{"id":6363,"date":"2022-09-06T18:11:53","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T18:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/?p=6363"},"modified":"2022-09-06T19:34:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T19:34:39","slug":"can-your-pet-help-with-your-mindfulness-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/everything-else\/can-your-pet-help-with-your-mindfulness-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Your Pet Help With Your Mindfulness Practice?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mindfulness is the practice of grounding yourself in the present moment, and it offers a host of benefits to your physical, mental, and emotional health\u2014including improved cognitive functioning<\/a>, lower stress levels<\/a>, improved immune function<\/a>, and a greater sense of well-being<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A regular mindfulness practice, where you consciously create opportunities to be mindful throughout the day, can help you reap those benefits. And while there are plenty of tools that can help you practice mindfulness, there\u2019s one tool that can help you be a more mindful person that you might not expect\u2014and that\u2019s your pet.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at three ways your pets can help with your mindfulness practice\u2014and help you become a more mindful, grounded person in the process.<\/p>\n

Pets can make you calmer<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s hard to be mindful when you\u2019re feeling overwhelmed with stress, your heart is racing, or your thoughts are going a thousand miles a minute. Generally, it\u2019s easier to sink into a more mindful place when you\u2019re feeling calm. And if you need to calm down\u2014and calm down quickly\u2014your pet can help.<\/p>\n

Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia found<\/a> that petting a dog for just 15 minutes can lower blood pressure by 10 percent\u2014while another study from researchers at Washington State University found<\/a> that just 10 minutes of interacting with dogs and cats can significantly lower cortisol (also known as the stress hormone).<\/p>\n

So, if you\u2019re feeling anxious or on edge and want to slip into a more calm, mindful place? Try carving out 10 to 15 minutes of quality petting time with your four-legged friend\u2014and you just may  be feeling calmer before you know it.<\/p>\n

Pets can encourage you to do more mindful activities<\/h2>\n

Meditation is certainly a component of mindfulness. But being mindful stretches beyond a meditation practice; it\u2019s about being fully engaged with whatever activity you\u2019re doing. And so, another way pets can help with your mindfulness practice is by encouraging you to engage in more activities\u2014and to do so in a mindful way.<\/p>\n

\u201cPets help their owners be mindful by redirecting them to the present through valued, shared activities,\u201d says Cierra Fisher, a licensed therapist practicing at Healthy Habits Therapy<\/a> in Charleston, South Carolina. \u201cThese activities organically produce a state of mindfulness for owners\u2026because [they] allow for the owner to be in the moment and achieve the necessary awareness to be in a mindful state through the care and attention they are providing their pet.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, let\u2019s say your cat needs a bath. It\u2019s hard to multitask or be thinking about other things when you have a water-averse cat trying to escape your tub. Instead, you\u2019re forced to focus on the task at hand (cleaning your cat before they escape). This grounds you in the present moment, turning bath time into a practice in mindfulness.<\/p>\n

Or let\u2019s say you\u2019re in the backyard playing fetch with your dog. If you\u2019re present with what you\u2019re doing and fully enjoying the experience (and how could you not, when your pup looks so cute bringing the ball back?), it\u2019s not just a game of fetch anymore; it\u2019s a part of your mindfulness practice.<\/p>\n

The point is, this view of a mindfulness practice is simply that it\u2019s the practice of being fully engaged with what you\u2019re doing\u2014and pets offer a huge variety of activities where you can practice that active engagement and presence.<\/p>\n

Pets can show you what mindfulness looks like<\/h2>\n

If you want to become more mindful, surrounding yourself with examples of mindfulness in action is a good place to start. \u201cWhen you\u2019re with another who\u2019s mindful, simply being in their presence helps you to become more mindful\u201d, says mindfulness trainer and author Joy Rains<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And arguably the best example of mindfulness you have in your life? Your pet.<\/p>\n

Animals\u2019 brains don\u2019t work in the same way that humans\u2019 do; your pet doesn\u2019t actually have the ability to ruminate about the past or worry over the future (a common experience that prevents people from being mindful). As such, \u201cpets are the ultimate example of staying in the moment,\u201d says Christina P. Kantzavelos, a Joshua Tree and San Diego, CA-based therapist with Begin Within Today<\/a> and the author of the Begin Within Healing Journal<\/a>. \u201cThey can simply \u2018be.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And by spending time with your pet (and observing them \u201csimply being\u201d), you can see what mindfulness looks like in action\u2014and apply what you see to your own mindfulness practice.<\/p>\n

The post Can Your Pet Help With Your Mindfulness Practice?<\/a> appeared first on Fitbit Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While there are plenty of tools that can help you practice mindfulness, there\u2019s one tool that can help you be a more mindful person that you might not expect\u2014and that\u2019s your pet.
\nThe post Can Your Pet Help With Your Mindfulness Practice? appeared first on Fitbit Blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":""},"categories":[20,1,21,22,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6363"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6366,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363\/revisions\/6366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}