Having pets at home can be great for your mental health. There is no surprise in that. For centuries now, people have been aware of pets’ positive influence on their mood and the overall state of mind. However, it is only recently that we have done research to see how exactly pets can impact our health. It turns out, pets can have even a deeper influence on us than we could have predicted ourselves. Let’s see how exactly pets can improve human mental health.
Encourage us to exercise
First things first, our mental health is directly connected to our physical health. What we eat, how we sleep, or whether we exercise or not can have a profound impact on our mood and mental health. If you have any pets at home, whether it is a cat or a dog, it means you are prone to exercise more than a person without a pet. You have to walk the dog and occasionally spend some time at the dog park with them. If you have a cat, you play with them. You toss balls. You build them cool cat houses to play in. Overall, pets make us more active throughout the day, positively affects our mental health.
Give us a purpose
When you are a pet owner, you have a lot of responsibilities. It turns out, having them is a good thing. Responsibilities give you a sense of purpose. You need to look after another living being. It means that you have a certain purpose in life. Having a purpose can decrease your depression levels and even help you with anxiety. Also, having a pet at home just gives you more reason to leave your bed in the morning or go home in the evening.
Reduce our anxiety
People who are prone to anxiety know what a nightmare it can be. It is the feeling of stress and fear that comes at you for no particular reason at any random time of the day. Luckily, our pets can be one of the best cures for anxiety. First of all, they can sense when we are too stressed out, so they are rushing to us to help. Secondly, they are natural comforters. They bring a sense of peace and calm to our lives. Overall, pets are known to reduce our stress levels, which automatically decreases the chances of anxiety to happen.
Keep us organized
Mental health needs order and structure. When things are out of order, chaotic, or unorganized, we feel stressed. However, when you have a pet, you can’t afford to live in chaos. You need to feed your pets at certain hours, to walk them, to bring them to a vet every few months, to take care of their food supplies, and so on. Pets add structure to our lives, and our mental health is very grateful for that.
Teach us self-care
What dog owner didn’t spend hours reading things like gnc dog vitamins reviews or best chewing toys for puppies, or other things like that? Once we get a pet to look after, we get obsessed with their health and wellbeing. That teaches us about the necessity of taking care of our health as well. After you spend hours reading about the benefits of the vitamins, you may as well buy some for yourself. We learn the basics of self-care when we start to show more care for others. This is just how being human works.
Give us their love
Pets have so much affection and unconditional love that they give us every day and every minute. This love is impossible to ignore. We feel their love and feel better about ourselves, our days, and the choices we make. In the modern age, many people feel lonely and insecure. Having a living thing to show you that you are worthy of love can be a very powerful thing. After all, all we do for them is stuff like finding the best wet kitten food on the Internet, getting them new toys, and things like that. In response, they just give us all the love they have, treating us like we are the best person on the planet. Who can stay unhappy when feeling something like that?
The bottom line
Overall, we don’t choose to have pets due to the mental health they can bring to our lives. We choose to have them for numerous other reasons. Most often, we get pets because we just can’t help ourselves otherwise. However, as this article shows, you are making your life so much better by having pets. You improve your physical and mental health. We feel less lonely or sad. We learn to receive and show love. Our pets are not just domestic animals we care about. They are our best friends in any life circumstances.
