Animal Welfare Issues
What's the Difference Between Coping and Healing?
Case Studies and Creating an Action Plan for Yourself
Coping is about resiliency--keeping up our ability to manage stress day to day. It's about the necessary need for finding ways to escape the pressures of stress, and about needed short term rejuvenation.
Healing is about preventing and alleviating the root causes of our stress for long term change. It's about figuring out what causes it and committing to either trying to change it, accept it, or leaving it. Healing is about our deepest levels of learning, growth and awareness.
Coping and Healing are both needed to help with compassion fatigue. Coping is what we do when we take a much needed coffee break after a particularly difficult exchange with a boss, or member of the public. Healing is what we do when we take the time to stop to really think about "why do I react that way with this person?" "How can I think about this situation differently, how can I frame it, how can I perhaps respond differently so it doesn't always rile me up so horribly?" "How can I change it for the long run?"Healing is when we want to truly change the situation or our reaction to it, not merely escape the pain and tension it brings.
And, escape from tension is also necessary! Joseph Campbell, the famous mythologist, calls it a need for having a "bliss station." We do need places to go and things to do to bring us relief from the stress and pain of this work. Imagine the cycle of stress represented as a circle. Along this circle there are events or situations which trigger our negative reactions (pain, heartache, frustration, anger, etc.). Coping is what we do to live through those events or periods of time. Healing is what we do to literally remove those events from our lives, or when we shift our thoughts and feelings about the issues so deeply that when the events occur, they no longer trigger such unpleasant reactions. In our own stress cycles of life, if all we do is cope, we're really just taking breaths in between bouts of stressful events. In the highly stressful environment of animal welfare work, coping without deeper healing will burn us out. Coping and healing are very important.
Take a look at the following list of differences and examples of coping and healing. Where do you see yourself? What strategies might you want to add to your own repertoire of coping and healing skills?
Differences Between Coping and Healing
|
COPING |
HEALING |
|
Builds resiliency to buffer the cycles of stress |
Breaks the cycle of stress |
|
Band-aides |
Solves problems |
|
Maintains status quo |
Creates state of wholeness |
|
What we do to get by, survive stressful issues |
What we do to resolve, come to terms with stressful issues (at least our reactions to them) |
|
Helps reduce tension |
Replaces tension with acceptance and serenity |
|
Express feelings simply to vent |
Express feelings with intent to understand them, process them, let them go & move on |
|
Find ways to escape overwhelming emotions so can continue life without disruption |
Aware of emotions and work to resolve them |
|
Temporary measures |
Long lasting measures |
|
Alleviates symptoms |
Alleviates root causes |
|
Helps to escape stress |
Requires us to fully face issues surrounding stress |
|
Can be light and fun |
Can be intense |
|
Can be quick, immediate |
Takes more time & consideration |
Examples of Coping and Healing
|
COPING |
HEALING |
|
Sharing feelings in a support group. |
Sharing feelings in a support group |
|
Sharing feelings and stories with co-workers, friends or family |
Sharing feelings and stories with co-workers, friends or family with intent to understand them |
|
Taking time to relax--either favorite leisure activities or relaxation exercises |
Relaxation or meditation to help come to terms with the stress and heal any pain |
|
Pray--use spiritual beliefs and practices for support to get by an endure |
Pray--use spiritual beliefs and practices for support to get by and endure, but also for guidance to truly learn and courage to change if necessary |
|
Get aways! A few hours or long vacation to simply escape tension and responsibility |
Use some time of the getaway for reflection, to come back to center. . . |
|
Listen to music for pure enjoyment |
Choose music to intentionally match your mood to legitimize your feelings and allow full emotional expression |
|
Enjoy beautiful art |
Express your feelings through drawing, painting, collage, or any form of artistic expression. Look for and reflect on messages from your heart. |
|
Write in a journal |
Reflect on what you write in your journal, see the patterns, learn and grow from it |
|
Spend time in nature |
Be aware of and allow the magic of nature to soothe and heal you |
|
Spend time with human and animal loved ones |
Spend quality time with them, building reciprocity of love, caring and support |
|
Moving from department to department, from job to job when can't get along with someone. Blaming almost all problems on others. |
When having problems with boss or others, really think seriously about why, what do I contribute to problem, what does other contribute? What does other contribute? Work to make relationship constructive. When that doesn't work, then initiate transfers to new jobs, learn from what didn't work. |
Action Plan for YOUR Stress
|
In regard to your pressures and stress... 1. What are you doing to COPE? (i.e. to get by, survive...) |
|
2. What are you doing to HEAL? (i.e. to resolve stress, come to terms...) |
|
3. What is one additional thing you can begin to do (or do more of!) to strengthen your own prevention and healing of compassion fatigue? |
COPYRIGHT AND AUTHORSHIP NOTICE: The information contained in this Compassion Fatigue section of my site was originally written in 1994, has been updated several times and has been copyrighted since its inception. In July 2015, Judy Scheffel used the material on these pages as if it was her own, violating copyright law and a written agreement to use it only with attribution, for a webinar organized by Lisa Levinson and sponsored by In Defense of Animals. A video of the webinar, in which Scheffel plagiarized thousands of words from this site and deceptively presented the models in these pages as if they were her own original concepts, appeared on the In Defense of Animals web site and on YouTube until August 20, 2016.
