Assuming animism literally means ‘all things are alive’ is a bit sensationalist IMO, and makes more sense to say ‘everything has an essence’ or ‘inherent function’ or ‘personality’ (if you want to humanise them even a little).
Like, rocks are not organisms. They don’t get up and move by themselves nor eat nor see nor hear. But rocks provide homes for insects and other wildlife and provide a footway across streams, they are used to make paths or to block entry or to make buildings. They have been used to make tools, to hurt, to destroy. There is a protective nature about rocks, and we can humanise them into some otherworldly being, giving it a face, but it does not mean that rock is an actual person with sentience.
The sun - it helps plants grow, it gives us nutrients, it tans our skin, it provides heat, it provides light. The sun is nurturing, it cares and wants us to thrive. At the same time there is a point where too much sun (for plant or person alike) becomes harmful, as too much nurturing can be harmful. We can humanise the sun into an otherworldly being (or even a god) but it does not mean that the sun itself is an actual person with sentience.
Saying natural features have ‘spirits’ isn’t necessarily saying they’re ghosts or people. It doesn’t mean they’re alive or working with intent. They just have an essence, they have features, they have an association.
It does good to remember, always, that gods and spirits were conceptualised to explain phenomena. A house spirit “hiding your things” when you “displease it” because “you know where you last left your keys” is an explanation, not a behaviour of an actual being. It is explaining that there is something ‘unlike us’ that hides our keys because no-way did we just put them down somewhere different on accident.
And the thing is it is totally OK to view spirits (and gods, as I mentioned them) as having sentience and being people! I delight in calling out my house spirit when I lose something, and while I view spirits as very much being ‘people’ and individual, it doesn’t mean that’s what they are, always - especially if it causes you surveillance distress.
You can reel it back, tone it down, and rethink how you view the world.
