Why does losing a pet hurt so much?
Why does losing a pet hurt so much? Animals bring us the gift of unconditional love. When they die, they leave a gaping hole that can never be filled.
[Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Marianne Soucy, author of “Healing Pet Loss – Practical Steps for Coping & Comforting Messages from Animals and Spirit Guides”. This post is a stop on a Marianne’s Virtual Book Tour celebrating the launch of her new book.]
Did you know that connecting with a loved one after they have died can bring much peace and healing? Normally we feel a huge emptiness and grief when a loved one has passed, but if we look within and discover the connection we still have with them through the love in our heart, we will find that love can be an opening into a place of peace, and that the dear departed can bring us many messages of love and wisdom we didn’t know we had access to.
The loved one we connect with can be a human or an animal companion. For this article, I connected with my angel cat Kia, who was my loving companion for 12 years. She has shared many words of wisdom with me, and in the following you can read an example of the wisdom that’s available when you connect with a loved one in spirit.
As I set the intention and start the connection, I find myself on a beach, with Kia sitting next to me on my right side. She looks at me from a place of deep peace, looking deep into my soul. I greet her and ask if she has some advice on dealing with grief and loss. She says:
“Grief and loss is something most people find too painful and try to avoid. They avoid talking about, thinking about or being close to death. Being close to someone who’s dying is confronting the big unknown. And culture has taught them that the unknown
is scary, bad, and to be avoided because it means a loss of what they know, a loss of who they thought they were. When you identify with the temporary form of the body there will be a constant fear of the inevitable – of losing that form which you think you are. But you are not the body; the body is a precious tool or a container you inhabit while on this Earth. You are so much more than the body. Look at all the changes your body has gone through during your life – but if you look deep within, you will recognize that there is an I or a witness that has experienced and lived through it all, and which doesn’t change.
And if you think about it, your whole life consists of cycles of life and death; many losses happen to you every single day. Each day the sun sets, only to rise with a splendid promise of a bright new day. And just as each day leaves a memory behind, so does your loved one leave behind beautiful memories.
You think you have lost your loved one, but it’s only the body or the container that’s gone; the love you shared will never die, and you have been forever changed for knowing your beloved companion. And as such they continue to stay with you – they are forever a part of your life. And if you choose, you can let the lessons you learned from them be a guiding light on your path through life – you move forward
not without but with your loved one in your heart, blessing each step you take.”
M: “What steps can a grieving person take right now?”
K: “Stay with the grief – don’t fight it or run away. Stay with the fear and notice
when you do that peace and love is right behind it. When the layer of fear is gone,
peace and love remain. Simply by watching and allowing, will the peace emerge. It’s
a process. Keep returning to being here now with whatever is.”
M: “Thank you, Kia.”
Action step
As you go through your day, take moments when you stop and consciously allow yourself to be present in the Now without resistance and judgment. A helpful tool is having a daily meditation practice. It can be as simple as watching your breath, and every time your thoughts pull you away from the awareness on your breath, you simply return to noticing the inhalation and the exhalation.
Have you been using mindfulness or meditation for coping with the grief after the loss of a
loved one? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Marianne Soucy is a Healing Pet Loss Guide, life coach and the author of “Healing Pet Loss – Practical Steps for Coping & Comforting Messages from Animals and Spirit Guides”. If you wish to learn more about coping with and healing after the loss of an animal companion, you can purchase Marianne’s book on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JUM7ZHA) and see the whole book tour schedule on her website www.HealingPetLoss.com (https://www.HealingPetLoss.com)