it's like building that trust in yourself that you're not making this up is huge. And I think you do that with your clients as well to help them understand or, or read or feel. Do you wanna talk a little bit about how your experience has been with, with your clientele in terms of building that muscle for them?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I think that's exactly my favorite thing to do. You know, aside from communicating and translating for the animals, to me the fun part is to say, wait a second, you know, Angie, you kind of knew that already and let's just trust that for a minute here when you know your dog or yours or your cat or your parrot. So well, and I think, um, as much as, you know, I think they're animal communicators who are fixers for, you know, who really say, oh, this animal needs X, Y, z and the person writes it down and then they go off and, you know, take care of it. I think that's a great thing. But I love clients, human clients who come and say, okay, um, I wanna learn more because I feel it's so much more fun to give them their resource back, right? Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, because that's really what we're doing. Yeah. When we're helping the person to trust themselves, we're just saying, you've got this amazing resource, use it. And so I love, you know, I do regular animal communication sessions, but a lot of my sessions end up teaching the person something about themselves and the animals know that I'm open to that. I'm a certified life coach. So I have a lot of that background of facilitating workshops, individual sessions. So when an animal starts the conversation off by saying, um, my personal, I I are a lot in our heads together, I already know, oh, this dog is pointing out that the human is more the heads than in the body. And wouldn't it be much more at ease for everybody if they hang out in the body once in a while? And that's usually where we end up going because that's what, you know, the animal is really all concerned and consumed about that the person is not breathing, that the person is distressed, that the person might be, um, worried and then guess what? The dog ends up with bellyaches or with licking the power and allergy and different things because we're all one energy. And so, you know, we are all of a sudden in the middle of the teaching that the animal shows us how we show up in our world, what we can do differently and how then the entire family benefits from it when, you know, we all raise our awareness as to how we can show up in the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So true, so timely. I mean the wisdom of the animals is, is rising on the planet, I feel, and I just got full body goosebumps and<laugh>. So it's so inspiring to hear that you're hearing this aim. It's really, really cool.
Speaker 3:Well, and I actually wanna say what other thing in regards to that, because I feel, you know, I have been in the service animal profession, right? Because as a therapeutic writing instructor, right, the horse becomes the yes. Physical therapist. Sometimes it's, you know, the speech therapist or it becomes the, the emotional support. You know, there are so many layers to the horses, there're, it's a similar situation of course nowadays with service animals, dogs, even cats, you know, that are allowed to come into dorms and, you know, on the airplanes and whatnot. And I think that's all wonderful, but my sense is, and I'm curious if you don't feel similar, I feel the animals want to be in a different service as well. They don't just want to be, um, in service in a, let's put it this way, the best way maybe to put it is like, that's a very 3D service. Yes. That's like what we need in our world right now, you know, where animals can help us with our stress or with our concern, but the animals don't just want to be the one, the touchstone or the one that is next to us helping us through it. They wanna teach us so we don't have to go through that anxiety anymore. Yeah. They want to be our mentors and def furry guys by our side who help us raise our own vibration, right. Who say, you know what, you so much more than when you are thinking is new in your life. And so I feel people like myself are really here also to support the animals on that higher frequency, on that higher mission to help humans, um, you know, almost like learn some animals how to be more comfortable in in life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very much so. Like the vision that just came to me and I've, I think I've said it to a client at some point, was there almost like the karate teacher, the mentor and the karate kid going wax on, wax off. Like, can you please just be, yeah. Like b I need to teach you how to be<laugh>. Do you see me laying in the sun? Come laying in the sun? And there's actually a, I think it's a, I wanna say it's a mutts cartoon, it might have been even from the book Guardians of Being where there's a cat laying on the bed in the sun and then the elderly owner comes and lays with the cat on the bed in the sun and, and then the man looks in at the room and he then comes in and spoons the lady laying with the cat, laying on the bed,<laugh>. And it's like that right there is, uh, actually that whole book is essentially what we're talking about here. It's an interest, interesting cartoon version of wisdom of animals and being, and I think there's, there is a, a trap that we can get in, in that 3D place where we actually think so literally about what the animal is doing for us. And yet if we open that trap door, we're actually able to see what that animal is actually doing with us. Helping us be helping us. Yeah. Helping us breathe, helping us regulate our nervous systems, helping us, you know, gather access to other planes of other dimensions and all sorts of wonderful places. Other, other brainwaves like so many different things. And it's, it, I think there's been so much programming in how we see animals. It's a lot of unlearning for people to, to think, well, no, that's just a dog, or no, that's just a cat. And I love how you brought about how many, the variety of animals that you work with from parrots to<laugh> to dogs, to cats to horses. I think it's fantastic that people hear that it isn't just your domesticated animals that are communicating with you. So thank you for bringing that up. I mean, they are domesticated, but I mean, you, you talk to the animals and the crows like it's every being
