Three hour Audio Book, MP3 format only

Includes an original score of soothing music and a guided meditation.



From Teresa:
It is my hope that as you listen to and reflect on the material in this audio book you will feel comforted, understood in your time of pain, feel acknowledged and honored as a person in grief, that you will feel absolutely, positively normal in loving animals as deeply as you do, and that you will take away practical ideas, tools and techniques to help you learn more about how to not only cope with the loss of your pet, but to find meaningful growth, healing & transformation from your loss.

The goal of grief recovery is to heal the heart and use the crisis of loss to grow. Healing our grief is not just about feeling better, or learning how to cope with the loss of a pet,  it is also about becoming more whole. It is a conscious choice to heal and grow. The overall goal of this audio book is to help you do both. It will help you understand your grief and explore many strategies to both cope with and heal your grief, including strengthening your sense of connection with the spirit of your animal loved one.

May all that you receive from the words, music and meditation support you, inspire you, warm your heart, and light your way.

To listen to a sample of Teresa's voice, visit the home page and click on her welcome message next to her photo.

 Content

Why Animal Loss is Different:  40 min, 41 sec
Animals love unconditionally
Animal death is trivialized by many
Prejudice that we should not love or grieve for animals as much as humans
Responsibility and stress of the euthanasia decision


Understanding Your Grief:  45 min, 05 sec
Three choices when faced with grief: deny, cope & survive, or truly heal
How to understand and heal complicated grief
Seven factors which make each grief experience unique
Using this knowledge to help us heal


Healing Your Grief: Three Necessary Components of Grief Recovery  49 min, 57 sec
Coping and finding comfort: Taking supportive action in honor of yourself
Completing emotional unfinished business: Facing and resolving guilt and anger
Creation - Moving on and transforming grief into growth:
Identifying, celebrating and integrating the gifts of the relationship, the legacies of love, into our way of being


Healing Meditation  49 min, 11 sec
Purpose: To help you feel closer to the spiritual essence of your animal loved one
When we connect in love—when we ask and listen and speak with love—it is impossible for our animal to not receive our messages. No matter how much emotional pain there may be of grief, when we connect with the soul of our animal, the heaviness of grief in us is diminished, even if only for moments. The healing of those moments stays within us, and power of grief to devastate us is lessened. And we are more free to support our animals and ourselves as we grieve. 

Continue scrolling for excerpts, a sneak peak into the content and reviews:

Excerpts from audio book
Most of us need experiences of unconditional love from others to learn to feel safe and secure, to know we have a place in the world, and in order to learn to love ourselves. It's from animals that so many of us learn to feel deserving of unconditional love, and learn how to love ourselves. In their ability to profoundly love without condition, animals give us this gift. It is no wonder we grieve deeply from the separation of physical death. It's all right to acknowledge that your animal gave you something that perhaps humans do not. This does not diminish your human relationships. It honors the unique gifts your animal gave you and this is an important step in healing your grief.

When we are grieving, we are wounded, more vulnerable, and more easily influenced and sensitive to others' comments and behavior. In an ideal world, at our times of grief we would be surrounded by those who deeply care, understand, and accept the depth of our loss. But the world is not ideal and on top of our grief we often have the less than helpful actions of others to deal with. Though others may have not yet have learned it, you know that grief is indifferent to the species lost. Know this in your heart to be true, and don't let the differing beliefs of others sully the real love you have for your animal, or diminish your experience of grief. Your grief is legitimate and real, regardless of anyone else's comments, behavior, or opinion. Seek the support of people who understand your experience and accept your feelings. Sometimes this will be close friends or family, and sometimes it may mean reaching out to acquaintances who you know love animals as you do. It may mean finding a support group, calling a hotline, seeing a counselor (whose values about animals are not in contradiction to yours), visiting a web site, reading a book, or attending a workshop. Whatever support actions you chose, know that without a doubt your loss is real, your feelings are real, and you deserve a time of grief and recovery.

Finally, don't let anyone — not your best friend, your family, priest, minister, rabbi, author or co-worker — influence you to believe that your love for animals is in any way wrong, or not as important as your relationship with humans. We can't control others' behavior or values but we can choose not to internalize any message they send which may be ignorant or disrespectful. Your relationship with animals is a blessing of love. Cherish it, be proud of your ability to love without limits and prejudice.

A sneak peak into the content

For some of us, animals provide the brightest light on earth. When they leave their light remains, still shining with splendor in our hearts, in acts of kindness, and in all of nature. Remember this and let it warm you.

