As a holistic vet, most of the people that I consult with are stuck in the middle of making a decision. Imagine this situation, one that I see and hear a lot. You have a sick pet and you take it to the vet. The vet does her thing and comes up with a tentative diagnosis and refers you to a specialist. You take your pet to the specialist, she does her further-diagnostic thing, and then meets you in the consulting room.
“Your pet has lymphoma (or any other type of cancer). The only treatment option that we have is to do chemotherapy and if you choose to do this, then we need to give the first round of treatment immediately. The sooner we start treatment, the better opportunity for it to help,” she says.
Imagine what is going on in your head and in your body. You have just been told that your beloved pet has terminal cancer and you are being pressed to do chemotherapy, a treatment that you have been conditioned to believe is not the best case scenario. But, you need to make a decision at this moment.
Forget it. You cannot make an objective decision when you are in this situation. Do not let anyone pressure you to do this, because most of the time, you will regret it. This is why.
Dr. David Hawkins researched making decisions and he categorized three foundations for decision making. He divided the three foundations based on the inner feelings going on at the time and how the feelings will direct the choice that you make. He categorizes the feelings based on their energetic component. He calls them inertia, energetic and peaceful.
The first state, inertia, is reflective of the emotional level of fear (also apathy and grief), but in our example above, we will be dealing with fearful emotions. The nature of fearful emotions will block any objective focus on making a clear decision based on the situation, and will, instead, focus on our fearful thoughts themselves. This will be reflected as “I don’t know,” “I am not sure,” or “I don’t think I can.”
In order to feel better, we might choose to make the decision later or we might choose based on our fearful emotions. The problem with making a decision based on the fearful emotions, is that in time, the emotions will change and the decision made will no longer seem appropriate. We are left with the belief that we probably made the wrong decision.
The second state of feeling, energetic, has an underlying state of desire, anger or pride. Since the energetic components of these emotional states are higher than those of the inertia, some positive thoughts are allowed to pass to us in the form of insight or intuition. This is a “take charge” response will usually manifest when driven by these emotions. Because the ego-mind is in charge, due to its self-interest, the decision making is usually compulsive or impulsive. In the above example, the underlying decision is based on the person’s best interest and not the pet’s. Even though the ego-mind tells the person that they are making decisions for the pet, they are actually not.
The third state is the peaceful state. This state is based on the emotions of courage, allowance and love. Since these feelings are purely positive, they do not interfere with the flow of insight and intuition, allowing the choice to come to us freely. We are totally focused on the situation with complete confidence. Worry, anxiety, fear and other emotions do not exist at this level of feeling and we are free to communicate objectively. All of the bad-possible choices fade away, leaving only the one good choice. It becomes naturally clear and precise.
I remember an old movie with Will Smith and Matt Damon called The Legend of Bagger Vance (actually a very spiritual movie). Will was Matt’s golfing caddy (and an angel in disguise). He is telling Matt to watch Bobby Jones, a renowned golfer, practicing his swing. He says, “He is clearing his mind, allowing all of the bad swings to get out of the way, leaving him with his one, authentic swing.”
This is what happens when we choose to find our authentic self before we make decisions for ourselves and our pets. When we find love, compassion and kindness that is in all of us, we find our authentic selves. At that time, we move into the peaceful state, one that clears away all of the bad choices, leaving us with the one correct decision, that was here all along.
We should make it a point to do this when we are faced with any serious decision regarding our health issues or our pet’s health issues. It might be choosing how to treat something or it might mean when it is time to let our pet go during a long-standing illness. When we understand how this works and why we often struggle to make a decision, we can empower ourselves to move into the peaceful state of feelings and choose wisely.
