Stress-How Pets Can Help Relieve Stress
Children aren’t the only stress-inducing things to raise; pets are stressful, too. However, pets can also provide one of the best stress relief mechanisms most of the time.
Many studies have claimed that owning a pet helps recovering surgery patients with stress health. This really shouldn’t be surprising, with the link between stress and infection, as well as the positive effects on the immune system.
A lot of people find a lot of psychological pluses, as well, if they own pets. Since cats are pretty clueless to a person’s problems and they only think about themselves, for example, the owner may shift their focus to the cat and serve as relief stress by forgetting about the stress.
Signals and hormones may also be generated through the sympathetic nervous system, which produces the ‘fight or flight’ mechanism. If we turn attention away from this, the parasympathetic nervous system will react will serve as stress relief. The body will then reach homeostasis, balancing back down from stress.
Dogs help in stress relief as well, provided they are not creating stress. Dogs can cause stress through a number of things: digging backyard holes, running shoes, creating a mess on the carpet, etc. However, a short game of fetch with a tennis ball can be a stress reducer. Simply seeing the joy the dog gets from such a simple activity is an easy way in managing stress.
For eons, dogs have been trained to live with humans and have thus learned how to take part in tons of human activities and rituals that may offer stress relief from the symptoms of stress. Hiking and fishing, for example, are stress reducers in themselves, but bringing a dog along will make it even more enjoyable.
Aquarium fish, too, can be great aids in stress reduction. Since taking care of tropical fish takes a lot of careful planning, as well as execution, this concentration will help keep one’s mind off of stress.
Most pets, from tropical birds to hamsters and ferrets do a lot of things that make people laugh. And laughter is definitely the best medicine in managing stress.
