Holiday 2017 Post: Perspectives on Stress

Seasons Greetings and Warm Blessings to You All

With a sentiment of reflection as we enter into our holiday season, the topic of this letter is the perspective and experience of stress.  I know the holiday season can bring joy, but also stress as we try to do and see so much. The following message is an inspired and guided wisdom, and at the bottom of the newsletter there is a special offer. 

The way animals and humans physically experience stress are similar, but the reasons for causing the stress are usually different.  Animals (and humans) generally feel stress when their environment changes unexpectedly or too quickly, they don’t feel well, their food sources are scarce, they are mirroring someone’s condition, or they are trying to offload stress from another being experiencing stress.  This stress manifests as medical ailments or behavioral shifts.  Being a human experiencing stress, there are added reasons of “I don’t feel as happy as I think I should be thus I feel stressed”, “my expectations are not met thus I feel disappointed”, or we try to do too much in the precious time we are given. The following is advice our animal friends give us:

“Slow down to gain perspective. 
Life is not about how fast we go, what papers we sign, or who we physically see without eagerness.  It’s about the small moments where we feel deeply together.
Each moment is permanent and eternal. 
We encourage you to shift from a do-er to a be-er.”

The animals encourage us to reach out and lean in for love, in both giving and receiving.

Bailey is my beloved cat who lived with me for 7 years before passing away as a result of health complications from our devastating house fire in July 2016.  When I sat down to write my holiday article, with just the glow of my laptop and the fragment of the sunrise light in my window, sweet Bailey came to me with a keen interest in this newsletter. I had always joked that she was my “grandma cat” as she took little interest in typical house-cat adventures, so it is fitting that she has continued to be my guide for animal kingdom wisdom.  Her main role is that of a teacher to me and all those connected to me, in physical and in-spirit.  Thanks for the inspiration, Bailey-Boop-Boop-Be-Doo!