Day One: The healing heart

Affirmation: Today, I extend love and empathy to the places inside myself that hurt.

Think of daily affirmations as an exercise for your brain. In our grief, this can act as subconscious reminders to help us navigate through negative thought patterns. We’ve created these as a focus on what we want to create. You may want to write them down in a place you will see as you go about your day. 

Sometimes when grief feels too much to bear, we want to shut it down. We may push those closest to us away. We may isolate. When the pain feels overwhelming, we may try to stay busy, run away from our grief so that we don’t feel overpowered by our feelings. We don’t want to be a bother. We say we are fine when we are not.

In these darker moments, we may forget our love is always available to us. We want so badly for our grief to go away that we forget to be kind to ourselves. Instead we may focus on the guilt, the pain.

Just for today, can you allow whatever emotions are coming up for you to surface, without having to fix it, push it down? What if we think of love as something that can be sprinkled in between all of the heaviness we may be experiencing? Layers of sadness, sprinkled with love, anger, sprinkled with love, regret, sprinkled with love, resentment, sprinkled with love. It's not an either-or. It's all of the above. Instead of drowning in our sorrow, think of love as something that can lift us up, keep us buoyant, bouncing back and forth as we move through the ebbs and flow of grief.

Compassion and empathy play crucial roles in the process of coping with pet loss. When a beloved furry friend passes away, it is common to experience a range of emotions, including grief, sadness, and even guilt. Recognize that pet loss is a significant loss, and it is okay to grieve deeply for your companion. Remember that it is normal to feel a deep sense of loss and to struggle with the emotions that come with it.

Today’s inspired action:

A simple self-guided heart-opening meditation

Find a comfortable place to sit down. Close your eyes.

Bring your left palm up to your heart and place the right palm on top of the left, over your heart.

Let your mind settle and relax. Let the thoughts from the day unwind.

Take a couple of deep breaths.

Relax your body, and let your mind wander, not settling on anything in particular.

Notice with each breath that you are letting any external noise fall away. Anytime your mind wanders, bring it back to your heart.

Notice any sensations that are coming up

Breathe into your heart. Feel the beating of your heart against your left palm. Feel your heart. What sensations are you noticing? So much is stored in the heart - unconditional love, compassion, kindness. Allow the grief to do it's own work. There's nothing you need to fix or do.

Do this for a few minutes. Listen to what your heart has to say to you.

In our grief, our heart will have messages for us. Continuing to relax, let your mind come back slowly to the present if it wanders. When you are ready, open your eyes. Take a few minutes to journal and jot down any thoughts you may have had during this meditation.