Several years ago I discovered ‘The Great Courses’ on Audible and downloaded several with stored up credits. I listened to one, which was very well written and interesting, but left the others mothballing in my library because I don’t spend much time with headphones in or speakers on.
I’ve been making an effort over the last few months to broaden my horizons through reading and courses, and have been listening to “Stress and Your Body” by Prof. Robert Sapolsky on walks or in the car to and from work. As with all new information, some of it is “sticky” and will remain prominently in our brains even if sometimes we wish it wouldn’t (I have learned things I never considered about hyenas listening to this – I will spare you the details!). Others weave into our mind more as impressions giving slight tilts and extra substance to our thoughts and perspectives even if later we do not realise where this detail came from.
I was listening to a module on modulators of stress this week: there are two main ways in which mammals discharge stress: lashing out (passing it to another) or social behaviour such as grooming. It struck me as I lay in bed that night with a book and my cat immediately jumped up to claim the space on my chest right in front of my face that this is possibly a large reason we have pets.
The days were most of us directly benefitted from animals in our lives increasing our chances of survival either through providing or defending food or bringing security are behind many of us, so why has the prevalence of ‘working’ animals in our homes continued to extend far beyond their use as tools? The obvious answer is because they still bring a benefit to our lives.
Continue reading Living with Pets
A Life of Well 