Anxiety Relief Nobody Expected | A First-Time Pet Owner's Story | Episode 452

Anxiety Relief Nobody Expected | A First-Time Pet Owner's Story | Episode 452

Ever wonder why a few minutes with a dog can quiet a noisy mind? Justin invites you into his home as a first-time indoor dog owner and shares how caring for Lucy, a calm and playful pup, subtly lowers daily anxiety and opens room for better choices. No silver bullets here—just practical shifts that add up: touch that eases tension, walks that break rumination, and simple routines that anchor the day.

We start with gratitude for a community spanning 1,000+ cities, then move into what a “companion pet” really means when life already feels full. Justin uses a clear portfolio analogy from job interviews to explain how redirecting attention—away from self-scrutiny and toward something tangible—reduces stress in real time. If anxiety peaks for twenty points out of a day, a dog might nudge it to eighteen. That tiny margin becomes a gift you can spend on self-care, a quick stretch, or a step toward a long-delayed goal.

The conversation stays honest about responsibilities and costs: food prices, vet visits, spay or neuter, bowls and leashes, and the learning curve of new routines. Yet that very structure can be stabilizing, especially when worry swells. Along the way, Lucy makes an appearance, reminding us that joy and presence live in ordinary moments—soft ears, a big yawn, and a reason to step outside for sunlight and fresh air. Whether you live with a mental health diagnosis or simply ride life’s daily waves, these small acts of care can strengthen resilience without demanding perfection.

If the story resonates, watch the video version to meet Lucy, then share this episode with a friend who could use a calmer day. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what simple habit or companion helps you reset when stress spikes?

