Depending on how long you or your pet has had a physical or emotional illness or trauma it may take some time to heal. The amount of time it takes may not be directly proportionate to the time you or your pet have not been well, but likely a length of time may be required. Why is this? Dis-ease is a pattern and often becomes a habit. Therefore it is important to overcome or shift the factors which underlie the pattern in order to heal the dis-ease.
Certainly diet and environment play an essential role, but sometimes even though we make changes in those areas, our dis-ease or dis-comfort remains. Then we need to look at factors (for both animals and people) which define the dis-ease. What does this mean? We often become emotionally or mentally identified with our dysfunction – we become the sore back, the asthma, the heart disease. We talk about it, identify with it, give it power and sometimes even find value in being a victim with our dysfunction. This is also true for animals. You may notice that animals take on different roles in your household as a result of a decision they have made regarding how they have to be to get the attention they need.
Certainly being a victim is a powerful role – it draws attention, exempts us from taking responsibility, gets others to do things for us, and manages our fear when we need an excuse for not doing something or growing. But a key factor that often impedes healing is impatience. Many times we just want to get rid of our symptoms, and oddly enough get back to the very lifestyle that made us sick in the first place.
Healing means change. Change of habits, thought and emotional patterns, changes in beliefs, and new healthy habits to be established. This is also true for our pets. They are like little sponges in our environment and often develop dis-eases as a result of these environmental factors which may impede their healing. Sometimes we need to change the household environment or our own habits in order for our pets to heal. Here is an example.
Many years ago I worked with a small dog in the eastern US who was not well. We had several distant sessions together and the dog would get well, and then relapse just prior to the next session. I was perplexed and very frustrated that I could not seem to help this animal heal, and I certainly did not want to exhaust the owner’s budget with sessions.
I happened to talk to a friend of the owner who exclaimed “Oh, you will never get that dog to heal.
The owner is very invested in the dog being ill so she has an excuse to care for it, and not do other things in her life”. I was shocked to hear this, but it was an important lesson for me. After that I learned to work with both owners and their animals to help them both heal. This has become an important part of my coaching and healing work, and I now find that when the owner is involved in the emotional and mental aspects of healing themselves and their animals, a greater degree of success is achieved!
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