Sittin' in Sh!t Soup
As a recap from last week’s blog post, we discussed the fact that everything is energy, including ourselves, too. And because everything is energy, everything is energetically connected, including us and our pets. This explains why the dog chews our shoes at the very moment when everything else is already falling apart. Or the cat starts peeing outside the litter box.
Our animals have to sit in the 💩 "sh*t soup" right there with us. They don't get a choice when our life is falling apart - whatever we're going through they're stuck with too. Whether it's a challenging break up, a move, death of a loved one, financial stress, deadlines, or a health crisis, they're right there next to us.
They are often amazing supporters, lending an ear when we can't bear to talk to anyone else. But it also means they're trapped in the same whirlwind of emotions that we are carrying around with us.
And sometimes, just when you're feeling like your going to drown in the current mess you're in, your animal starts causing problems. The dog attacks the other dog when they've been friends forever. The cat that suddenly starts getting sick every day. The horse that high tails it the other way when you approach. (I'll note - my animals have done all of the above at one time or another...) All you want to do is lean on somebody and now even your pets are rebelling! So what do you do to fix the nightmare??
The good news is that there are two quick things to help bring a little harmony back to the house!
Step 1: recognize what's happening. Coming to the awareness that you've been carrying around stress like Pigpen's dust cloud from the Peanuts cartoon has to happen before any other changes can shift. Just owning your own energy and acknowledging it can change things for the better. Say it out loud: "I'm sorry that I've been so stressed out that it is causing my energy to do not so great things." Honoring exactly where you are will help the animals get back to balance. Often, despite our best efforts, we are denying a certain aspect of the stressful THING and wishing it would just go away. That "stuffing" of emotion is a source of major stress for an animal.
Step 2: Tell them everything that's going on, honestly, and candidly. Tell them how it will affect them, if it does, and what the future might look like (or that you don't know that right now, and that's ok too). Speaking out loud from the heart and getting it all out can dramatically reduce the stress an animal feels around a situation. They really do understand a lot! Trust that the information that is needed will get through for them.
These two simple steps can make a world of difference for your pet, and you!