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Chapter Markers

0:00 Gratitude And Global Reach

2:15 Defining Companion Pets

3:35 First Family Dog Memories

6:30 Daily Care And New Routines

7:50 Anxiety Eases With A Puppy

10:20 The Portfolio Analogy For Stress

14:20 Quantifying Stress Reduction

18:20 Real Costs And Responsible Care

20:30 Meet Lucy On Camera

23:10 Balance, Yoga, And Extra Energy

26:00 Watch On Video And Share

28:30 Closing Thanks And Community Call

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Transcript

Gratitude And Global Reach

Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices 0:02

Hi everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us. Whether you're watching or listening, whether you are here in the United States or you are in another country, territory, province. Thank you so much for your love, your support, uh helping us get to reach and help people in over 1,000 cities and over um 100 countries worldwide. If you can do us a big favor, reach out to 25 or 50 of your contacts in your phone. Let them know about the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. We're just number three behind the Joe Rogan experience and the Dan Bongino show. We would greatly appreciate that. Follow us on social media. We're everywhere. And just thank you for joining us. We're so grateful. We're well uh over 450 episodes uh by now, uh, the time this show will be airing uh for the first time. And we just want to thank you. It's because of you, because of your demand of our content, uh, watching, listening. Uh if you can Etsy on it, you can voices for voices on it. So thank you. Uh we're sending good vibes and we're praying for you each and every day. Whether you're a believer or not, we believe that you can never have too many good vibes coming coming your way or our way. So uh thank you. And if you can give us a big thumbs up, like, follow, share, subscribe. These are all free F-R-E-E, free things to do that helps us reach uh our ultimate goal of reaching and helping at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. So we'll go ahead and get started. Uh so companion pets, I think might be the the term. Uh that's the term I'm gonna use. Uh companion pets. Uh so yeah, we we have dogs and we have cats predominantly here in the United States as pets. Yeah, we also have gerbils and and uh potentially rabbits and hamsters and and and the like. But I'm I'm gonna be referring and talking about having a companion pet uh that is a dog. And um so this is uh this is a first for me, first for our family, really. Uh growing up, we had my mom, my dad, my sister, and myself um for a short period of time. I I don't even know how old I I was when when he passed. We had an outdoor dog and uh Springer Sprint. Springer Spaniel, I'll say that five times real fast. We had a Springer Sprint, oh my goodness, Springer Spaniel, and as an outside dog, and and so uh that's what I remember uh with uh you know a big pen that that he was able to run back and forth. His name was Brutus, and once he'd passed uh passed on uh to to Doggy Heaven, uh we didn't have we didn't have uh other pets. I mean we had goldfish and and that, so okay, we call that a pet. But I'm talking about something you could uh uh a pet that you can maybe you know hold and uh pet and call it a pet, right? And and so we didn't have we didn't have uh well one of those aft after Brutus uh our our dog pass and now with there's a there's some research to show you know fast forward to today from probably 39 years ago. So fast forward to today and you know the what I call the companion pets, whether you have a mental illness or you don't doesn't really matter. Um but a companion pet, a pet in in general, so I'm talking about dog, uh having not had one, right? So there's things you gotta think of, right? You gotta think of taking outside to go potty, you gotta you know make sure there's food uh in and there we'll make sure there's uh clean drinking water uh for for the for the the the dog and in my case. And uh and when you head out somewhere, if if you know dogs aren't not that dogs aren't welcome, but you know, m a lot of restaurants uh you're not able to bring bring a dog or even a cat for that matter, too. So learning all the different things, are they hard to do? No, they're not hard to do, they're just something new. And and so we got uh we have a pet, you probably have seen on a couple couple previous episodes, uh she's uh made an appearance or two. She's she's currently uh resting right next to me. And so when we talk about companion pets or just a pet in general, and we talk about anxiety when at least for me, so this again, this is the first time I've had a pet, an indoor pet, like like like like the the the puppy that we have now. Um so we're going through the you know the stages of figuring out if we're gonna keep her, we'd like we really would like to keep her. I I know my child would love to keep her. Um but in the short time that we've cared for her, I've noticed a little bit of a stress reduction, if that's that's something. Um it might be because uh you know, I get to hold a pet, I get the pet, pet the pet. Um and I know this is this is a little bit uh show's a little bit different in in this respect, but it's the same because having mental illnesses, I I do have anxiety, and it spikes it spikes from time to time. And since we've had our pet, I've I don't I've noticed it, I guess would be the way to put it, that the stress level, at least for me, for the most part, not all the time, but for the most part, it has lowered, doesn't disappear, hasn't disappeared at all. But I don't know. You know, being in my 40s, the far my first pet, you know, you you pet lovers out there, what do you what do you think? Do you think that your pet has helped reduce stress and at any level or anxiety? Uh it has for me. Again, I I don't have a number, I can't put a number on it saying a hundred is my usual stress level when it spikes, and having a pet takes the number down, I think I think the best way to explain it, I think, is the way I talk about bringing a portfolio and a resume to a job interview. So the less time the people interviewing you or me are looking at us, right? And we're going, oh my gosh, did I tie my tie right? Did I, you know, that did I button one button or two buttons on my jacket? And uh, how do I look? And am I thirsty? Am I nervous? And so all these things are going on in our heads. And when we have our portfolio, which is just a compilation of the work that we've done, you know, the highlights, I guess we call it, so we can show, like, okay, here's the resume, here's me, and then here's some of the work I've done, and here's what I can bring to your company, and have tangible information to show uh different projects. If you're in school, you work on projects all the time, so you have plenty of work to choose from for your portfolio. That's one thing I get asked often about with my students is well, I'm just a student. How am I supposed to have all this information? And then I re I revert back and say, what project do we have coming up that's due? What what project did we just finish? And then it starts to click that wow, I actually do. So whether you're a student or whether you're not, you can put a portfolio together. It doesn't have to be expensive. You can go to your you know your your local office supply store and and find a inexpensive portfolio that you can insert your highlights. So what's this have to do with a dog, right? Okay, so in an interview, let's just say we're at a hundred of the time. So let's say the time is one hour. So we're one hour. And what's a portfolio on a dog have to do with with this? So hear me out. So we have an hour, we have people looking at us, asking us questions, and they're just person one, person two, person one, person two, back and forth, question, question, question, question. We're answering, and then we put the portfolio on the table and we open that up. We're able to take at least the eye attention, like the eyes, um from looking at us and having the interviewer's eyes and attention put on our portfolios. Let's say it's one minute. Well, that's one less minute that you have to worry about what am I wearing? You