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Unexpected Grief: Coping with the Sudden Loss of Your Dog: Find Peace With Emotional Freedom Techniques
I have written this book because I know what it’s like to lose a dog.
It’s likely you are reading it because you have just lost yours; I want to start by saying that you have my deepest sympathy. The loss of a dog is different for everyone; the depth of emotion depends on the bond you shared, the circumstances of the loss and one’s own resilience, so I cannot say that I know exactly how you feel.
But on the other hand, perhaps I do know something of how you feel.
The loss of a beloved dog for anyone is devastating, utterly painful and turns one’s world upside down. The world looks different, feels different, it’s hard to understand how other people do not feel your deep sense that things are just not right. It seems incredible that people can just casually walk down the street, catch a bus, go to work, meet their friends for coffee or go shopping or pick their children up after school when none of that normality feels like it can ever be yours, ever again. Not since your dog died.
That’s the nature of grief. At times it is overwhelming; at others, you may wonder if your dog is slipping away from you, that you are somehow forgetting her. Let all your emotions be. Just feel them. Don’t use your mind to ruminate or think about whether you are feeling the ‘right thing’ or doing the ‘right thing’. Feeling your feelings is to accept and finally let them go. They will re-emerge if you suddenly remember a special occasion with your dog, or, as I did the other day, find her old blanket while clearing out the cupboard. You’ll never forget your doggy companion, but you can, with time, move on from that raw, choking, crushing pain of the loss.
When an old dog dies, people around you will be upset for you because they understand that she has been part of your life for many years and it will be a great shock to you when your furry friend is no longer there. They will be able to reminisce with you about your dog’s life because they associate the dog with you and understand how meaningful he became to you. This is usually the case whether or not the dog died from natural causes or from a sudden unexpected illness. Either way, it's a shock and your good friends will understand your grief.
But for people like you and me, the sudden loss of our dear friend can be particularly traumatic because we feel we have no control over the situation. Our dog has been ripped out of our life without any opportunity for us to control how that happens. I am not suggested that choosing to put an older animal to sleep is easier by contrast, simply that in that situation, there is the opportunity to discuss the decision with other family members and the vet, time to spend last days or hours together and time to prepare how you would like to remember your dog and whether you want her to be buried in your garden or taken care of by the vet.
With an unexpected dog death, none of those choices are available to you. Your dog may have caught a particularly virulent disease, been accidentally poisoned, hit by a car, attacked by another animal or had an accident and all that planning and preparation time has been taken from you. This is where the special grief of unexpected pet death begins.
EFT tapping, while you are experiencing the thought, will reduce physical effects of sadness to a thought without any accompanying emotional physical reaction. If you are just having a thought, you can observe it objectively, without getting tangled up in emotions and feelings and without the physical responses which trap us in tears or anger. Tapping the meridian points helps because it shifts the energy blocks that negative emotions and beliefs create.
EFT was crucial to me in getting over the death of my best furry friend, Frances. I wept buckets for months and then, steadily, I moved on from the raw bitter grief, thanks to EFT. It can work for you too. Try this gentle method to clear the pain of losing your dog unexpectedly.
It’s likely you are reading it because you have just lost yours; I want to start by saying that you have my deepest sympathy. The loss of a dog is different for everyone; the depth of emotion depends on the bond you shared, the circumstances of the loss and one’s own resilience, so I cannot say that I know exactly how you feel.
But on the other hand, perhaps I do know something of how you feel.
The loss of a beloved dog for anyone is devastating, utterly painful and turns one’s world upside down. The world looks different, feels different, it’s hard to understand how other people do not feel your deep sense that things are just not right. It seems incredible that people can just casually walk down the street, catch a bus, go to work, meet their friends for coffee or go shopping or pick their children up after school when none of that normality feels like it can ever be yours, ever again. Not since your dog died.
That’s the nature of grief. At times it is overwhelming; at others, you may wonder if your dog is slipping away from you, that you are somehow forgetting her. Let all your emotions be. Just feel them. Don’t use your mind to ruminate or think about whether you are feeling the ‘right thing’ or doing the ‘right thing’. Feeling your feelings is to accept and finally let them go. They will re-emerge if you suddenly remember a special occasion with your dog, or, as I did the other day, find her old blanket while clearing out the cupboard. You’ll never forget your doggy companion, but you can, with time, move on from that raw, choking, crushing pain of the loss.
When an old dog dies, people around you will be upset for you because they understand that she has been part of your life for many years and it will be a great shock to you when your furry friend is no longer there. They will be able to reminisce with you about your dog’s life because they associate the dog with you and understand how meaningful he became to you. This is usually the case whether or not the dog died from natural causes or from a sudden unexpected illness. Either way, it's a shock and your good friends will understand your grief.
But for people like you and me, the sudden loss of our dear friend can be particularly traumatic because we feel we have no control over the situation. Our dog has been ripped out of our life without any opportunity for us to control how that happens. I am not suggested that choosing to put an older animal to sleep is easier by contrast, simply that in that situation, there is the opportunity to discuss the decision with other family members and the vet, time to spend last days or hours together and time to prepare how you would like to remember your dog and whether you want her to be buried in your garden or taken care of by the vet.
With an unexpected dog death, none of those choices are available to you. Your dog may have caught a particularly virulent disease, been accidentally poisoned, hit by a car, attacked by another animal or had an accident and all that planning and preparation time has been taken from you. This is where the special grief of unexpected pet death begins.
EFT tapping, while you are experiencing the thought, will reduce physical effects of sadness to a thought without any accompanying emotional physical reaction. If you are just having a thought, you can observe it objectively, without getting tangled up in emotions and feelings and without the physical responses which trap us in tears or anger. Tapping the meridian points helps because it shifts the energy blocks that negative emotions and beliefs create.
EFT was crucial to me in getting over the death of my best furry friend, Frances. I wept buckets for months and then, steadily, I moved on from the raw bitter grief, thanks to EFT. It can work for you too. Try this gentle method to clear the pain of losing your dog unexpectedly.
121 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 13, 2015
1 person want to read
About the author
Victoria Clayton
23 books51 followersSee also Victoria Walker for her two earlier children's fantasies: The Winter of Enchantment and The House Called Hadlows.
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