Frustration is a big part of grieving a pet that’s died. You want to move on from the grief, but you can’t seem to do it. It may be days, weeks, or even months, but you’re still weepy.
The frustration you feel over your grief is normal. A part of you knows that you’ll need to move on, while another part of you wants to hold on. This completely makes sense.
However, you can take these two parts of you and make them happy with one another. You can take the frustration you feel and help it move you past the grief. Here’s how to do it.
Talk to Yourself
The frustration part of you knows why you feel sad, it just doesn’t understand. You can help the grieving part of you by speaking to it in a calm, comforting way. You may say, “I know it’s so sad, but I have to get moving. It’s what <insert pet’s name> would have wanted.”
You may need to do this a few times, but you will likely find that you won’t have to do too much of it as you do it over and over again. Your grieving side will start to believe the frustration side, making it much easier.
Get Yourself Moving Despite the Grief
The other way to use the grief is by using the energy that comes from it to fuel yourself. You may not have felt like doing much when you were in the depths of mourning your pet, but now that frustration has set in, you probably have a little more motivation to do something.
When you are able to get out of yourself and do things that you didn’t think you would be able to because of losing your pet, you’ll start to realize that life does carry on – as wrong as that feels to you.
Frustration Is Strength
If you think about frustration for a minute, you will likely see that it’s powerful. You wouldn’t feel that frustration if you didn’t have some sort of energy behind it.
Use that strength for something good inside of you. Use it to show you that you are strong enough to deal with this devastating situation in your life. Take that frustration and show yourself that you can live your life despite the heartache. You WILL find joy again.
Giving It Time
Just know that even if you do all of this, you may still have days when you’re so sad you just want to cry. Time does heal all wounds. While you work with your grief and frustration, know that you need to be patient with the mourning process.
A Word About Depression
If you feel your depression from losing your pet has gotten to a point that your job is in jeopardy and you’re losing relationships, it may be time to speak to a professional. Your physician can help you, so make an appointment. You should definitely make an appointment if you ever have thoughts of harming yourself or others.
Stay strong, and soon, you’ll look back on your time your pet with happy memories.