Speaker 3:<laugh>. Well, you know, I think there is something really interesting about the, you know, you mentioned the nervous system and the self-regulation and you know, I, I just recently had one of those moments with one of my cats where I was about to write my next podcast and my cat said on my chest and I couldn't write around him. You know, it's like he's in the spot and I can't really type and I know he's gonna get talk to him. I tried to type and I gave in for a moment and I was like, okay, so what if he's here for a reason? And what if you just allow yourself to be in that experience? And I think for most of us, because we are so busy, you know, we always have something more important to do. And we don't realize that what this particular cat probably was doing for me is really allowing me for 10 minutes to be totally quietly in tune with myself and with him. And we ended up playing this lovely game where he kept pushing his nose into my thumb and we played almost like I, I realized like, it's almost like the, you know, the thumb game where we could, you know, paddle all with our thumbs against each other. And you know, he and I and son and we played and played and played and we learned, you know, ooh, I shouldn't push this way, but if I push that way, he loved it. And then he did this and I said, Ooh, that's kind of a fun move he just made. And you know, for 10 minutes we ended up playing so focused on each other and with each other that we could really intuit the next move of the other one as we were playing. And it's one of those things, you know, when I got finally up, I didn't write the podcast because I didn't have time for it, but it didn't matter when I got back to it later at night, it flowed out like clock work and you know, and it was all good. And I think those are the moments when we are asked to not question them, but to say, okay, I'm gonna trust that this is right now important that we hang out here and that you might know more than I do. And that at the end of the day I still get everything done probably with and cheer the board again, more ease than I had it planned in my own little mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And that's the truth,<laugh> and it's trusting all of that. So Very cool. I'm gonna shift gears a little bit and ask you how you get your intuition.
Speaker 3:So for me it always starts usually in the body. It's the knowing, it's the, oh, maybe I shouldn't go there today. Or, Ooh, that doesn't feel right today. Or, Ooh, this is a big attraction, I gotta follow that. So that's like the first thing. That's probably my name tool I would say. And then I do get a lot of sentences and I think that has to do with, because I'm a writer. I, and, and it's actually funny, I have a funny story. I was recently having a chat with a red tail hawk and she was sitting on a branch and I asked her if I could come closer, I was having my horse with me, we would come and pee and I tried to take a couple pictures of the hog and it was so funny, they just didn't come out. And I was like, God never, you know, I can never take a good picture. I always feel like the moment I saw my phone, I'm not present and the picture doesn't turn out over, the animal goes away. And as I was kind of like in my little, I hear the hog go, she said, you are a writer, she'll pay close attention. She, she said there people better equipped than you to take photos, which was kind of a double ent, right? She was like, they're better equipment and they know what they're doing. Yeah. And God, I think she, but she did say, you are a writer and that is so true. And so I think animals often love to give me language and sometimes they come up with words. I'm like, look, I gotta look that up, that second language for me, I don't even know what that means. And lo and behold the words that, you know, they give me are right on the money. They totally explain a feeling or a sensation or a need. And I'm always amazed by it. So for me, getting words is like the funnest part because it just, you know, gets my writers a heart all pumping
Speaker 1:<laugh>. That's awesome. Well, and I think what you're doing is you're inviting more with your enthusiasm. So when Yeah, you
Speaker 3:Get it. Yes, that's true. Cute.
Speaker 1:I don't know if we celebrate intuition enough and the fact that like, you can just hear how excited you get<laugh> and I mean, I didn't even think about the second language piece. Like, oh my goodness, that's huge. I don't even think about the second language piece. So what a gift to get words from animals. Like wow.
Speaker 3:Right. And that's the funny part. And it does matter now because for some reason I feel English is my most natural actually language. And so, but I, when I talk with animals, just last week I had a call from Colombia or you know, it's a dog, a dog in Paris or who is in Germany. It doesn't matter because they all just come through, you know, sometimes people say, do we speak different? How do you translate it? And it's like, no, we, we all find each other in English. And that's another interesting thing, you know, that a dog who can be in Paris talking French to her person all day long, you know, she comes to me and tells me stories about her life in Paris in English that, you know, it's kinda amazing<laugh>. It's how that all works.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, right? I have not had that experience. So that is cool.
