Warning: this piece discusses pet euthanasia.
I believe that it is important to practice the ACT techniques in the everyday, mundane moments in life because it makes those skills accessible when life gets really difficult. If you don't practice it when things are easy then when life gets tough you forget the tools even exist and then wonder after the emotional storm has passed why you didn't think to use them.
I well and truly proved this theory to myself a few weeks ago. I have been practicing ACT for several years now, in easy times and harder ones. The other week I managed to use ACT during one of the most distressing moments in my life and even though I'm already a pretty devout believer in this stuff, I was amazed to watch it working for me at such a destructively distressing time.
Some background: many years ago I saw a young rabbit in a pet shop with such a wonderfully curious and loving personality that I felt I was meant to buy him. I was at a very low point in my life and looking after this adorable, good natured little bunny gave me a small sense of purpose, a glimmer in the darkness which surrounded me daily. I vividly remember a moment when I was seriously considering suicide but I chose to get my rabbit out of his cage and just sat and held him on my chest with his head tucked under my chin. He sat placidly in my arms and I had this sense of unconditional love from him even while I felt like the most unlovable thing on this planet. At that moment I loved him more than anything, I poured my love back to him and he held it all in his calm, peaceful way. He anchored me in that emotional storm and helped me to find a way to keep living. Over the years there were many moments I returned to him when I was feeling low and he was always such a steady, loving presence.
A few years ago my rabbit was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. We medicated him, kept him warm and comfortable and didn't expect him to last the year but he rallied and kept going for several years. Then it came back with a vengeance a few weeks ago after my other rabbit, his friend for most of his life, passed away. After a string of visits to the vets for various other health problems, he finally stopped eating or ingesting his medicine and was clearly struggling to breathe or move. The time had come to help him pass away so we booked an appointment with our local vet.
I sat and cuddled him on my chest just like I had all those years ago and when the time came to leave I desperately didn't want to go - I didn't want to accept that this was the end, but I also didn't want to leave him suffering like he was.
In the vets, after a short confirmation of his condition and signing of forms, the vet took him away to put a cannula in, promising to bring him back for the final part. I was left alone in the empty room, no longer able to comfort my dear little bunny. As soon as the vet left the room I internally screamed until it nearly burst from my lips. My mind screamed over and over that I didn't want to be here, I didn't want to do this. My teeth clenched and a distressing pressure built up inside me like a pot about to boil over.
Then suddenly, I remembered - ACT teaches us to be willing to feel our emotions. I was definitely not willing in that moment - I was fighting my own experience with all my strength. It was time to try something different, time to try what ACT teaches. So I turned myself to face what I was feeling and opened myself up to it. This feels like the most counterintuitive thing you possibly could do, especially when you are feeling so very distressed - I can't possibly open myself up to this, it will overwhelm me, it might kill me. But as I turned towards it, my body released it and the sharp edge of it dissipated like a half remembered dream upon waking. The feelings of distress didn't completely disappear but they lessened to what felt like a much more natural level. It was like the overflowing pot had reduced back down to a steady boil. I was still distressed but it was no longer boiling over and overwhelming me. It was the most distinct example I've ever experienced of the suffering we can build up around natural emotional pain and how ACT techniques can alleviate that suffering.
Throughout my wait, which was interminably long, I repeatedly allowed myself to feel my feelings. As the wait grew longer and longer my mind started panicking - drawing me into imagining what could possibly be happening in the next room. Had his heart failed while they were working on him? Had they cut a vein and was he bleeding to death on the table? Had I not been clear that I wanted to be with him while he was put down and had they already done it without me? As these catastrophic thoughts carried me off I managed to remind myself to come back to the present moment - noticing myself in this room at this moment, noticing the objects in the room and my breathing. It was again, very counterintuitive to draw my attention to my present moment experience, after all, the present moment was the last place I wanted to be right now. But to my surprise I found the present moment was the safest place to be - away from the storm of thoughts about why the wait was taking so long. In the present moment I could observe those thoughts but not get caught up in them and I could accept that I simply could not do anything about what was happening next door, that all I could do was wait and hope.
Eventually my rabbit was brought through and all too soon he died in my arms with his head tucked under my chin. That was the end of my rabbit's story but he will live on in my memory and my heart.
I am still surprised by how effective the ACT techniques were for me at such a distressing time. I had to constantly remind myself to open up to my feelings and return my attention to the present but doing these things kept my distress from boiling over and consuming me. It was still a horrible time, but ACT helped me to get through it. It helped me to experience the normal, natural emotional pain without it increasing to the suffering which my instinctive tendency to resist my emotions causes. If I hadn't been practicing these techniques in everyday life then I don't think I would have remembered to use them nor been confident enough to try them.
So I hope this serves as motivation to some of you to keep plugging away and practicing the ACT techniques you have learned, even if life is going well and you don't feel like you need to use them much. Practicing now will give you the opportunity to use these skills when life gets rougher as it inevitably does from time to time.
In memory of my dear rabbit - you meant the world to me. Thank you so much for being a part of my life.
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