Take 10 minutes with your pet

Today i was reading my friend Simon's blog: http://thepugsimon.blogspot.com/ He made me think about how relaxing it can be to just sit down, spend some time and pet your animal. I will always remember the day my mother let me stay home from school because I was petting the cat and she fell asleep on my lap. I think my mother's priorities were in the right place that morning.

I had a roommate once who was totally in love with her iguana. She spent hours singing to him, cleaning his cage and feeding him crickets. A young man I know might not have survived his last few years of drug addiction without his 80 lb. boa constrictor. Two summers ago I was lucky enough to enjoy the company and warmth of a California King Snake, Rex.
I think pets do their magic by pulling us away from the day to day demands of life. There's no need to think, carefully choose your words or live up to expectations. For a moment or two between you and your pet there's total acceptance and mutual affection. Add a little tactile softness, a nuzzle and unconditional love and what could be more relaxing?

Just Breath

Let's start simply. Deep breathing is used in a number of relaxation techniques. I can do it whenever I think of it, in almost any situation.
A big deep inhalation through the nose, hold and exhale through the mouth. With the exhalation we can breath out whatever the stress of the moment is. Today for me it was an irritating person with an attitude. I tend to be an emotional magnet. I'm telling myself "It's not about me". Actually that's one of my favorite mantra's lately. It's not all about me. Try it see if it works for you.

There's so much stress in our lives. There's environmental stress; global warming, wars, pirates (!), overflowing landfills. There's stress in our country, in other countries, between countries. There's stress in our cities, small towns and even in our homes. We worry about our jobs, our health, our children, our futures.
I had a 5 minute chair massage last week that turned into a 20 minute massage as the therapist appeared to be in awe of the knots in my neck and shoulders. He gave me a simple 90 second stretch and told me to do it twice a day. Have I done it more than twice in the past week? My friend told me the other night "I'd feel better if I did the exercises the physical therapist gave me". Why don't we take the time to take care of ourselves?
I know what to do about stress reduction. Do I do it? Do you?
My genius daughter said to me today "maybe we should start a club for stressed people". Here's our club. Do you want to join? Do you want to try to begin lessening your stress? Let's talk, share, vent, whatever it takes to made our lives a little less stressed.