If you participated in this webinar or viewed it on YouTube, please be advised that authorship of approximately 80% of the webinar content includes material copyrighted by Teresa Wagner and was used fraudulently by Judy Scheffel.
Be Part of the Solution
If you love animals
and want to end the euthanasia of animals in shelters,
you can be a powerful part of the solution.
Together, we can end euthanasia by doing the following four things:
1. Acquire our companion animals through rescue and adoption:
Save a life!
Boycott pet shops and breeders until there are enough homes for every homeless animal. We will help reduce overpopulation rather than contribute to it.
Any breed, any species we are looking for can be found through rescue!
Check local shelters and rescue groups and http://www.petfinder.com
2. Choose animals well matched to our lifestyle so we are likely to. . .
enjoy a long harmonious life together!
When we choose wisely, we increase the chances of a lifetime of compatibility and love.
Prevent stress and potential heartbreak!
Tips on Finding the Right Pet
3. Spay and neuter all our animal companions:
Save many lives!
Facts and information on spaying and neutering and low cost resources
Prevent heartbreak and euthanasia!
All animals, and certainly those who bring us so much love as companions and family members,
deserve to be treated by us as we would want to be treated ourselves.
Finding Housing that Accepts Pets
Relief from Allergies to Animals
Herbal Remedy for Relief from Allergies to Animals
Connect with your Animal Directly to Uncover Root Causes & Resolve Problems
How to Select the Right Forever Pet for You
Many resources are available to help us keep our animals in times of stress, crisis and change, or to make plans for a new, loving, appropriate home for them. Animals are not disposable toys, status symbols or utilitarian objects to be traded in for the next model, to be set aside as no longer important when a new boyfriend, spouse, partner, baby, or the next new animal arrives. They are more than pieces of furniture to be left behind or casually given away when it's inconvenient to find a new home where they are allowed. Animals are living, breathing, feeling souls who share the earth with us. In my conversation with animals, it is heartbreakingly clear that they experience the same grief, confusion, sorrow, and trauma that humans do when they are abandoned, given away, sold, or traded in for a newer, younger, perhaps more perfectly conformed or higher performing model.
For every single animal euthanized in a shelter, there is a person OUTSIDE of that shelter responsible for it. The responsibility to keep shelters from euthanizing animals lies with each of us as pet owners. If we adopt through rescue, choose a good match, spay and neuter, and keep our animals for their lifetimes, the shelters will be near empty, not overfull, and euthanasia can become a tragedy of the past.
Remember, rescue and shelter workers and administrators cannot make this happen on their own, BUT WE CAN, SIMPLY BY MAKING THE FOUR CHOICES OUTLINED ABOVE. Together, we can end the euthanasia of healthy animals.
Memorial for Euthanized Shelter Animals
Every year, approximately 4 million companion animals
are euthanized in US animal shelters.
They die because they lived in a community in which there are more people that drop off animals at shelters than those who adopt animals at shelters, creating an overwhelming surplus of homeless animals. They were not euthanized because shelter staff did not care for them and love them, they were euthanized because the community members outside the walls of the shelter continue to overbreed animals, either intentionally, by accident or neglect, despite the surplus of homeless cats and dogs desperately in need of adoption.
Many of the animals died because the humans who owned them did not make or carry out a commitment to keep them for their lifetimes, but rather made a choice to let a shelter take responsibility for their animal.
These animals died in the arms of strangers, not in the arms of family loved ones. They deserve to be honored. They deserve our love. And they deserve the attention and energy of every animal lover to stop this tragedy.
Visit and stay awhile in the serenity of this star filled memorial... let yourself transcend the sadness and begin to feel the peace that love can bring. Let your heart fill with love. Allow love and peace to flow through you. Let yourself feel the love become so strong that you know that strength can solve this problem. As you gaze at the stars and let the music wash through you, you may also want to:
- ... pay your respects to all the animals who have died in shelters
- ... say a prayer for them
- ... send them your love
- ... send your love to the shelter workers who care for the homeless animals of your community
- ... say a prayer that all members of your community with animals take the simple steps to prevent further euthanasia by acquiring all their companion animals through rescue or adoption (saving a life), by spaying and neutering all their animals (saving many lives) and by keeping the animals they have for their natural lifetime.
- ... make a commitment to take these steps yourself.
Visualize all companion animals living in safe, loving homes.
May all beings be free from suffering
May all beings be at peace
~ Sufi blessing
Click the player above to listen to "For St. Francis"
from the CD Light from Assisi by Artist Richard Shulman.
