Dog Gone Feelings
Speaker 0: You're listening to Takeout Therapy. I'm your host, Rebecca Hunter. I'm a private practice therapist, an anxiety specialist who's doing things differently. In about twenty minutes, I'm here to teach you how to deal with an everyday difficult element of life in a healthier way. This podcast is unscripted, totally unedited.
Just my straight up advice from years of experience. This is not therapy. It's just personal growth for people in a hurry for change. So let's get to work. Hello, my friend.
And here we are again today. All ready to jump right back into life's messiness. Today, I wanna talk with you just kind of actually giving you a little update about what's up with me in hopes that if you're having a life anywhere near like mine, then maybe I might be able to help you see your way through it. As I talk my way through mine. If you've been listening to the podcast for any length of time, You know that I have a very special relationship with my dog and that she was twelve.
And that I was kinda knowing that her time was coming and alas my girl, Lily, has made her way over the rainbow Brit And I gotta say, so hard. She had a peaceful passing. It was actually quite beautiful. I was alone with her for a few days as she was making her way, which was both absolutely terrible. And you know how sometimes life works out exactly like it's supposed to.
Oh, I can still feel it right now. Anyways, yeah. So my dog died. And that is so hard. I can even feel all the emotion of it right this minute when I'm talking to you.
And it's interesting because some of my own personal growth work has really been around, like, this idea about just feel your feelings lady. So we're all kinda running around in the background of our lives, like, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this and I've got this going on and this going on and I'm really good at talking about feelings But one of my goals is really to sit more with my feelings. So there's nothing like a tough situation. Right? Tell you and me both.
Dig into the places in life that feels so difficult. I could be doing a lot of things. To get out of this pain right now. And some of them I am doing and others I'm not. I'm sitting here talking to you feeling all the emotion of this loss.
And I gotta tell you, it's okay. It's really hard to adjust to change. It's really hard to even adjust to like big emotional shifts. Right? Because when I started talking, I wasn't thinking about this.
I wasn't feeling this, but I elicited it through my conversation with you. And so here I am sitting in grief with you. And I have to tell you, like, that's okay. So in your own life, let's do a little reflection, shall we? Always fun.
To kinda just see the moments where, you know, those times when a lot of emotion just comes up and you're like, oh, no. I am not doing this right now. Or you're like, well, why are you feeling this way? You need to feel a different way. Like, figure this out.
And you get up and you go do something else or you just lay in it. Like, I don't wanna be feeling this way, but I do feel this way. And I don't know why I feel this way. And what I'll tell you is we all do all of that. And I'm gonna give you another choice today.
And that is when you feel your feelings sometimes, when maybe you're alone or when the time is right or it feels appropriate, sometimes just let your feelings come out. Let those little tears just kind of dribble down your face or let that tightness just be there for a moment. You can kind of breathe into it even. Not to get it to go away, But actually, to just see, like, well, what is that? What does it feel like?
Right? And in this time of sadness for me. And it's so weird. Like, losing a dog is so weird. And PS, this was like, my kind of first adult dog.
It was a while that John and I were together before we decided to even get a dog. The kids, this was their childhood dog. So this gal has been in and around our lives for so many years. And it's so weird, like, when you lose a dog, like, you're always kinda looking for it. You know?
You're I'm always looking her. I'm out in my studio right now. I don't ever come out to my studio without my big girl. And last, here I am. Again, here comes all his emotion.
Right? So I'm just kind of modeling for you today Like, life throws a lot of stuff at us. And losing my dog is really hard. And I'm doing okay because when I feel my feelings right now, in my life, my commitment to my relationship with myself, my commitment to myself is just like feel it. Just feel it for a minute, girl.
There's nothing you need to do to make this go away or to make it better. You don't need to analyze it or intellectualize it. Just feel it for a moment. And then move on. Because that's kinda how life is.
Right? And certainly, that's how grief is. It kinda just sneaks up out of nowhere and kinda bites you in the back, doesn't it? Here and there. At random, No pattern.
So that's what I'm in. And the other thing is like a lot of people say, well, if I just steal my feelings, like, I'm not gonna be able to go to my job. And what I would say, like, if you don't feel like you can go to your job because you have so many feelings, then don't go to your job. Just have your feelings for one day and then go tomorrow. And, you know, like, I would never go to work.
If I didn't feel like I had my kind of self command, if I was just in it in it in it, It's time to just be in it sometimes. You know what I'm saying? We gotta make more space for that. So, of course, I took a couple days off. And then I'm back in the office and seeing my clients and I'm feeling okay and I'm still having fun.
And holding space for my grief. Right? I'm still able to be helpful and be in my own puddle sometimes. And you can do the same thing. When you have your feelings, you can just give them a little bit of space.
Feel them for a few moments, and then, like, kind of reground yourself in your current environment by using some mindfulness skills There's a podcast episode on that. And then back to life we go. Right? Just a little bit of space for feelings. I'm gonna give this thing as long as it takes.
I will always have such a special place in my heart for this silly silly dog that I had. She was she was so funny. She hated all of our appliances in our house. And we get so mad every time we get out in appliance. So that's one fun thing you guys eyes is that I'm just using the heck out of my air fryer now.
Come into it. So times are hard and I can also hold space for sense of humor and in knowing that life is life, and it kinda just keeps on rolling. Whether we hold acceptance for it or not. So I hope this helps you. It helps me because I got to feel some of my feelings.
And talk about my old girl. And now it's time for me to move on and do something else. I'll catch up with you soon. Thank you so much for listening today. I love making this podcast.
And here's what I ask in return. We just forward an episode that you really like on to two or three people, you guys. Listen. If we all do this, we might actually get a little bit close to living in a fully functioning society. Go to my website at rebekah hunter m s w dot com to see some of my other projects including online self help classes where I use therapy and coaching techniques to help people with things like overthinking, and anxiety, stress, overwhelm, burnout.
Yeah. Super helpful. I have a lot of free resources on my website. And something else that I really like to do is I like to work with companies interested in promoting positive mental health for their employees. I love talking to groups of people.
I do it for companies, I do it at retreats, I will literally talk to anybody anytime. So get in touch. And of course, I have my online and in person private practice. I love my work. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
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