Pets give more than they take when it comes to our personal relationships. We can become pet caregivers and not recognize who is taking care of who. The benefits are known to most of us, but as an argument with my hubby I want to reiterate the physical benefits, starting with our overall health. There is also the Heart benefit, and this is the heart we feel love with.
Stress
Stress affects every cell of our being, and knowing petting a dog changes all that is truly amazing. We humans are designed to have physical contact with other beings, and those can be furry along with having scales! Just the action of touching our pet releases the hormone ‘cortisol’. This great hormone helps to literally decrease our blood pressure, and we feel less stressed and more content.
We take a mental break without realizing we are while we get side tracked with out pet. They take us away from our stressful pattern we’re in and get us mentally going in another direction. We are temporarily caring for another being. And, when we get into our care giving routine with our buddies, just the action of caring for something other than our worries reduces the stress even more.
With a dog, the act of going outside with them changes our breathing along with our physical activity. All of this is another stress reducer just for taking our furry baby outside to do their duty. Little do our pets know that pets give more than they take. This is just a small sample of the ways they reduce stress.
Overall Health
We have stress reduction along with some physical exercise as we try to keep up to the physical demands our pets require. If we have an active dog tugging us along outside at a good pace, then we benefit again. This type of rapid walking is considered to be a moderate level of exercise. Our pet can spare us the expense of a gym membership! I love the idea of getting a dog again and getting some fresh air. Look around in the winter and see who is outside; either the smokers or pet owners.
There is a whole other study showing the benefits of movement of our bodies. Our brain gets revived with new energy and alertness when our breathing intensifies. And we know our whole body gets involved when we get up off our *** and get going. Taking in a new environment snaps us out of one mind set and into another. And for me, a little extra movement might help to burn off an extra cookie or two.
Our outside adventures with our pets create a new social interchange, and this is always good. Our dogs might have their usual buddies at the park, and guess what, we start to socialize as well. If a really cute and friendly dog ventures out with you then watch out, you have a ‘kid’ magnet. Children are little junior humans wired to touch and love on our furry friends. Some of us could sure use a reminder.
Pets and Love is always Good
The biggest change is the warmth and love we feel when we touch our pets. This includes reptiles too people! I had two gopher snakes and when I was young and I would love on them. They seemed to tolerate me all right but they were so good for a young girl. We sure were the attention grabber outside.
The pet that had my girlish heart was a laboratory rat. She had brown and white coloring with big brown eyes. She ran the house and the dog and cat got out of her way. I can still see her running full speed through the house to see if my Dad was getting the ice cream out of the refrigerator. And if he was, then off she went to get onto to top of his recliner. Down his arm she would scurry and get her fill of ice cream from his bowl.
The chosen pet for us with allergies is a shih tzu. We had her for sixteen years and not a sneeze amongst us. The love is so special with some cats and dogs, and she was my little girl loaded with love. Bedtime is a special event with her running to the head of the bed and dashing under the covers. And there she is every morning so excited to know we are alive. That specific love and contentment I had is gone. Sometimes we need to see that our overall mental and physical wellness is tied into having a pet.
In conclusion, the pets in our lives are a great commitment, cost and work. Well, life is a lot of work too, so lets get the stress reducing, moderate level exercise creating, love power packing animal that will give our heart what it needs. God Bless, Betsy