What positive things has therianthropy done for you?

[Lupus Ferox]

I'm happy that I'm still accepted as a friend of the community, even though I do not identify as a therian anymore.
I have met many wonderful and fascinating people so far, whom I would love to help or provide support for wherever it is needed.

EDIT:
I wanted to add some more, but my time ran out this morning and I felt obliged to leave for work.
My apologies for that.
Therianthropy has taught me a lot about personal development and identity too.
For example that it's okay to be different, especially since I'm autistic and have difficulties to blend in into society as well.
Speech doesn't come natural to me in most cases and anxiety plays a huge role in any activity I do.
So, in a way, identifying somewhat as a therian and sticking around have taught me that there's beauty in every human being and that, well, every person needs to respected for who (s)he is.
Of course, this is all pretty obvious, as anyone should respect the other and the other way around, but to me, therianthropy stresses this all the more.
I hope that I can get in touch with more people in the future, which basically is the reason why I decided on staying.

Oh, and I get to know the world a little better.

[Lupus Paws]

To answer this, I have to consider what my life was like before I discovered my therianthropy and what it was like after.
Before, I was an atheist with depression. After I had a connection to the world/universe and mental tools to fight depression.
I gained inner strength. My wolf side has helped me deal with intimidating/overwhelming situations like job interviews or meeting managers or moving.
I gained an identity beyond the expectations my family had for me.

I've found I'm able to utilise therianthropy for the same purposes, and it's had a similar impact.

[Forest Wind]

To answer this question I need to distinguish between therianthropy, as the set of personal traits, instincts, differences in perception and experience, that I had long before I found therian community, and what is laying under my non-human identification. And therian community itself and participating in it.


For the first one, it's really hard for me to label things as positive or negative, because how interconnected their advantages and drawbacks are... I perceive my therianthropy as a fact that I have to live with. I try to shape my life accordingly to make maximum use of it's advantages and compensate drawbacks, but it's really hard to tell whether some experience is definitely good to have.

Is it good to have predatory urges? If there are ways to realise them, maybe, a good source of strong live animal feelings. Otherwise they could be more a source of problems and frustration.

Or leaning to wild nature that is interconnected with alienation to anthropogenic environment? Probably good if it's possible to get to natural environment ever so often, and not so for those who trapped in anthropogenic areas...

Or difference in perception, when certain things that people usually describe as "good" could either be perceived as neutral, or even be unpleasant, but at the same time it opens a whole bunch of positive sensory experience to the things humans usually not interesting in.


Anyway, if I'll stay subjective, I can say that some of the most positive feelings I ever had in my life are related to therianthropy. Also because of it I get access to a whole different world, related to wild nature and animal experience that humans have no access to, because of their dependence on civilization and socially determined limitations... On the other side I'm probably have no access to the whole bunch of other feelings and sides of life that (normal) humans can experience, but oh well. Let's pretend that not)


And for the second part - participating in therian community, for me, was the only known way to find like-minded beings with close experience. With whom I could feel positive emotional feedback from social interactions. With (regular) humans it's usually not the case...

Encouraged me to maintain and improve my fitness (wolves are lean, fit hunters - why should I dishonour this?). This includes going to the gym, eating as clean as is possible, etc.

It's also true for me. But it's, again, hard to consider positive) Because it's not that I am actively like my good physical shape, it's more the way for me to less dislike the human body. "To not actively wanting to throw myself to feed the wolves" kind of feeling...

[Coyote Jones]

In my teenage years, I spent a lot of time in actual fields. Including investigating new or abandoned "rural ruin" or "urban ruin" types of locations. In fields.

I'm now OLD and I'm plausibly spending the rest of my life doing field biology.

So, yeah: I'm getting into shape and staying in shape.

I relate to lots that Forest Wind said. In the sense of being animal-like, and not necessarily falling within human norms. I could probably write a short essay on the subject. He has lots of worthwhile things to say.

He reminds me of my last meeting with one of my brothers, Tom. Tom held my recurve bow from eBay and tried to pull it back with a pained expression on his face. "You're supposed to be able to do this 25 times in a row." "With a crossbow, you only have you watch the deer's posture."

So I want a crossbow for $1000. I'm selling the bow I currently have, since even my brother doesn't have the muscles for it.

I'm hoping to hunt deer and turkey with him. Maybe moose and elk one day, if we can get that far north. He sure as hell knows how to field dress a deer, and he's willing to teach me.

[cheetah]

Without considering cats as kin, I don't believe I'd have had the interest in zoology that I do. Therianthropy fundamentally alters how I relate to the nonhuman world. While my family wishes to protect the environment, I don't think they see themselves as having the connection I perceive between myself and the environments my theriotype lives in. Can't be sure, of course.

The emotional distance from humanity is helpful, as well. I'm not emotionally separated; I don't think anyone who was raised among humans and considers themselves human on some level can, but I think my identity as cat makes me more able to critique humanity from an outside view. You could argue--probably rightly--that since every therian is, biologically, human, and raised in human society, none of us actually can step outside the bounds of humanity.... but in terms of trying, I think we do as well as anyone else, and better than most.

Also letting my emotional barriers down and letting myself feel feline feels pretty damn good.

As far as the community--I've been a member of the community, at varying levels of involvement, for nearly thirteen years. It's not the only space I'm active in, and it's not where all my friends are, but simply by virtue of time, many of my longest friendships are among people I met in the community. This isn't something that would have been particularly unique to therianthropy or the therian community; any community can offer that. But it certainly helps that the people here get what I speak of when I talk about feeling feline.

[Coyote Jones]

I agree with Cheetah. I've tried to convey a similar sentiment in the past, but it came across as "therianthropy gives me hidden insights into my animal's behaviour" instead of "therianthropy makes me appreciate my animal and its relation to the natural world in an intensely curious and comparative way that I might not have known otherwise, and it orients me". I might want to look into the field of anthrozoology. No special insights, but no dearth of curiosity, either. And I don't mean to limit everything to curiosity, but -- *gestures at Cheetah's comment* This!

I'd go into ecology if it paid well. The different biomes that coyotes and wolves call home give me a longing to be there, moving about, even if it's just a hike in the middle of a long road trip with a friend.

The smaller places matter too; they're home. Hydro corridors and small patches of woods were quite honestly actual homes for me as a teenager. Rough past.

Aside from that, and in a probably less related way, home is where the pack is, as an acquaintance observed on my now-defunct Dreamwidth blog. I wake up wondering where I am and the first thing that comes to mind is how close I am to my adopted family. A few blocks away? Or a different city? It's what registers before my current location does.

I've moved over 25 times in the last decade, so this is a big thing for me. I'm following the observation, but I can't call it strictly therianthropy-related. It's a me thing. Canine? Probably nah. It's just something I do, noted here on a tangent.

[Vintage]

Likewise, it has given me a deep sense of meaning. I hold my wolf kintype in high regards, but my zhuard kintype has given me more meaning beyond this life. And in this life I have a deep pride to be one, even if I am 'stuck in human form'. Through my kinship with zhuards, I have been compelled to draw, write, explore new levels of introspection. Together with the wolf and the zhuard, I am navigating new perspectives, and a budding confidence that was not really there prior.

Other things my therianthropy has revealed or given me:

-Not really a positive: but it has given me both gender and species dysphoria
-It has made me much more relaxed in terms of 'being myself'
-It has opened my mind to a degree in which I consider some things more plausible due to my situation