Speaker 3:It's kinda fun. It's kinda fun actually, thinking of this,
Speaker 1:It's like the field has a translating system in it, which is cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But I think also because I am very connected, I I'm curious about the nervous system. You know, I work a lot with horses whose nervous system is so different than that other predator, right? They are prey animals. And so they always come from a more alerted perspective of, ooh, what's this? Ooh, what's that? So because I'm so intrigued by the nervous system, I also educate myself a lot about it. And so that's another part that I can often really, truly feel my way into. Someone like a dog who's scared, or a dog who's aggressive or you know, a cat that's hiding underneath the, the dresser and doesn't wanna come out. I love feeling my way into it and then saying like, oh, what would I need feeling like this? What would I need right now from someone? And then, you know, through that path, figuring out what this being will, um, meet or require in order to create a shift to more ease again, right? Because when you were contracted under a dresser, you know what? At ease, and I know the animal animal wants to be at ease, so let me feel into your body and see what would bring your body ease so that I can help, you know, come back to that more neutral and, uh, the state that's really our supposed state of rest and relaxation, you know, that we should always come back to, uh, once we had a little scale of some sort
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Now Nicole, I, I'm going back through my Rolodex of podcasts and I'm not sure anybody's expressed it the way you have as in terms of using their empathy as a mode of intuition, which makes perfect beautiful sense, but like, I hope people actually think about it that way because I don't think anybody has said it like that. So thank you because so many times people, we beat up the em part of ourselves and we don't see it as a gift or a tool that can be actually help helping to create more ease using our intuition. So thank you. So that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, and I think there is always that little funny word anthropomorphizing, right? Where we can use empathy also as a device that is not always correct, right? Yeah. So let's just say because I'm cold doesn't mean my horse outside is cold, you know? Or just because I feel like I wanna warm porridge or something doesn't mean that I need to change my horse's diet and give them, you know, some mash tonight because I feel like it, that's not what I'm talking about. And I just think this is really cool that you picked up on this empathy thing because I wanna really say that it is much more about let me feel my way into your experience. And that's where the empathy, and you're right, the empath can really help without me projecting onto you what it must be like. And you know what's, like when people say, oh, she must feel so scared. I always say, well, let's Oscar, is she scared or is she maybe, you know, under there for, because she doesn't like the smell that comes out of your kitchen? Or I dunno, right? You know, we need to stay neutral, open and curious and not assume that if we can get into the sensation and start talking to the animal about it, you know, I had a situation earlier this morning where a horse was honed in on me so intensely and I looked at him and I'm like, oh my God, I see what you're doing. You are seeing how connected I am with my horse and your person. You meet your person. And the moment I said it out loud, he started licking and chewing and blowing through the nose and he was like, yes, yes. You feel that, don't you? And I'm like, oh my God, what a beautiful moment. Like that was one of those feeling my way into him watching me of my horse and it bringing up this, this almost like crazy for his own person. And I'm like, oh. And once I exhausted for him, he was like, yes, thank you for getting it. Oh. And you know, those are like the funnest moments of my day.
Speaker 1:Yes, it sounds like it. How delightful. And I'm really glad you clarified that because it is such an easy thing for stories to happen when it comes to empathy. So thank you for clarifying that because it, it it's, it's, it's a little twisted trap that happens with empathy is creating the story. So yeah, it's keeping it real and asking questions and being curious. That's
Speaker 3:Exactly, and that's I think exactly. Right. Right. So it's somebody, cause I love, you know, for listeners to play with them and try things, but it's a fun way I think to, to ask questions would use your verbal communication. So many people think we need to do it all telepathically. And I think that's absolutely not true. I speak mostly verbally with my animals and then I get a behavior recognition back or sometimes a message. But I think the best way, like you just described it, is for someone to say, Ooh, I wonder why are you stuck under the dresser? And if, you know, and then I can even ask questions and say, Hmm, I wonder are you scared? You know? And if there's no response to the word scared, I will try something out. I was like, I won my kid just a shy personality and you know, little tongue come out and a little nose, you know, lick. I would be like, ah, I tapp into something. And then I would go from there. So you can, I think, learn a lot about intuition by watching the body, by using your voice to bring an idea to the animal and then let them respond to it and give you your feedback. And that's a great way to start for people, I think, to build rapport and build a connection with an animal. And then once you have that little communication trail going, you are actually present, right? Because as an observer, you have to be present, you've gotta see what's happening. And then when you're present and you're not in your head too much, but you are more in your senses, all of a sudden you might just see a little visual of the kitty cat being, you know, squished by other little kitty cats and you're like, oh my God, she's just getting on her siblings right now. I get it. You're just lonely right now and boom, back the information. Right. And now you're on Twitter. Twitter, you're intuition. Just so cute.
Speaker 1:Love it. Oh my goodness. Thank you for sharing yourself and also wisdom for others to tap into their own intuition. This is, this has been fantastic. Nicole
Speaker 3:<laugh>. I have lovely. This is so much fun.
Speaker 1:I, I think we'll be doing this again,<laugh>.
Speaker 3:We might just have to.
Speaker 1:All right, well, until next time, Nicole, we'll leave the morning for more.
Speaker 3:Yay. I can't wait. And thank you so much for having me and I, I'm excited, you know, to see you on our journey, how our journey unfolds from here. It's just, uh, such a delight to know you and to now have in my life.
Speaker 1:Yes, likewise. Thank you so much for giving us your time today. We truly appreciate our guests for sharing their stories and insights about how intuition has impacted their lives. And I'm so grateful for Peter Trainor for his time in giving me this original music. It's now your turn. It's your turn to listen and act on your own intuition and help make the world a better place. Until next time, keep seeing, being, knowing, and doing. If you like this podcast, please share it. If you want to find others like it, go to www.healingvitality.ca or wherever you would find your podcasts. We would love to have you join us on this journey. Come be a crow sitting in the tree, be part of our community.