When your beloved pet has died, it is perfectly normal to grieve. You might even be surprised by the depth of the grief you experience. You probably recognize one or more of the following:
- You cannot stop crying, and you can't focus at work or at home
- Grieving is too painful, so you try to ignore it by keeping busy or numbing yourself in various ways, but it doesn't actually help, because by ignoring your feelings, you are also cutting off your ability to live fully. And even if you do try to suppress the grief you feel after losing your animal companion, you will still be overwhelmed by the grief from time to time anyway.
- The grief can be is so overwhelming that you feel you are drowning and your heart is broken.
In the following I will share a simple but powerful exercise that will help you acknowledge and cope with your grief.
Allowing yourself to grieve
Grief is a very powerful emotion, so when you feel overwhelmed by grief after the death of your pet, it is crucial to acknowledge the grief. Try not to resist but instead accept and embrace the grief. Allow the feelings to be there and cry if you need to, but don't feed the grief with your mind by thinking about what you should or should not have done. Simply allow whatever feelings you have to be there. You can for instance put on some relaxing music to help you calm down.
From grief to inner peace
Allowing yourself to grieve will help you reach a state of inner peace and heal after pet loss, so you can easier see past the pain of the loss.
And when you are not stuck in the grief anymore, you will be able to use that love and gratitude to not only improve your own life, but also to help others you meet on your path, both humans and animals.
Coping with pet loss: Grieving the death of a beloved pet