know, the variety of all the things that we think about. And so what does the dog have to do with this? Is let's say, right, we have we have a hundred. So let's say in a day we have a number that is 100. Well, if I'm usually stressed or I notice that I'm stressed or anxious, I don't know. I'm I'm this this is hypothetical. I don't know exact numbers, I've never been given an exact number, but let's say my anxiety really flares up for 20% of the day. So having a dog, a companion pet, a dog for me in this case, my family, let's say that out of that 20, that number 20% of the time, that my stress flares up and my anxiety flares up. Let's say I'm sitting next to a dog and I'm petting my dog, taking the dog out to go potty. And so I'm concentrating my time and my mind on something other than myself. And this is about companion pets. So I've talked extensively about taking the attention off of myself and wanting to help over three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. So let's just say having a companion pet, some pet that's able to take a little bit of my anxiety away. Let's say it takes two away. So then that takes the anxiety, which is no which hype I'm giving this hypothetical example, is twenty out of a hundred. And having a companion pet takes two away from that twenty of anxiety my anxiety spiking. So then that means my anxiety spiking has eighteen, the number eighteen, instead of twenty. So that's how we get from what a portfolio for a job interview has to do with having a companion pet. Because we're uh generally happy with the can our companion pet. Right? We're we're playing with the we're just hanging out. And so that's what a companion pet, in my case a dog, for my family, me, how that relates to a portfolio in a job interview. So whether you have mental illness or not, I would think we all get anxious and stressed at certain times of the day, some days more, some days less. And by having a companion pet to help reduce that by any number is a good thing. For anybody to have a a pet if if you're able to, right? Because pets aren't inexpensive. Right? So you gotta you have to you have to get the pet, you gotta adopt it. Yeah, so you have to somehow, some way obtain a pet, and then you have to get a bowl for food, a bowl for water. Again, that I'm not saying these things are hard to do, I'm just saying these are things that come with having a pet. Uh buying the food, the food is pretty expensive nowadays. Um, it's very expensive, actually. Then depending, right? So there's different there's different shots that they need at certain times. Um spade and neuter, that's another fee. And so there's these costs of having and keeping a pet safely, right? Unfortunately, there's there's some not nice people in the world, and they they abuse pets. I'm not talking about the like we we can't change other people. I'm talking about you and I and our viewers and listeners to take care of a pet properly. And so I just wanted to share. I just wanted to share what it's like for me to have a companion pet for a very, very short, short amount of time. And let me see if I can. Well, I know I can't, so I'm gonna pull up a picture so you'll be able to see her. She made an appearance. Whoa. Can we see there? Yeah. So that's uh that's our pet, Lucy. And again, what whatever it may be that helps you lower stress that is legal, not illegal. So something that is legal, like owning a owning a pet, caring for a pet, giving the pet a hug, petting the pet. But regardless of m mental illness or not, uh having had again, having had this this pet for a short period of time has kind of taught me how to be a little bit less stressed when there could be high stress. So let us know what what helps you lower your stress? Is it a pet, an animal? Is it uh going to the gym? Is it I don't know. You tell us, tell us what let us know what helps you lower stress because right uh the ideal place to be when we're lowering stress is to be at zero, to have zero stress, which I I pretty sure we we we can't get we can't quite get there it'd be nice to but I don't think I don't I don't think we can get there to have zero stress So just like I've talked about with yoga the answer of what our goal of yoga is isn't to become a more perfectly stretched and uh you know because that's the goal that's one you know you're you're basically stretching the body and so we know there's no perfection we know there's no perfection we're looking for balance in yoga we know there's gonna be pros and cons throughout the day, throughout the weeks, the months, the years. But can we come in more balanced come in more balanced just like with the portfolio with a job interview lowering the amount of time and as a as a part of that that actually lowers stress too because you don't feel like the eyes just staring like um I've been there done that lots lots lots lots of times and so having a pet, an animal that we can take care of and have a dog that recently's coming to her home and I think it's or she, not it. So she has a name. I think that uh Lucy has helped bring some of my anxiety and some of my stress down. Again, do I have a number for that? No, I gave it hypotheticals earlier in the episode. But again, the more time we can be less stressed, the better, the more we can use that energy on something positive, something that we want to do. Maybe that's additional self-care. So that's the flip side is not only the stress gets lowered, then it's well, what do we do with that? What do we do with that two out of 20 anxiety, which is out of the total of a hundred for a day? So if our again, if our anxiety, if my anxiety just trying to put numbers around it, make it a little easier to understand, hopefully. If if a full day is a hundred of emotions and everything, and anxiety and stress peaks for the number twenty, having a companion animal lowers that twenty to an eighteen. Twenty minus eighteen is two, so then we have some time to do something else, something we like. Maybe we I don't know, maybe we start the process on our dreams. Maybe we have something we've always wanted to do, and we've thought we never had the time to do it, and so the more that we can lower stress, lower anxiety, and our pet has done that, and you might see her here in a second, because she just woke up, didn't you? Didn't you just wake up? Yes, so you did, yes, you did, Lucy. You just woke up, yeah. Ah, big yon. Uh see what I mean? That it's it it's helped, it's helped me. So uh, and I know it's helped my daughter, my wife. Um, it's she's just so so so calm, and some some parts of the day she'll just be running around with like all this energy, is like, hey, can I have some of that energy? Uh but you right on cue, she woke up, she was snoozing, um, and then she she woke up and said, I can see myself on camera, I'm on TV. So if you haven't, uh if you're not watching you know this particular episode, you're listening to it, maybe this is one of the episodes that you uh you head on over to Rumble or or YouTube or uh and and watch uh watch this episode towards the end, and you'll be able to see me smiling from ear to ear with uh with Lucy or a pet that just woke up. So whether you have a mental illness or not, voices for voices is for you. We're with you, we're praying for you, we're sending good vibes your way. Whether you're a believer or not, I am, and there you can never have enough good vibes and good positive energy. Um, thank you for joining us on this episode, the Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast. I'm your host, Justin Alan Hayes. Uh, we're so grateful if you can give us the big thumbs up, like, follow, share, subscribe. If you can reach out to 25 or 50 or 100 of your contacts and your phone, uh, let them know about the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I promise you we'll have at least 50 episodes that uh you and they uh you know who you reach out to will find to be uh helpful, interesting. And uh we just want to say thank you for joining us. And so we'll see you on the next episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. Let's celebrate all the voices of the world, and let's also be a voice for ourselves and for those that we may know that aren't able to share their voice. Have a great day. Bye bye.