As we cope with the loss of a beloved animal, it helps to reflect upon two potential goals of grief recovery: to heal the heart and to use the crisis of loss to grow. Healing the heart means understanding and lessening feelings of heartbreak, overwhelm, anguish, guilt or other challenging emotions, while strengthening a sense of acceptance and peace around our loss. Using the crisis to grow means identifying and cherishing the mutual gifts of the relationship, fully embracing the lessons emerging from the loss, and consciously choosing to use them in our lives. Integrating the gifts and lessons of the relationship into our way of being may be the finest tribute we can make to our animal loved ones—a legacy of love. Healing from grief is not just about feelings better, ti is also about becoming more whole. It involves a conscious choice to heal and grow.

One of the myths of loss is that we can heal our grief exclusively from either an emotional or a spiritual frame of reference, that we do not have to address both. Grief is an emotionally painful process. There are deep and poignant feelings to be faced and dealt with. Yet is is a spiritual process also. Psychological work helps us heal feelings and to be consoled at a deep level, but it is only a genuine exploration of our spiritual beliefs and allows us to find meaning, to see a bigger picture, and to seek and find answers to our questions about life and death. It is in addressing both our emotional pain along with embracing our spirituality that we find peace.

Approaching our grief with only a spiritual perspective can create an unhealthy bypass of emotions, pretending our feelings will go away simply because we've accepted our loss on a spiritual level. This doesn't work. Strong feelings don't disappear, they just go underground and come back to haunt us later, pushing us to recognize and heal them. Strong spiritual beliefs do not eliminate our need to heal emotionally. What they can do, however, is shift the basic quality, the very character of our emotional pain so it is experienced not with hopeless suffering, but with grace. For this to happen, however, we must face and confront our feelings. Processing our feelings brings us emotional clarity and completion. Embracing our spirituality brings us the opportunity for peace and grace. We need and deserve both.

Reviews

Stephanie LaFarge, Ph.D., Director of Counseling Services
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals:
"The best book on pet loss I've ever read.I recommend it to all who seek my help. This extraordinary audiobook is for everyone. Listening to Wagner's message will protect the bereaved from overwhelming despair. It will inspire all of us to reach toward a fuller recovery."

Cat Fancy
"... gives grieving pet owners a plan for healing... ideal for people who prefer a live voice to text."

Dog World
"... explodes the myth that loving and losing an animal is not as significant or painful as loving and losing a human. The gentle words and soothing music provide inspirational and practical guidance for both immediate coping and long-term healing."

Judy Tatelbaum, author of The Courage to Grieve:
"Compassionately offers understanding, comfort, and help for anyone facing the loss of a beloved pet."

Penelope Smith, author of Animals, Our Return to Wholeness:
"A marvelous double audio cassette giving three hours of valuable guidance to compassionately and gracefully help people through the grieving process. Teresa's voice is warm and clear. Her style is loving and thorough. She details how to cope, love and care for ourselves as we grieve, how to examine and clear emotions surrounding the animal's death and how to heal and find meaning in loss."

Carol Staudacher, author of Beyond Grief and Men and Grief:
"Wagner's profound experience with grief, and with those who grieve, has created the foundation for her extremely wise and hopeful Legacies of Love. In this indispensable guide, Teresa Wagner offers understanding to survivors while providing them with both vital information and creative inspiration. This is a rich and in-depth resource for anyone who is dealing with the loss of an animal loved one."

Barbara Derbin Reitz, MSW, LCSW:
"Fills a gap in the animal loss literature ... and offers a new message in a profound way. Finally, someone has integrated the psychological and spiritual aspects of grief recovery with grounded intelligence and tender compassion. Bravo!"

Kim Lanham-Snyder, Director of Operations, Marin Humane-Society:
"Touching, moving, inspiring. An inspiration and opportunity for personal reflection. Listening to your genuine words of compassion reassured by beliefs and touched my heart. Your soft gentle voice expressed the compassion shared throughout the tapes. The entire content was brilliant and admirably detailed."

Therapist and consumer feedback

"I was inspired by the concept of 'love without limits' in the section on loving across species—comforting and beautiful!
Marijane Michalowicz, Medford Lakes, NJ

"Very realistic, powerful and helpful advice. While it is very educational, it lets the listener know that you are truly speaking from your heart and that you have definitely been there."
Jacqueline Ellis, Portland, OR

"The guided meditation is a very gentle, nurturing way to approach and embrace that which is so profoundly painful and scary... to finally acknowledge the passing of the beloved."
Donna Ferina, Albany, CA

"Your words have been a "bible" to me. They go with me everywhere, because when I feel a wave of pain I glance through your words and I know I'm not nutty for feeling this crazy pain."
Brooke Emsley, W. Boothbay, ME

"Teresa's voice was so loving and wonderful to hear and she makes me remember how much I'm loved by God and all those around me."
Maureen Averett, New Berlin, N