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Dear Clients, Colleagues and Friends,
 
For many of us loving animals is easy, as natural as breathing. Their presence on the earth is an essential part of our lives, bringing us meaning, joy and incomparable love. At the same time, the deep, tender compassion we feel when we witness, read or hear about animals being harmed, hurt, exploited or killed can sometimes bring a sense of tremendous overwhelm and helplessness. It can be enormously challenging to be witness to great suffering and keep our hearts open in the midst of such pain.

Sometimes it can make us shut down, feel paralyzed, too depleted to help, or, feel overtaken with anger at those we see as the perpetrators causing suffering of animals. Some people actually fabricate stories that animals really don't suffer at all in certain situations to avoid facing the reality of the emotional and physical suffering of animals. I think of these as "spiritual fairy tales" created by those who haven't yet developed the emotional maturity, strength or resiliency to be present with the traumatic pain of others. As understandable as any of these responses to animal suffering may be, they don't help the animals or us.

There are alternatives to shutting down, burning out, pretending that suffering doesn't exist or minimizing it so we are not uncomfortable. It is possible to keep our hearts open, our compassion flowing, even as we are fully present and acknowledge the deep pain of another.

 

The "When Compassion Hurts" CD was created to guide us through practical steps that take us to a greater position of strength, centeredness and empowerment so we can effectively offer the love and best use the skills we have to help animals during times of crisis. These strategies help us tp help the animals and ourselves with calmness and love--even when we may feel overwhelmed, angry or depressed. The CD also includes a guided meditation and is available both as a CD and in mp3 format. 

 

One of the processes described was offered to me by a whale during an incident when I witnessed the death of a whale calf. Feeling completely overcome with grief and anger, the whale who spoke with me described and helped me through the process to come to a place of gentle peace as well as a much stronger sense of empowerment regarding my ability to "do something" to truly help those involved. What this whale taught me can help all of us to help both the animals who are suffering and find peace within ourselves.  


How can we effectively help animals during the times when we hear about or see their suffering and we feel completely helpless or devastated? How do we get back to center enough to help the animals rather than becoming paralyzed in our own pain or trying to bury it knowing it will just return in some way?  There are important steps we can take to prevent being knocked over from our own pain and offer the fullness of our loving compassion to animals in peril:

1. Accept that pain and suffering exist in the world and that exposure to the trauma of animals is likely to trigger pain in us (whether that exposure involves being a first hand witness,  in direct communication with them, hearing about it, or reading about it). This acceptance is the opposite of resistance, and it is resistance to what is that deepens our suffering. Accepting what is, even as we are working to improve it, reduces the vibration of suffering, and increases the vibration of peace. So when we learn of animal suffering, if we can accept the facts of what is happening and resolve to to do something about it, we will have far more peace than if we stay immobilized in a state of shock and disbelief, anger, or pretend that suffering doesn't exist.

2. Learn to manage our own discomfort that comes from seeing or hearing about their pain. Learning to manage our pain in response others' trauma is a critical competency to develop for anyone providing either professional healing work or simply wanting to be as useful as possible when someone else is in trauma. One of the best descriptions I've ever read about this is from Robin Norwood in her book, Why Me, Why This, Why Now:


When we are able to conquer our need for immediate relief from our own discomfort 
from witnessing anothers painful condition, we can then offer Love.  
Nothing better promotes true healing than an atmosphere of this very high level of love. 
  

Some of the most effective strategies to help us cope with and heal our pain include: creating a support system with others who care similarly about the same issues so you can be there for one another to vent, to listen, to share and to heal together; taking the flower essences Glassy Hyacinth and Green Cross Gentian to help with issues of shock, disbelief, anger, overwhelm and a sense of defeat when witnessing cruelty; and connecting with sources of spiritual and divine support that have personal meaning for us.
 

3. Use energetic boundaries to protect ourselves from potential overwhelm and compassion fatigue. Without being energetically prepared and protected, we are vulnerable to being overwhelmed or depleted by others' energies. Unprepared and unprotected, we are susceptible to taking in the pain of those we help as our own pain. This depletes us and diminishes our ability to help.

Energetic Protection is the conscious, intentional protection of ourselves from taking in others' emotional or physical pain, their energy, or problems and allowing these things to become our own.

I visualize my own energetic protection as a beautiful and powerful boundary of light all around me, a veil of light representing my intention to allow only positive energy to flow in. Everything else about others--their pain, their energies, the ownership of their issues--all stop at my boundary of this energetic protection of light. I can still see, feel, understand, and perceive everything about the animal or person I am  working with, and I can still shower the others' pain or issues with great love, empathy and skillful help. All those things can pour from me, or be channeled through me, to reach and help the other. And I can clearly see and perceive all I need to understand and help the other. My own energetic protection boundary simply does not allow any negative energy from another to come in.

What energetic protection stops, and this is the whole point of it, is the pain or negative energy that 
belongs to another from entering us. All pain and negativity simply stops at our energetic boundary of protection. That's all. Love and good can come in. Love and healing can go out. With energetic protection, the heart stays wide open and we are empowered to be fully present with another's pain or trauma, to help with great effectiveness, and to not burn out. More tools for energetic protection are discussed in the CD set on this issue and in the teleclass Ethics and Energetic Boundaries for Healing Practitioners.


