you're more sensitive than you think

We can learn so much from those we share our lives with, especially, (I believe) our pets and young children because they don’t hide anything. They’re an open book. What they feel they share. There is no such thing as pretending or putting on a brave face. They’re completely and utterly honest. We, in turn, just have to be open to understand and observe what may be happening in their lives to grasp what may be happening in our own.

These past few months I have learned so much through the experiences of my beloved bunny, Bobo. Watching, witnessing how he has been, emotionally, physically, and through his behaviour, since the passing of his very best friend, Forrest, has taught me so much that I need to integrate into my own life.

And if one thing it has taught me is that whilst you may be great at putting on a brave face and standing up to whatever comes at you, you’re probably more sensitive than you think. And, if things are not addressed immediately, it can lead to more complications and imbalances in your life.

Bobo’s best friend and partner, Forrest, passed away after a short illness over 3 months ago. And since then, Bobo, for a variety of reasons, has been struggling more than I would like.

It can be challenging to work out what a bunny may be feeling or experiencing simply by watching their general behaviour or the expressions on their face. They cannot communicate what they’re going through in the normal way through speech.

At first I found it relatively easy to understand the emotions Bobo was experiencing. At the beginning of the week that Forrest was preparing to pass, Bobo went into his litter tray and, completely out of character, threw a temper tantrum. He was banging his feet and throwing hay around, something we had never seen this gentle, loving bunny do before. And it was clear to me that he was angry and hurting as he knew that Forrest was preparing to cross.

Within an hour of his temper tantrum he went into gastrointestinal stasis (or stasis for short). This is when a bunny stops eating and gas begins to build up in their digestive system making them not want to eat, which takes them further down the spiral of not eating. The sooner a guardian can step in and give meds and special food, the faster the stasis can be turned around and the bunny back to their fun-loving, pain-free self. If left unaided a bunny will die from stasis.

Thankfully, we spotted what was happening, stepped in quickly and within no time Bobo was back running around searching for treats.

A couple of weeks later, Bobo went into stasis again. And since then he has had some serious bouts of stasis that, even when we acted fast, we struggled to turn around.

This is all from a bunny who would only go into stasis about once a year because he’s such a happy, healthy, carefree, innocent, life-loving bunny in general. He never experienced much drama or upset in his life that would cause him to fall ill.

However, the losing of Forrest and the adopting of a new friend who has struggled to bond with Bobo (something Bobo just can’t wrap his head around as he and Forrest instantly bonded so he knows no difference) has unhinged his little world and caused him to experience a number of emotional setbacks.

The thing about stasis is it’s a symptom, not an illness or disease. So, when a bunny goes into stasis there’s a reason and cause behind it, be that something emotional, mental or physical.

If the reason and cause is not discovered and removed or treated, the stasis will simply keep coming back.

In our situation, the reason and cause was clearly emotional.

At first it was clear to see that Bobo was struggling emotionally with the loss of his best friend and partner, Forrest.

But after that, we didn’t spot that he was struggling emotionally with the arrival of his new friend who was struggling to bond with Bobo. In hindsight it’s clear to see that Bobo was feeling rejected and, to an extent, bullied by the new bunny, even though the new bunny was merely behaving from a place of fear and insecurity.

So this created another emotional setback for him and his body responded by going into stasis.

His most recent bout of stasis, a mere two weeks ago, was very serious and we struggled to bring him out of it. At one point, I thought we were losing him.

Understanding that stasis is a symptom not an illness or disease, I felt there was more happening that we couldn’t see on the surface. I felt there was more than emotions at play.

And true enough, after a bit of detective work, the vet discovered that his liver readings were a bit on the low side.

I appreciate this post is all about our bunny, Bobo, but it is relevant to each and every one of us.

You see, it was impossible for us to wave a magic wand over Bobo and remove his grief. Grief needs to be respected. It’s something we all need to work through at our own speed in our own time when we lose someone close. But it’s something we also need to work through in a healthy manner.

And the arrival of the new bunny brought additional emotional trauma to Bobo. We’ve tried our best to help them both, to settle them both so they can become new best friends, but that has come with emotional stress itself.

All this stress and all the emotions that Bobo has been experiencing eventually manifested into an issue with his liver.

If you think of the liver as more than a physical organ in the body and consider its energetic role in our lives, the liver is the place where we store emotions such as anger and other primal emotions.

If these emotions aren’t released in a healthy way, they will fester and linger until they manifest as an imbalance in the body.

So whilst you may think you’re dealing with life by putting a brave face on or even hiding your head in the sand, your body, your very being is more sensitive than you think.

When something manifests itself physically in your body, it can be challenging to unravel what happened that eventually led to that manifestation. As people, when something manifests physically in our body, we tend to go to the doctor and get a pill to help deal with the manifestation.

But that means we’re not addressing the initial cause. We’re simply addressing the final symptom.

So, what should we do instead?
What has Bobo’s experience taught us?

Well, this is exactly the question I posed to the angels and our spirit team: What do I need to know to help heal myself from an emotional setback.

Do you want to know the advice and guidance they shared?

Viv xx