“Down to every last detail, you’ve captured our Winston so perfectly.  Having the opportunity to see him come back to life, and to be a permanent fixture in our home, is something we will cherish forever.  We will never forget this experience and are truly grateful for your talents, kindness, support and gift.  THANK YOU so much, Erica!! ” Kelly S. Hayeslip of Virginia

Our pets give us comfort, an unspoken love every day and especially when our hearts are aching. In this blog post I share tips on how we can move through grief to feelings of joy in the midst of deeply missing our beloved pets.

Click here for the first blog post in this series.

Providing comfort and unconditional love is what Tasha did for her mom and still does for her dad. This pet portrait is in honor of how she helped her dad move through the most difficult time in his life. You see, his wife passed away from an illness and Tasha was by his wife’s side every day, never leaving her. As his wife passed, Tasha helped her dad cope with the tremendous sadness that came with losing his wife and still does today.

Our pets are always in the now and often help us be in the now too because of that. They are joy, they are love, and they always gravitate to what makes them feel good. When they transition, one of the reasons why we grieve is because we’re separated from the feeling of how we felt when we were with them.

I know I will deeply miss my own cats, like I miss my childhood dog Lucas, when the day comes and they transition. I also know that they’ll want me to be as free flowing as she was.

Tips on how to move from sadness to joy

So how do we inch closer to joy when we’re deeply mourning the loss of our beloved companion?

My own grief over losing my dog never took a straight path or a series of stages. While moving through the emotions of grief is important, I believe it’s important not to live within the state of grief for too long. When we’re living within that state of grief all we’re focusing on is the absence of our beloved pets and the way they made us feel. When we focus on the absence of our beloved pets, we can’t feel the joy they brought to our lives.

Your emotions mean something and you can do something with how you feel. Just like painting, if we’re completely disconnected to our creativity we need to start small…. When we’re feeling the grief of losing our beloved companion we can gently guide ourselves back to joy by taking one small step at a time.

It can be challenging to simply feel joy when we’re sad. In fact, when we’re so deep down inside grief all those happy feelings can feel false. What we need to do is just inch closer to joy… gently guiding ourselves back to the feeling of joy.

Here are tips that can help you guide yourself closer to joy.

– Practice gratitude
I do this by simply expressing gratitude for the good in my life. Sometimes I’ve had to start small with the things I see in front of me: “I’m grateful for my easel. I’m grateful for my brushes. I’m grateful for my tea. I’m grateful for my hands…” and so on.

Remember, the goal isn’t to take a giant leap and feel joy… it’s about guiding ourselves back to joy by taking small steps. It doesn’t matter what we’re practicing gratitude about, it doesn’t have to be about our beloved pet who passed away, in fact, that feels like an overwhelming task!

– Be in service to someone else
Redirecting our focus on how we can serve someone else is a wonderful way to move from grief to joy. Even caring for a plant can help (I’ve done that!). Call a friend and ask how you can help them.

If you’re creative, simply playing with paint colors can help shift your energy a little. A recent student of the 8-Day Painting Challenge painted each challenge for a friend and sent it to them as a finished artwork with a note that read “I painted this for you today.” What a lovely way to tap into our creative energies and be in service to someone else.

Remember you’re not alone
Laura Cannon, spiritual teacher, says “Writer Glennon Melton coined a word, “brutiful,” which expresses that our life experiences are at once both beautiful and brutal. We grieve the things in life that we love the most and to have loved and lost is indeed a brutiful experience that we all share. It is so helpful to remember that we are not alone in our grief. That simple reminder of our shared humanity can help ease the pain of our suffering and reconnect us to joy.”

– Celebrate their lives
Celebrating a pet’s life and honoring them with a pet portrait is a wonderful way to continue your relationship with your pet through the memories. Your memories allow your pet to live on in you. Through our journey together, you’ll have the courage of the process to look through past photos to find just the right one for your painting, and write about your life together as a tribute.

All this and more will allow you to move through the grief to a feeling of joy. An original painting in celebration of your beloved pet is something different and unique that leads you to a place of healing. It replaces your tears of sadness with tears of joy.

Click here to inquire about commissioning your custom pet portrait.

xo,