4. Consciously choose the order in which we send love and healing energy to everyone involved--a process taught to me by a whale as I was having difficulty witnessing the death of a whale calf.  This process is not about ignoring our emotional reactions to animal suffering. It's about dealing with it after first offering love and compassion to those directly impacted. The process is not about pretending suffering does not exist, that people on earth do not harm animals, or condoning what they do. The process is also not about sending love instead of helping practically. It's about sending love in addition to important activism, direct rescue efforts, making donations and other activities in which we choose to get involved. A summary of the steps are described below (a much more thorough narrative, including a guided meditation to walk you through the process, is included in the When Compassion Hurts CD).

Step One:  Send to the animal or animals who have been harmed, killed or are in peril the energy of calm, of tenderness and of great love. Be in a place of calmness yourself when you do this.

Step Two: Send to those closest to the animals who have been harmed the energy of calm, compassionate  support, acknowledgement of the trauma or their loss (when one has occurred), and great love. Examples of those closest to the animals harmed may be other animals or people who are their family or other animals or people who love them, who may be scared, grieving or distraught. When a trauma or loss is occurring, those closest to to the ones who have been harmed are the primary grievers, caregivers or loved ones--not us. Their reaction to what has happened takes precedence over our reaction to what has happened. We are the secondary grievers. We should also never, ever expect the people or animals in these primary roles to take care of us and our reactions. We need to take care of ourselves and go elsewhere for support as needed.

Step Three: Send abundant love to the hearts of the perpetrators of the harm, for it is only from a place of love that those who perpetrate harm against others have a chance to change internally. It's hard, very hard, to feel love for and send love to those who harm and kill animals. I think of it as sending love to their soul on a deeply spiritual level and *not* in any way condoning their behavior and not connecting with them at a personality level. Sometimes even that is hard for me to do directly, so I ask the angels and spiritual guides I work with to send that love to them for me.

Step Four: Send lovingkindness and compassion to yourself, filling your own heart with healing energy for any grief, upset or pain you may have. Honor your own feelings, however strong, dark, confusing or contradictory they may be at any moment. Ask for help from those you trust to understand, those on earth and in Spirit, to help you fully express and release any pain. Reach out and ask for ongoing support, love, and care from those you pray to, and from those who are your support system on earth.

Using these steps and processes has allowed my level of compassion to mature and has increased my ability to help the animals I love so much. My whale guide who helped me learn most of this described it best:  "It's about transforming our overwhelming, natural energy of grief and anger in response to harm, into powerful support for the actual animals who are harmed, for their loved ones, those who have caused the harm, and ourselves."

It's about showering suffering with Love. Everyone's suffering.

Know that by sending calming and healing energy and love to all of these parties, you have just taken powerful action to serve animals, and that you have added more love and peace to the world.

And while the above order of sending love may be ideal, sometimes a particular act of horror toward animals so thoroughly throws us out of balance that we must tend to our own meltdown of shock, outrage, or devastating heartbreak first. We need to be in a place of calm and centeredness ourselves to be able to send love and healing to the others. Sometimes we need to care for ourselves first so we neither deny or get stuck in our own pain, and that's ok. Doing so, we can get back to the love--for everyone.


5. Do something practical, on the ground, to alleviate the root cause of an animal suffering issue you care about. One of the most respectful things we can do for animals who suffer is to become educated, stay informed, and inform others about the issues of concern to us. Read articles, sign petitions, follow Facebook pages and Twitter messages that cover the issues of concern to you, make lifestyle choices that do not harm animals, boycott companies that harm animals. These individual decisions and actions may be the most holy work we can do.

Choosing to be part of the solution is very empowering and can lessen our own overwhelm that the problems exist. When we're part of "fixing it," however small our role may be, it means we have risen above the passivity of being an overwhelmed onlooker and have become part of sacred activism to make the world a better place for animals.

Love heals on the emotional and spiritual level. Action heals on the grounded physical level. Action in the outer world and sending love, healing energy, and prayer from the inner world both create change. These are not mutually exclusive strategies, they merely employ different energies. To resolve the complex issues of cruelty to animals they are both needed. In addition to sending love, take a stand. Stand up for the animals you love and feel the power of your compassion spreading to change the world for animals.

Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others,
or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.
And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring,
those ripples build a current that can sweep down
the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
~ Robert Kennedy


May these ideas help you as you love and serve the animals of the earth. May our own hearts be both open and protected as we send compassion and love to animals in peril, and as we are involved in grounded, sacred activism to change their circumstances. May the hearts of all people who don't yet see the souls of animals be opened to see them and treat them with the love, kindness, protection and respect they deserve. 

May love prevail.

With much love and blessings,





To learn more you can listen to the CD or mp3 for more detailed information and a guided meditation.  

Links to more sources of support

Flower Essences to Prevent and Heal Traumatic Stress
   
The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to clear emotional distress
Email us for recommended private EFT practitioners
Learn more about how to use EFT for loss and caregiver stress in this on-demand teleclass

Supportive Consultants who understand the depth of your connection to animals and the healing of trauma
Grief counselor and animal communicator Teresa Wagner   (email us for our grief counseling discount packages) 


Speaking with the Souls of Animal Series:

(2.5 hour on demand class with 163 pages of handouts)

Links to stay in touch